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ning with hot Neelsen's solution, decolourizing in 25 p.c. phuric acid, and finally staining in methylene blue; instead vashing the cover-glasses in sulphuric acid Thörner simply a solution of methylene blue containing sulphuric acid.

METHOD of producing an intense monochromatic light is ribed by Dr. Du Bois (Zeitschr. für Instr. p. 165). It Ters from the usual processes in the form in which the sodium atroduced into the flame. A mixture of sodium bromide bicarbonate is made cohesive by adraganth and moulded sticks 4 mm. in diameter and 12 to 15 cm. long. These kept in the flame of a Linnemann burner by means of a rack pinion motion. Their conductivity being very low, they only vaporized at the extreme end. The latter must be red to avoid a continuous spectrum. At the greatest inraity, two or three centimetres of the substance are consumed : - minute. The spectrum exhibits, besides the enormously ponderating D lines, a air of lines in the green, and a ter pair in the red.

ROM the ages of persons who have died in France during the 32 years, M. Turquan computes the average life there to e been about 38 years for women, 36 for men, and 37 years both sexes together (Rev. Sci.). But this is now exceeded, the average is over 40 years; a result, partly, of more ntion to hygiene, partly of a diminished birth-rate. From a showing the distribution of the average life, one finds the age very low in Finistère and Brittany (28 years II months e former) in the Nord, the Pyrénées Orientales, &c., and cially in Corsica (28 years 1 month). In Finistère and sica one finds least hygiene and most children, but not the est mortality of children. In some parts of Normandy, a high infantile mortality, the mean life is yet very long. s it is about 48 years in Eure, 47 in Orne and Calvados, The difference between the average life of men and en rises to 4 years (excess in case of women) in the north, and diminishes as you come towards the Mediterranean; in Basses Alpes and Gard (in the south-east) man lives er than woman by about a year and a half. In Normandy Brittany there are most widows, and woman appears to a grea ter vitality.

r is now many years since electric currents were proved to t in plants. In the study of these currents, an important step in ance was taken when Prof. Burdon Sanderson proved their tence in uninjured parts of living plants (it was usual before pply electrodes, often polarizable, to cut parts). As to their e, certain experiments made by Kunkel, some time ago, led to think it was in the purely mechanical process of wateron, set up on application of the moist electrode. The subhas been recently investigated by Herr Haake, who proices against this view. He used Du Bois Reymond's clay rodes, with some woollen fibres projecting at the ends, and nclosed the leaves in a tube in which they were guarded air-draughts and kept moist. Arrangements were also for various operations, such as varying transpiration, adng hydrogen, removing oxygen, &c. (for details see Flora, 5, of this year). Herr Haake's results are briefly these :— is unquestionable that changes of matter of various kinds oncerned in the production of the electric currents, especially en respiration, and carbonic-acid assimilation. 2. Waterments may possibly share in their production, but certainly

share is but a small one.

E Izvestia of the East Siberian Geographical Society xxiii., 3) contains an account of M. Obrutcheffs' further rches in the Olekma and Vitim highlands. In the northrn, formerly quite unknown part of this region, the or found a further continuation of the "Patom plateau "—

that is, a swelling from 3500 to 4000 feet high, devoid of tree vegetation, with ridges and mountains rising over it to heights of from 5000 to 5600 feet. They consist of granite and crystalline schists, probably of Laurentian age, covered with younger, probably Huronian, gneisses and schists. The other parts of the highlands consist of Cambrian and Lower Silurian deposits, while Upper Silurian limestones and Devonian Red sandstones are only met with in the valley of the Lena. We thus have a further confirmation of the hypothesis, according to which the great plateau of north-eastern Asia is a remnant of an old continent which has not been submerged since the Devonian epoch. Further traces of mighty glaciation have been found in the south-east part of the region. As to the gold-bearing deposits, they are pre-glacial in the south, and post-glacial or recent in the north. The high terraces in the valleys are indicative of a considerable post-pliocene accumulation of alluvial deposits, and of a subsequent denudation on a great scale.

MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND Co. announce that a new edition of Sir Archibald Geikie's "Text-hook of Geology" is in the press, and will appear shortly.

THE third and fourth volumes (completing the work) of Mr. H. C. Burdett's "Hospitals and Asylums of the World" will be published by Messrs. J. and A. Churchill about the end of this month. Vol. iii. deals with the history and administration of hospitals in all countries throughout the world. Vol. iv. relates to hospital construction, and contains a bibliography and portfolio of plans.

MESSRS. R. SUTTON AND CO. have published a second edition of Mr. J. E. Gore's "Scenery of the Heavens," with stellar photographs and various drawings. Mr. W. F. Denning contributes to the volume a chapter on fireballs, shooting stars, and

meteors.

THE second annual issue of "The Year-Book of Science," edited by Prof. Bonney, F.R.S., is now in a forward state of preparation, and will be shortly published by Messrs. Cassell and Company.

MESSRS. DULAU AND CO. have published "Annals of British Geology, 1891," by J. F. Blake. This is the second issue, and geologists will be unanimously of opinion that it is a decided improvement upon the first. It contains a digest of the books and papers published during the year, with occasional

notes.

LECTURES on the ear will be delivered in Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E. C., on January 17, 18, 19, and 20, at 6 o'clock, by Dr. E. Symes Thompson.

IN Mr. R. Assheton's letter (NATURE, vol. xlvii. p. 176) the sentence beginning line 31 of the second column should have read thus:-"But it is more metazoic-if I may use such a word-to call the whole animal resulting from the segmentation of the fertilized ovum, the sexually produced generation."

Two interesting new compounds are described by Prof. Anschütz, of Bonn, in the current number of the Berichte. They are well-crystallized compounds of the lactides derived from salicylic acid and the next higher (cresotinic) acid with chloroform, which latter substance is so loosely united with the lactide that warming to the temperature of boiling water is amply sufficient to dissociate them. Hence the compounds may be employed for obtaining perfectly pure chloroform, and for preserving chloroform in a solid form in which it is not prone to decomposition. The lactide of salicylic acid has long been supposed to be formed when the acid is treated with oxychloride of phosphorus. Prof. Anschütz, however, shows that the product of this reaction contains many other substances in addition, but by working under special conditions he has succeeded in

isolating pure salicylide. Salicylic acid is dissolved in an indifferent solvent, preferably toluene or xylene, before the addition of the phosphorus oxychloride. The product of the reaction is washed first with soda and afterwards with water. Owing to the property, discovered by Prof. Anschütz during the course of the work, which salicylide possesses of combining with chloroform, it may be extracted from the white solid product, after drying, by means of chloroform, the compound being deposited from the chloroform solution in large colourless transparent crystals belonging to the tetragonal system. The compound possesses the composition CH4.CO.O.2CHC. The chloroform readily escapes upon warming, in very much the same manner as the water of crystallization contained in many crystallized salts. The free salicylide remaining is a solid substance melting at 261°. As regards its molecular constitution it is shown, by the amount of lowering of the melting-point of phenol employed as a solvent, to contain four of the salicylic radicles CH4.CO.O, and is probably a closed ring compound. In a precisely similar manner phosphorus oxychloride reacts with the three cresotinic acids, the acids next higher than salicylic, with formation among other substances of lactides, which may be isolated in the same way in the form of their chloroform compounds, CH3. C6H3. CO.O.2CHCl3. Orthocresotinic acid lends itself best to this reaction. The pure lactides are readily obtained from the chloroform compounds by warming to 100, pure chloroform being gently evolved.

THE two substances above described, salicylide-chloroform and the corresponding compound derived from ortho-cresotinic acid, are admirably adapted for the preparation of pure chloroform, on account of their large content of the latter substance, salicylide-choloroform containing 33 24 per cent. and the cresotinic compound 30.8 per cent of its weight. Moreover, in closed vessels they may be preserved any length of time; when exposed to the open air salicylide-chloroform slowly loses its chloroform, but the cresotinic compound is well-nigh stable, even under these conditions. The same quantity of the free lactide may be used over and over again without decomposition, it being only necessary, in order to re-form the chloroform compound, to allow it to remain in contact with the chloroform to be purified for twenty-four hours at the ordinary temperature. None of the usual impurities in chloroform crystallize along with the compound, so that a perfect separation is effected. Again, it is well known that pure chloroform decomposes more or less on keeping; this loss may be avoided by storing it in the form of the lactide, and regenerating it when required by the application of a gentle heat, with the certainty of obtaining it perfectly pure.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus rhesus ) from India, presented by Mr. W. Stutely; two Barbary Mice (Mus barbarus) from North Africa, presented by Lord Lilford; four Bearded Titmice (Panurus biarmicus), European; four Ani (Crotophaga ani) from South America; six Hog-nosed Snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos); a Striped Snake (Tropidonotus sirtalis); a — Snake (Pitnophis), from North America, purchased.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

THE MOTION OF NOVA AURIGE.-Prof. W. W. Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, has communicated further results relating to Nova Auriga to the December number of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is now perfectly convinced that the variation in the velocity previously suspected is real, and probably due to orbital motion. The values given below have been calculated on the assumption that the brightest line in the spectrum of the Nova, since the reappearance in August, is

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In the same journal Mr. Sidgreaves points out that lines cannot simply be revivals of those of Februar further, that on account of the great difference of veloci«. the reversed direction, they cannot be supposed to b the bright-line component of February. Neither s that the dark-line component has become a planetary and the probability of three bodies rushing together be small, Father Sidgreaves believes the new results to se the view that the compound character of the spectru duced by local disturbances of a single star.

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES IN 1892.—In the he for January Mr. Denning gives an excellent summary astronomical discoveries of 1892, a year which was very an able for the special attention given to the science by and the public. In chronological order the principai st were as follows:

January 20.-Minor planet (324) discovered by phoe by Max Wolf at Heidelberg. (Altogether 27 were dis during the year by various observers.)

January 23-30.-Discovery of Nova Aurig Anderson,

February 11.-The great sun-spot, extending over 15 miles of longitude, reached the sun's central meridia was followed by remarkable magnetic disturbances and de

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September 9.-Prof. Barnard's memorable discovery fifth satellite of Jupiter.

October 12.-Comet discovered by photography Barnard.

November 6.-Bright comet discovered in Androme Mr. Edwin Holmes, London.

November 20.-A faint comet discovered by Brooks November 23.-Brilliant shower of shooting stars obsers. Canada and the United States. The shower was evident of the Andromedes connected with Biela's comet.

COMET HOLMES.-Mr. Lewis Boss finds for this c period of 6914 years, and concludes that no very de proach to Jupiter can have taken place in recent years eccentricity, however, is so small that important pertur by Jupiter may have occurred. He further states that "there remarkable decrease in brightness of the comet seems to 187 with the necessity of supposing that it has been recently member of the solar system. This decrease also rend reasonably certain that the comet must have been subject some extraordinary disturbance of its internal economy " application of forces from without or within, with the re giving to it that which was really an unaccustomed and e porary size and brightness" (Astronomical Journal, No According to Mr. Lockyer's views, such increase of bre would be produced by the comet colliding with another

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arm lying in its track, and it is quite possible that the brighting of the comet at the time of the discovery was very sudden, is explaining why the comet was not detected earlier.

The Rev. E. M. Searle (Astronomical Journal, No. 283) deduced a period fifteen days shorter than that of Mr.

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M. Schulhof, of Paris, finds a period of 6.909 years.

He > points out that among the known periodic comets that of Vico shows the greatest orbital similarity to Holmes's comet, I he considers that they may possibly have a common origin. Mr. Roberts, of the Nautical Almanac Office, accepting as the supposed impression of the comet obtained by Mr. orling in a photograph of the region taken on October 18, ad a period of fifteen years, but the general agreement of the st computations seems to indicate that the image in question Id not be that of the comet.

'he comet is now so dim that it is not considered necessary ontinue the ephemeris.

PHEMERIS OF COMET BROOKS (November 20, 1892).-The wing ephemeris of Comet Brooks (Berlin, midnight) is n in Ast. Nach., No. 3140, by Kreutz :

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19. 2258 23 IE METEOR SHOWER OF NOVEMBER 23, 1892.-Further vations of this fine display of shooting stars are recorded stronomical Journal, No. 283. Prof. J. K. Rees counted neteors in half an hour, and noted some as bright as Mars; them were very swift. The Rev. J. G. Hagen estimated one observer, with a clear view to the west would have 250 meteors in half an hour, and notes that some were as tas Jupiter. Mr. Sawyer estimated the maximum frey as about 300 per hour, and, strangely enough, describes as "slow-moving, generally quite bright, although none observed as bright as the planets Mars and Jupiter.' Both Rees and Mr. Sawyer note that the meteors appeared in rs, four or five falling almost at the same instant, while for minutes none were seen. The radiant was near y >medæ, and there is little doubt that the shower was that › Biela's comet.

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M. Dybowski's journey from the Mobangi to the Shari, scribed at a recent meeting of the Paris Geographical y, he encountered one of the most systematically cannibal which has yet been described. This tribe, known as onjos, have only one object of purchase-slaves to be They refuse to sell food or any other products of their y for anything else, and the surrounding tribes capture port can be loads of slaves for this purpose. The French ion experienced great difficulty in obtaining food amongst le who had no desire for ordinary articles of trade.

boundaries of the republics of South and Central a are certainly the least definite lines on the political the world so far as civilized lands are concerned. The a of delimitation is never at rest. Dr. H. Polakowsky the last number of Petermann's Mitteilungen a brief of the negotiations and surveys relating to the frontier a Rica and Nicaragua from 1858 to 1890. The difficulty case lies in the fact that the mouth of the San Juan certain point of which was fixed on in 1858 as the coast is continually changing, and a breakwater belonging .arbour and canal entrance of Greytown, in Nicaragua, nds in what was formerly the territory of Costa Rica. Pacific coast years of diplomacy were required to fix re of Salinas Bay, but it is satisfactory to know that nt boundary stones have now been erected at both he line.

COLES delivered his second lecture to young people he auspices of the Royal Geographical Society, on

Friday evening, when a large audience of both young and old enjoyed his spirited descriptions of Iceland and British Columbia, illuminated by many anecdotes of personal adventure.

THE defective condition of the charts, even of the coast of Europe, was strikingly brought out by the recent court-martial on the stranding of H.M.S. Howe in Ferrol Channel. The chart used on board was drawn from soundings made about a hundred years ago, with a few subsequent corrections, which failed altogether to indicate the rock on which the Howe struck. The Spanish authorities are reported to have refused permission for the new chart surveyed by the officers of the Channel Squadron to be published, and meanwhile the Hydrographic Office has cancelled the old chart.

A NEW SEISMOGRAPH.

BEFORE speaking of this memoir, let me enter a protest against the method of publishing these "Annali" in such a way as to convey the impression that the papers composing it All readers were written three years before their actual date. are warned that when the volume is bound up, and the paper covers are removed, they must post-date the papers by three years.

The seismograph described in the present paper is intended for stations of the second class. The objects in view in its construction were amplification of the record in a pendulum seismograph, and improvement of the warning apparatus in the form of a style seismoscope of the Milne type which the author finds frequently fails.

The amplifying lever is composed of fine placfont tubes arranged girder-like in the form of a short hollow triangular prism, surmounted by an acute triangular pyramid, which points downwards, and carries at its apex the writing style. The pendulum bob is a flattened cylinder, supported by a placfont wire 150 m. long. The amplifying lever at the junction of the three pyramidal and the prismatic tubes supports three radial arms meeting in the centre, as it were, of the pyramid base, and support a ball-andsocket joint of agate, the cup part of which is at the end of an arm projecting from the supporting wall. Immediately above this centre, and occupying the prism space of the lever, is the cylindrical box, the wire supporting which passes through a small hole in the centre of the base of the prism. We thus have a simple lever of the first order of light girder work. It is prevented from rotating in azimuth by including some steel wire permanently magnetized.

The style has been modified by lightening it and making it more rigid and non-oxidizable, which is done by using a capillary glass tube.

The registering apparatus is a smoked glass plate, supported over a clock, started at the moment of the earthquake by a seismoscope. To prevent the complex figures of the ordinary registration in a pendulum seismograph, the author has arranged so that the plate shall rotate through a segment of a circle every three seconds, so as to bring a fresh surface of smoked glass beneath the style.

Some modifications are then described. The principal one is making the bob annular, carrying a suitable aperture, in which is engaged the short end of a lever. This lever is composed of three very thin brass tubes, graduating away smaller from the fulcrum, which is a gimbal joint such as suggested by the reviewer some years since in NATURE. This lever carries at its lower and longer end the style which records on the glass plate as in the original one described in this memoir.

Another modification is a combination of the triple and single suspension of the pendulum bob, that is, the bob ring is first suspended by triple wires to a button which in its turn hangs at the end of a single wire.

The

The details of these seismographs are fairly well worked out, but the employment of aluminium in many of the parts has been neglected. Likewise, no arrangement has been made for the oblique play of the engaged pinion in the newer lever. only new point about this seismograph is the interrupted rotation of the recording plate. This has a decided advantage in giving a dissected record, but is part counterblanced by the fact that important movements that may be taking place at the moment

G. Agamennone, "Sopra un Nuovo Pendolo Sismografico." Annali dell' Ufficio Centrale Meteor. e Geodinamico, ser. sec., pt. 3, vol. xi., 1889. (Roma, 1892)

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of the advance are represented by a curve or curves which would require a series of careful experiments to be carried out in each instrument, followed by difficult and elaborate calculation for each advance.

Much credit is due to the author for working out the modifications, but until we have some original method of finding a steady-point, not so far suggested, it is doubtful if we can improve on the Gray, Ewing, and Milne seismographs, that are not, as the author imagines, little used or tested instruments. H. J. JOHNSTON-LAVIS.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

A SECOND edition of an excellent pamphlet on the "Physical Geography and Climate of New South Wales," by Mr. H. C. Russell, F. R. S., astronomer royal for New South Wales, has just been issued at Sydney. It is published by authority of the New South Wales Government. The following extracts may be of interest to various classes of readers in Great Britain :

sixteenth century, explored at least the northern partaid Aer What they learned was, however, kept a profound s about 1540, when one of their governmeni maps and there are now in existence six maps believert in be it, which were all published between 1539 and 1555. Tshow Australia under the name of the Land of Java Java being called the "Little Java,” and from the ure frequent attempts were made to explore what bad for generations been "Terra Australis incognita." Signs tors could not understand the silence of the Portog as proof of the richness of the land, about which wonderful tales "It was a land of gold and spices, cent tropical fruits and vegetation-a perfect paradi the happy and simple inhabitants were loaded wi ornaments of gold. Its very atmosphere was elixir, ane

a round of enjoyment." No wonder that in an age least upon the ocean, the power to take was misal right to do so, there were many who cast longing glance the southern Paradise. Whether these stories of grad foundation in fact or not, when tarter was regularly esc the coast of Australia, it is impossibile now to say, hul discoveries of rich surface gold lend some colour to the the vegetable richness of the northern part of Australia. in accordance with tradition. But all the early Engust tors were unfortunate, and Australia got a repucation reverse of what further investigation has shown that it m In point of fact, all the glowing colouring of tradita € but when Dampier, in 1688, sailed down the western s saw nothing but a "dry sandy soil," and the " people in the world"; and later on, when the firu L settlers landed on Australia, they chose a bay, beautiful. at, but there was no gold and no fruit worthy of the ca soil was barren and sandy, and the climate in the win its summer. No wonder that the fame of Australia ened, and report made it a miserable land, subject to and floods-a land in which everything was turned top The summer came at winter time; trees shed their tes their leaves-were brown instead of green; the stones : the outside of the cherries; and the pears, pleasant to were only to be cut with an axe; and there was nothing "unless, perchance, ye'l fill ye with root of fern or stalt Such was the early verdict upon Australia. Fortuner first colonists, once here, were obliged to stop. By they found that everything that was planted grew we wheat in the valley of the Hawkesbury yielded 40 to 50% to the acre, and in one memorable season actually rien. ' farmers by its very abundance, for in the then limited the price fell so low that it was not worth gather it was left in the fields to rot, while the farmers so work. Horses, sheep, cattle, and pigs throve marve. and some of the cows getting away, the bush soon Cai numbers of wild cattle. Even wool did not deteriorats 1new Colony; and step by step the facts became too sh prejudice, and the first fleeces of Australian sheep England lifted the veil. Manufacturers would gladly = many as could be sent; their demand for more wel with the supply, and now only from Australia can they the fine wools which they need. Quantity and quality have increased together, and the Grand Prize at the Far hibition for our New South Wales wool has proclaimed it: far and wide. Wool has done still more for the Colony * took possession of it as a narrow strip of coast country: mand for pasture forced us to find a way over a hitherto able range, and the same want has driven all the desert ol Colony, and covered it with sixty-two millions of valuable (1892). The country which early writers upon Australs a barren waterless desert is now growing the finest wo yielding abundant water from wells, and when, in 1851, announced that gold had been discovered in abundance. world was convinced that Australia was a promising after all. Year by year the people have been coming m ing numbers to supply our great want (population), and so numbers increase new avenues of wealth and prospe opening before us.

Looking back through the pages of history, and the dim traditions of an earlier time, we find abundant evidence of a belief in the existence of a great south land to the south and east of what was then the well known earth. Those early navigators whose travels had fostered this belief, had doubtless followed down the Malay Peninsula and the string of islands which seem to form part of it, in search of spices and other treasures which the islands supplied. Pliny, who had evidently gathered up the traditions of "Terra Australis incognita," says that it lay a long way south of the Equator, and in proof of this mentions the fact, strange in those days, that when some of its inhabitants were brought to civilization they were astonished to find the sun rise on their left hand instead of on their right. And Ptolemy, A.D. 170, after describing the Malay Peninsula, says: Beyond it, to the south-east, there was a great bay in which was found the most distant point of the earth; it is called 'Cattigara," and is in latitude 8 south; "thence (he goes on to say) the land turns to the west, and extends an immense distance until (as he believed) it joins Africa." And it may fairly be assumed that the extreme south latitude of Cattigara, and its situation in a great bay where the land turns to the west until it joins Africa, is proof that it was some point in the Gulf of Carpentaria, for no other place would fulfil the conditions. The idea that the land actually reached Africa was not Ptolemy's ; it was a necessary part of the system of Hipparchus, for he taught that the earth surrounded the water and prevented it from flowing away. It is not surprising, therefore, that the early navigators, following down the islands, came at length to that part of the Gulf of Carpentaria where the land turned to the west; and believing Hipparchus' system of geography, thought that in turning to the west they were in reality turning towards home, and Cattigara was therefore the most distant point known. Marco Polo tells us that the Chinese navigators in his day (A. D. 1293) asserted there were thousands of islands in the sea to south of them, and in the present day we find proofs of their early visits to Australia in the traces of Chinese features amongst the natives of the northern coast; indeed, some historians think that Marco Polo, in the account he gives of the expedition sent to Persia by the Great Khan, refers directly to Australia, under the name of Lochac. This place he says was too far away to be subjugated by the Great Khan, and was seldom visited; but it yielded gold in surprising quantity, and amongst other wonders contained within it an immense lake or inland sea. It is impossible that such a description should apply, as has been thought, to the Malay Peninsula,- -a country within easy reach, and one which his ships must have passed in every voyage; and so far from being beyond his power, it was within the limits over which his sway extended. That Lochac formed part of the main-land was also quite in accordance with their ideas of the earth, which surrounded the ocean, and the abundance of gold is certainly more likely to be true of Australia than of the Malay Peninsula.

For long years after Marco Polo we find no direct reference to Australia, except the stories which lived amongst navigators, and seemed to lose none of their marvellous points by transmission. These kept alive the desire to explore the great south land, so rich in treasures and wonders. All the evidence collected so far goes to prove that the Portuguese had, early in the

Geographically, Australia has a grand position, lying le the 10th and 40th degrees of south latitude-that happy where it is neither too hot nor too cold. Surronde) ocean, the sea breezes temper what might otherwise be climate in the summer; the air is clear and dry, and yet rain in heavy showers. Vegetation is abundant, and

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the cereals and fruits of the world, so that, in the words of e old tradition, it has "all the conditions which make life a easure."

Australia measures from north to south 1900 miles, and om east to west 2400 miles, and speaking generally, has a unded outline, the only great inlets on the coast-line being the Lalf of Carpentaria and the Australian Bight. The total area Frather greater than that of the United States, and almost ual to the whole of Europe. On the east, north, and west, d at a short distance from the coast are found ranges of mounns, of no great elevation, yet almost the only high land. On west and north-west coasts the mountains form a bold oute of granite, rarely more than 200 miles from the coast, and aining to heights of 2000 to 3000 feet. Between these and sea the land is low and good, but on the inland side is found ast table land which slopes towards the unknown interior so dually that the inclination is not easily seen, and no rivers ining to the interior have yet been discovered-all known eams running to the sea.

On the east coast we have also the mountain chain parallel the coast, but it is much higher and more extensive, and the ip of low land by the coast is much narrower, often not more in 30 miles wide, and at Point Danger the range comes right the sea. This grand chain of mountains is known generally the Great Dividing Range, and extends for about 1500 les along the east coast. Near its southern extremity is the owy Range, the only spot in Australia where snow may ays be found. The highest peak, Mount Kosciusko, 7170 t, is also the highest land in Australia. The ravines on its es always contain snow, and the mountains near it, about o feet high, are also covered with snow for the greater part the year.

Of this great continent island, the Colony of New South les holds the choicest portion-the southern part of the east st--the part where, with remarkable sagacity, the first settleit was made. It has the best climate, all the most important rs in Australia, the great bulk of the coal land, unlimited es of all the useful minerals, and the finest pastoral and icultural lands for extra-tropical vegetation; besides which, extensive highlands afford climatic conditions for all pures. It is naturally divided into three portions. The comatively narrow coast district, from 30 to 150 miles wide, ndantly watered by rivers and smaller streams coming down a the mountains. The rainfall here, fed by winds from the at Pacific Ocean, is very abundant, from 40 inches in the h to 70 in the north, and at Sydney 50 inches. The mouns have doubtless very much to do with this abundant cipitation, and at times the rains are so heavy that the rs, fed by mountain torrents, carry heavy and dangerous ds. In years past wheat was largely and profitably grown, rust has of late so frequently appeared that little or no at is grown, for it pays better to supply the city markets a dairy produce, Indian corn, and various kinds of hay. In northern districts sugar-growing is a profitable industry, increasing rapidly. About Sydney enormous quantities of ges are grown for exportation.

he second division includes the mountains and elevated is, and extends the whole length of the colony, varying in h from 120 to 200 miles. On the south, with the exception he Monaro Tableland, the country is very rough and tainous, the highest points, Mount Kosciusko and the vy Range, catch the rain and snow that feed the river ay and the Murrumbidgee. Wheat grows well here, but y all the land is used for pastoral purposes. Proceeding wards, the mountains decrease in height and extend laterA part of the land is taken up for agriculture, some for g. In its natural state the western country is open plain ghtly-timbered, and large areas are covered with rich nic soil which seems fit to grow anything, but the want of r and carriage, and the profit and security to be found in g wool and meat, has for the most part tempted capital quatting pursuits; but since the railway has reached this of the country more attention is being given to agriculture, is rapidly extending. Between Goulburn and Bathurst, western waters form the Lachlan and the eastern the kesbury rivers, and from Bathurst northwards to latitude I the western waters go to form the various tributaries of Darling river. These mountains are from 2000 to 3000 with some peaks rising to nearly 6000 feet. The central of the western slopes are celebrated for rich soil and

herbage, and here also the greater part of the gold-mining area, as well as mines for other minerals have been found, including coal, which is also found in great abundance, with iron and lime, at Lithgow and other places. Deposits of copper, silver, lead, tin, and mercury are also found in abundance. A very large portion of the high land here is suitable for agriculture, and is being taken up for that purpose by degrees. English fruits-the apple, cherry, currant, &c.-grow to perfection here, as well as in other parts of the mountain districts.

The third division covers by far the greatest area, and consists of the Great Western Plains, extending away to the Darling river, and thence to the south Australian border. Here there are but few known mineral deposits except copper, and the enormous deposits of silver and lead at Broken Hill, and no attempt at agriculture. All the land may be said to be held for grazing purposes, and for that purpose, now that capital has been invested in tanks and wells for water supply, this country is unequalled. Sheep and cattle thrive in a remarkable degree, and form a most profitable investment, the climate being dry and wonderfully healthy for man and beast.

These are the three great natural divisions, made so by the conformation of the land and the climate. It will be evident from what has been said of the elevation of the mountains that snow is not a common feature upon them, and the only part where snow lies for any considerable time is the extreme south. As a necessary consequence, the river system is peculiar ; indeed, it has often been asserted that Australia had no rivers — at least none which were of any use as such; but as we shall presently see, this statement, like many others affecting Australia, was made in ignorance. The necessity for increased pasture had driven the early colonists to cross the Great Dividing Range, aptly so-named, in search of pasture, in 1815, and the desire to extend the new pastures beyond the Bathurst Plains, which were the first discovered, led them on, and one of the first questions that demanded their attention was to account for the direction in which all the streams were flowing. The shortest road to the sea was to south-west, and yet all the water was running to north-west, and quite naturally it was asked-Could there be a great inland sea into which these rivers discharged? In 1818 Oxley started with a determination to see where at least one of them went to; so he followed the Macquarie for more than 200 miles, and found that he was going due north-west, further and further, as it seemed to him, from the natural outlet on the south coast. At last the river spread out to an apparently interminable marsh. Turn which way he would his progress was stopped by a shallow freshwater sea, for sea he was at last convinced it must be, so great was its extent, and he was obliged to turn back. He had got there after two very wet seasons (1817 and 1818), and his inland sea is now known as the Macquarie Marshes; and the mystery was not solved until Sturt, in 1829, found all these streams trending to north-west unite in the Darling, and then turn to south-west.

Coming from mountains of such moderate elevation, these streams are necessarily dependent upon the rainfall, and have no snow to help them, so that in rainy seasons they become important rivers and in dry ones sink into insignificance; but since most of the rains which feed these waters are, as it were, offshoots of the tropical rains, they seldom fail altogether, and as a rule the Darling is navigable for four months of each year, and sometimes all through the year, up to and beyond Bourke. The current is very slow, seldom reaching two miles per hour, and therefore offers little hindrance to the steamers which carry wool and stores.

In the exploration of our rivers there was another surprise when settlement extended south-west from Sydney. The waters here were found to flow to the west, and the Lachlan has for a considerable portion of its course a south-west direction, that is, at right-angles to the Macquarie and the Bogan. Could the Lachlan, the Murrambidgee, and the snow-fed Murray ultimately join the waters that ran north-west from Bathurst? Sturt had not solved this question-he only followed the Darling part of the way down-and it was left for Sir Thomas Mitchell to find the junction of the two river systems in 1835, and to prove that the Darling and the Murray were united at and below Wentworth.

After dealing with the rivers and harbours of New South Wales, Mr. Russell discusses the temperature, rainfall, droughts, and winds of the colony. Of the temperature he says:

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