Still more lamentable was the fate of the last and most important of these expeditions, which in 1861 succeeded in crossing the Australian continent from the north frontier of South Australia to Carpentaria, and back to Cooper's Creek, in which, unfortunately, the travellers missed the dépôt troop that had been sent to their assistance, and the entire party, including Messrs. Burke, Wills, and Gray, lost their lives, only one of their number, King, escaping to tell their sad fate. (Vide Appendix.)
[10] Government has bethought itself of a plan for facilitating discoveries in the interior, and rendering them more profitable by importing from Egypt into Australia camels and dromedaries, chiefly of the breed known as El Hura, as these animals can easily get over 60 to 80 miles per diem, and can moreover dispense with water for weeks together.
[11] During a visit which our naturalists paid to Dr. Bennett they were shown a young pair of the Morok (_Casuarius Bennetti_), discovered not long since at New Britain, which he intended to present to the Zoological Society of London for exhibition at the Regent's Park. What is very remarkable in this singular bird is the shape of the bill, which is curved in the male, but almost straight in the female.
[12] This distinguished gentleman, conspicuous alike as a theologian and a politician, who plays a by no means insignificant part in the legislative assemblies of the colonies, presented an address to the Parliament of Frankfort in 1848, in which he set forth the advantage of founding a German colony in the Pacific. Owing to the ignorance prevalent on the subject this _brochure_ passed unnoticed, and New Caledonia, the island which the worthy Doctor had designed for a German colony, was taken possession of by the French. He has since published a most interesting and valuable work on Queensland, in which he gives some very curious details about the native practice of skinning their dead, when the true skin being of a white colour, the corpse has a most ghastly appearance. He says this is the reason some of the tribes so highly reverence the _white_ man, whom they regard as their own ancestors restored to life, but in an improved nature!!