17/7/69
Von dem ersten Minister Westaustraliens, the honorable Fr. Barlee, habe ich Nachricht mit dieser Monatspost, dass die kleine Schar, welche Mr Forrest commandirt, hohen Muthes u voll von Hoffnung die letzten Niederlassungen wohlbehalten verlassen habe, um zu der angedeuteten Sterbestätte Leichhardt´s vorzudringen. Die Jahreszeit ist sehr günstig, indem ausserordentlich viel Regen fiel, vielleicht zuviel, was die Reisenden zwischen Salzsümpfe einengen möchte.
Stets Ihr Sie Ehrender
Ferd von Mueller
Liessen sich nicht durch Farbendruck auf Ihren prächtigen Charten die Stadt Namen von Fluss Namen u diese von Bergnamen unterscheiden? Es würde bei gedrängtem Druck den Überblick ausserordentlich erleichtern. Ich werde es thun für meine grosse Pflanzencharte Australiens, für die ich so lange (seit 22 Jahren) hier Materialien sammele. Gelegentlich möchten Sie mir vielleicht die Freundlichkeit erweisen, einige Exempl der kleinen General Charte Australiens für mich an Dr Sonder in Hamburg zu senden, der dafür Zahlung leisten wird.
F. v. M.
17 July 1869.
From the first Minister of Western Australia, the honourable F. Barlee, I have received the news by this month's mail that the small group commanded by Mr Forrest has left the last settlements in high spirits, well and full of hope to penetrate to the alleged location where Leichhardt died. The season is very favourable as there was an extraordinarily high rainfall, perhaps too much as this might restrict the travellers between salt marshes.
Always respectfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Could not the names of townships be differentiated from the names of rivers and those of mountains by coloured print on your magnificent maps? With crowded printing this would ease the reading a great deal. I shall do this for my large plant map of Australia,2 for which I have been collecting materials here for such a long time (22 years). If the occasion offers, you might perhaps do me the favour of sending me through Dr Sonder in Hamburg a few copies of the small general map of Australia;3 he will make the payment for them.
F. v. M.
MS annotation by Petermann: 'Erh. 8. Sept. 1869. | A. 23. — + 3 Ex. an Sonder.' [Received 8 September 1869. Answered 23 September 1869 + 3 copies to Sonder]. Petermann’s letter not found. The 'copies' are of the small map of Australia that M requested in his letter. For a published version of this letter see Voigt (1996) pp. 94-5.
The following newspaper clipping [no source given] is attached to the top of the letter: 'Soundings were taken last week of the Blue Lake, which occupies the centre of an extinct volcano at Mount Gambier, and the greatest depth was found to be 672 ft. In the shallowest part the plummet touched the bottom at 180 ft.' The newspaper from which the clipping was taken has not been identified. Soundings at 24 different places were made on 9 June 1869; see Border watch (Mt. Gambier), 12 June 1869, p. 2. The information was widely reported in June and July, and the text of the clipping was published iin 'Colonial extracts', without updating the reference to 'last week', in the Queanbeyan age, 1 July 1869, p. 2; however, this regional NSW newspaper is unlikely to have been the source of M's clipping.
Please cite as “FVM-69-07-17,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/69-07-17