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85.12.04b

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Ferdinand von Mueller to Alexander Macdonald, 1885-12-04 [85.12.04b]. 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//letters/1880-9/1885/85-12-04b-final.odt>, accessed June 19, 2026

1
Telegram not found. The text given here is from 'The last moment', Herald (Melbourne), 4 December 1885, p. 3. Alexander Macdonald was in Sydney, attending a meeting of the Geographical Society to welcome to Sydney Captain Everill, leader of the Society's New Guinea Expedition: see 'Victorian Representatives', Herald (Melbourne) 1 December 1885, p. 3, which also mentions that M had telegraphed his apologies for his 'enforced absence' from the meeting (telegram not found).
[We learn that Baron Von Mueller, while fully recognising the great honor paid him by Captain Everill, in dedicating to the baron's
name a high range at the source of the Strickland and Service Rivers, has telegraphed to Mr A. C. M'Donald, the Hon. secretary to the Victorian Branch of the Geographical Society to-day, requesting him to solicit the gallant captain to change the name. Baron Von Mueller is desirous that the mountains shall be named the Scratchley Range
2
The news that Everill had seen a range inland from the Northern Coast ranges to 'which they gave the cognomen of Baron Von Mueller' was reported in a telegram of 4 December from the Herald's reporter who had attended the reception for Everill: see 'Exploration of New Guinea', Herald (Melbourne), 4 December 1885, p. 3. What became Mt Scratchley is in the Owen Stanley Ranges, Papua New Guinea.
in commemoration of the distinguished High Commissioner, whose recent death Baron Von Mueller so deeply deplores.
3
Scratchley died of malaria, at sea between Cooktown and Townsville, on 2 December 1885 (ADB).
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