Document information

Physical location:

ML MSS.3608 Clarke papers, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 74.01.29

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Branwhite Clarke, 1874-01-29. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/74-01-29>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
For a published version of this letter, see Moyal (2003), pp. 1006-7.
Melbourne
29/1/74.
Just returned from an exploring trip to the snowy mountains, rev. and dear Sir, I find your kind letter of the 15. inst.
2
Letter not found.
I had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr James, who (so I understand) is gone again to Sydney, and became acquainted with his excellent son, spending several days with him on the Hume River.
3
It is uncertain what current name, if any, represents the stream M calls 'Hume River'.Charles Sturt's name 'Murray River' of 1830, not the earlier name 'Hume River' given by William Hovell to honour his companion Hamilton Hume who first saw it in their 1824-5 journey, is the one that appears on official maps from at least Thomas Mitchell's 1838 map (digitized as https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230586259 ).
'Hume River' appears on labels of specimens collected on this trip, for example Centaurium pulchellum, MEL 709285, and on others from the region collected by M correspondents, for example Sydney Jephcott (see O. Norstedt to M, 20 May 1889 (in this edition as 89-05-20a)). Jephcott's specimen of Coronidium scorpiodes, MEL 2115511, has the locality 'Hume River', but the catalogue locality entry is 'Hume River [=Upper Murray River]'; see also George (2007), p. 431. However, in M to G. Bentham, 27 January 1874, M discriminated between three rivers: 'For Brasenia peltata I have now three new localities, the Hume-River, Mitta Mitta & Upper Murray River', making the location doubtful. In that letter, M implies that the Hume is a border between NSW and Vic: 'On the N.S. Wales side of the Hume-river I found…'.
Wright (1898), in discussing the nomenclature of the Murray River, wrote 'The upper waters of the river are known, in New South Wales only, as the Hume' (pp. 35-6). However, no contemporary use of the name has been found in gazetteers or maps of NSW, although throughout the 1880s and 1890s, NSW government gazette notices routinely used the phrase 'Murray or Hume River' in describing boundaries anywhere in the whole course of the river.
It appears that M was using the term to refer to part of the waterway, perhaps what was described as 'the Indi or Hume River, the principal source of the Murray', in 'Interesting Geological Discovery', Australian town and country journal (Sydney), 19 February 1870, p. 16). See the 1872 map of Victoria https://c a talogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/587540 in which the first part of the stream from the source where the river meets the Black-Allan Line, surveyed in 1870-72 from Cape Howe to the nearest source of the Murray is labelled 'Indi', and that downstream from around Tom Groggin to the vicinity of Towong is a section labelled 'Indi or Murray River', with the remaining portion labelled 'Murray River'.
I am very sorry, that I missed Major Clarke,
4
W. B. Clarke’s son, Mordaunt Clarke. See also M to W. B. Clarke, 25 April 1874.
but I enquired at four leading Hotels (including Scotts) but could hear nothing of his abode. I will send to morrow to the Military Office, and should I learn that he is still here, I will do myself the honor of waiting on him.
I have read your adresses
5
W. B. Clarke (1873), W. B. Clarke (1874).
with great interest; they reflect, like all you do, much honor on your genius & unabating assiduity. I wonder, whether through Major Warburton's Expedition or that of Giles
6
Expeditions by P. Warburton and E. Giles, westwards from the Overland Telegraph Line.
we shall at last learn, what became of poor Leichhardt's party.
I met lately Mr Nicholson's family, whose brother
7
Mark Nicholson, brother of Leichhardt’s close friend William Nicholson, had settled in Victoria.
was so generous to Leichhardt.
When you meet Mrs Cobham,
8
Mary Cobham?
— pray — give her my best regards.
Amidst the arrear work of the Department (if such in its helpless state it still can be called) I have but a few moments left to bid you a most cordial "adieu"
Always your regardful
Ferd. von Mueller