the nature of the season
during which it was undertaken, but experience alone, as in the instance
of the journey down the Murray, would be the best guide and the best
instructor.

In the early part of the year 1840, I had occasion to address a number of
the colonists at the conclusion of a public entertainment and availed
myself of the opportunity to state that whatever prospects of success the
pastoral capabilities of the province appeared to hold out, I felt
assured it was to the mountains, the colonists would have to look for
their future wealth, for that no one who pretended to the eye of a
geologist could cross them as I had done, without the conviction that
they abounded in mineral veins. There is something, in truth, in the
outline and form of the Mount Lofty chain that betrays its character.
Rounded spurs, of very peculiar form, having deep valleys on either side,
come down from the main range, the general outline of which bears a
strong resemblance to that of the Ural chain.

In the year 1843, the first discovery of copper was made, but even this
was scarcely sufficient to rouse the colonists to a full sense of its
importance, and it was only by degrees, as other mines were successively
discovered, that the spirit of speculation burst forth, and the energies
of the settlers were turned for a time from their legitimate channels. A
short time before this, their circumstances had been reduced to the
lowest ebb. There was no sale for agricultural produce, no demand for
labour, the goods in the shops of the tradesmen remained unsold, and the
most painful sacrifices of property were daily made at the auction mart.
The amount of distress indeed was very great and severe, but such a state
of things was naturally to be expected from the change that had taken
place in the monetary affairs of the province. It was a change however
which few anticipated, and for which few therefore were prepared.

It is a painful task to advert to past scenes of difficulty and distress,
such at least I feel it to be, more especially where there is no
immediate object to be gained by a reference to them; let me therefore
turn from any inquiry into the causes which plunged South Australia into
difficulties that threatened to overwhelm her, to those which raised her
from them.

Notwithstanding the spirit and firmness with which the colonists bore
their reverses, there could not but be a gloom over the community where
every thing seemed to