Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS annotation by Petermann: 'Erh. 31. Dez. 1877' [Received 31 December 1877]. MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law, Eduard Wehl, died on 11 February 1876. For a published version of this letter, see Voigt (1996), pp. 131-2.

24/10/76.

Diesmal sende ich Ihnen, lieber Herr Professor, wieder allerlei über Explorationen. Die Notiz von der Queensland Nordwest Exp.

2

Expedition.

bedarf einiger Erörterung. Der Name Diamantina ist substituirt für den Fluss, den mir M'Kinley widmete. Hier sollte Priorität entscheiden, u. ich hoffe, dass Sie Ihren Landsmann seines besten geograph. Monumentes nicht beraubt sehen wollen. Dies wäre eine gute Gelegenheit einmal die Prioritätsfrage in der Geographie zu besprechen, zumal da man den Namen des Mt Hotham, den ich schon 1854 gab, jetzt überall zu unterdrücken sucht, was doch auch des Gouverneurs Hotham Andenken unterdrückt, obwohl er hier starb und man ihn ehren sollte, wie ich es wünschte. Sie haben ja selbst die Entwicklung der Geographie Australiens verfolgt, und können also leicht ausfinden, in welchem Jahre der Name Diamantina entstand, und ob er einem Nebenflusse oder Hauptflusse zukommt. Sie sind ja doch die grösste practische Autorität der Jetztzeit in diesen Fragen; so verlässt sich ein deutscher Gelehrter auf Sie besonders und ruft Ihre Gerechtigkeit an.

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24 October 1876.

This time, dear Professor, I am sending you again a miscellany about exploration. The notice about the Queensland North-west expedition

3

An expedition led by William Hodgkinson to explore the country west of the Diamantina River to determine the extent of pastoral land in the region.

requires some comment. The name Diamantina

4

The Diamantina River, about 900 km long, with its source in western Qld, combines during the rainy season with the Georgina River to form the Warburton River, which flows into Lake Eyre, SA.

has been substituted for the river dedicated to me by McKinlay.

5

McKinlay in 1862 had named 'Mueller's Creek' a 'magnificent stream' that he had followed for a time while searching for Burke and Wills; see M to J. McKinlay, 7 June 1863. This subsequently proved to be a stretch of the same river that in 1866 was named Diamantina by William Landsborough in honour of Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, Governor of Qld; and Landsborough's name prevailed despite the priority of McKinlay's naming.

Priority should decide here, and I hope that you do not want to see your compatriot robbed of his best geographical monument. This would be a good opportunity to discuss the question of priority in geography, especially as they now seek everywhere to suppress the name Mount Hotham, which I gave already in 1854, which in turn suppresses the memory of Governor Hotham, even though he died here and should be honoured as I wished him to be.

6

See M's November 1876 MS 'On the rules of priority of geographic names' (in this edition as 76-11-00), submitted to the Royal Geographical Society but not published. The mountain named 'Mt Hotham' by M is now known as Mt Feathertop, while the name Hotham has been bestowed on a nearby peak. The compass bearings M recorded for the peaks he named could not be reconciled with later surveys, due, it is now recognised, to magnetic interference from the basalt rocks of the area introducing errors into M's compass readings. See Gillbank (1992) and Home (2014).

You yourself have followed the development of Australian geography and could easily find out, in which year the name Diamantina was first used, and whether it was attached to a tributary or a major river . After all, you are the greatest practising authority of the present time in these questions; thus a German scientist relies particularly on you and appeals to your justice.

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