Adelaide1
21st Decr 1875
My dear Baron Mueller
I am in receipt of Your esteemed favor of 17th inst.2
Mr Giles has made a successful journey to W A,3 but barren of results except extending our knowledge of the interior — he is to return to this colony by the Alfred and Marie Ranges,4 but the West Australian Government wish him to explore the Watersheds of the Western rivers first, and I have given my consent, of course this will delay his arrival for 6 months at least (I mean 6 months longer than he otherwise would be) but the W. Australians have been so kind to both our expeditions that I could not well refuse their request, more especially as the service in question could not be performed without camels, and may be of great importance in its results to the sister colony.
Mr Jesse Young has collected a large assortment of plants, and has arranged and kept them very nicely indeed;5 he goes to Melbourne by next Tuesday's steamer and will take the whole collection with him to hand to you with a copy of the chart, as he wishes not only to make your acquaintance but to give you any explanations you may desire in connection with the expedition. Mr Young goes to England by the steamer that leaves Sydney on the 14th January to San Francisco, and our mutual friend Mr Samuel Davenport will be a fellow passenger as far as Philadelphia, being the S.A. representative at the American exhibition — I got Mr Goyder our Surveyor General to give employment to Mr. Tietkens, and he is now in the field on Yorke's Peninsula,6 qualifying himself for taking his degree as a licensed surveyor six months hence — he ought to get on very well in that profession.
I have to thank you very sincerely for your telegrams and congratulations.
Believe me
my dear Baron
Faithfully your
Tho Elder
Baron Von Mueller
Melbourne7
There is an illegible word to the left of 'Adelaide' that may have been written by Elder—it is not, however, the name of his house at the time, 'Birksgate', or its address, Glen Osmond—but is more likely to be an annotation by someone else.
M to T. Elder, 17 December 1875, in this edition as 75-12-17a.
After departing from Beltana on 6 May 1875, and the Youldeh depot in SA on 27 July, Ernest Giles and his party reached the settled areas of WA on 3 November, arriving in Perth on 18 November. (E. Giles (1889), vol. 2, pp. 130, 160, 237, 244).
NT.
Young was a member of Ernest Giles's 1875 expedition from the Overland Telegraph Line to Perth.
SA.
MS annotation by Petermann: 'Erh. 24. Febr. 1876' [Received 24 February 1876].
Annotated: 'weitergeleitet an A. Petermann' [forwarded to A. Petermann].
Please cite as “FVM-75-12-21a,” 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