gold country generally to a region with which he was quite familiar in New South Wales, and he naturally concluded that, if gold was found so extensively in such a country on the eastern coast of the Pacific, it would, in all probability, be found in a similarly formed country on the western. The more he saw of the country, the more strongly was this idea impressed upon his mind, till he resolved at length to return to New South Wales, to ascertain whether it was well founded. He did so accordingly, and on the 12th of February, 1851, he succeeded in discovering gold in Australia, in the very locality in which he was so strongly persuaded it would be found, namely, in the Lewis Ponds and Summerhill Creeks, and in the Macquarie and Turon Rivers, in the districts of Bathurst and Wellington. Mr. Hargraves makes no pretensions to geological science. He is merely a practical miner; but his powers of observation are evidently of the first order, and his conduct throughout the whole affair does him the highest credit. The local government presented Mr. Hargraves, at his own suggestion, with £ 500 to cover expenses, in part payment for his important discovery; referring it to the home government to determine what his proper remuneration should be, and in the mean time appointing him a Commissioner of Crown Lands to prospect in the gold regions."

Though some large masses of the metal have been found, as the lump which was picked up on Louisa Creek, in the commencement of the search, weighing 106 pounds, and though the public has been recently astonished with large stories of the amount of gold taken, which, according to some newspaper statements, exceeded the yield of the California diggings in 1852, yet it appears from authentic statements to have amounted to only from a little over one dollar to five dollars daily in the beginning. Mr. Hargraves, writing to the Colonial Secretary on the 2d of July, 1851, states the average on the Turon to have been from 15s. to 20s. a day to each man. Mr. Hardy, on the 8th of July, states it at the same, in the same locality. It is true, Mr. Hargraves, writing again to the Secretary on August 18th, says, "No part of California which I have seen has produced gold so generally, and to such an extent, as Summerhill Creek, the Turon River, and its tributaries"; but on the 9th of September he states the average obtained on the Abercrombie River at from 7s. to 10s. daily. And of the product of the Araluen diggings he says, on the 29th of September, the diggers are "earning on an

average 5s. per diem. diem. Some few are making 10s., and a solitary case or two of 20s." And Mr. Hardy, the Chief Commissioner, in a letter of the 19th of October, says, "With respect to the production of gold in the Araluen Gold Field, I am of opinion, after a very careful inspection, that it is equal in productiveness to any other part of the colony, and but the commencement of a much more extensive digging than any in the Bathurst district." The average earnings he puts at not less than £1 (or five dollars) a day each. We have not the ta bles of the California results, but it seems to us that this must be much below the mark of those diggings.

The aggregate product, also, we believe to be less than that of California. Mr. Lang states that, up to the 26th of July, 1852, which includes over fourteen months from the commencement of the digging, there had been exported from New South Wales gold to the amount of £ 1,759,745, and the export from Port Philip had then, by the latest accounts, been about £2,400,000, or upwards of four millions sterling from both colonies (less than $ 22,000,000). The yield of the Port Philip diggings, though absolutely much larger than those of New South Wales, was in fact much less per head, there having been 50,000 diggers in the Port Philip diggings, and only 15,000 in the others. The discovery was made, in the Port Philip district, of the Ballarat Gold Field in August, 1851, and of the Mount Alexander soon after. They had not, therefore, been worked quite a year at the time just named.

From this view of the productiveness of the gold fields of Australia, as compared with those of California, taken in connection with the license fee or excise of $180 per annum, and the difference between the ordinary rate and amount of taxation in England and America, it would appear to be an error of judgment that should lead an American to try his fortunes in the Australian mines rather than in California. The acquisition is also less secure in Australia. The old convict population sends out swarms to those points where the successful miner is most to be found, and the last chapter of his gold history frequently records the fact, that all his gold has been appropriated by a more fortunate gold-seeker, operating in the pocket or the chest.

The observation of some travellers has discovered, or surmised, that the continent is of recent formation. It is represented as presenting for the most part a flat, sandy surface, little elevated above the sea, nearly destitute of vegetation, interspersed with some isolated mounds or elevations, and having marine shells and marks of the subsidence of water upon it. "My impression," says Captain Sturt, "when travelling the country to the west and northwest of the marshes of the Maquarie, was that I was travelling a country of comparatively recent formation. The sandy nature of the soil, the great want of vegetable decay, the salsolaceous character of the plants, the appearance of its isolated hills and flooded tracts, and its trifling elevation above the sea, severally contributed to strengthen these impressions on my mind."

The natural history of this country has much that is altogether peculiar to itself and different from the rest of the world. The Mammalia comprise only fifty-three species, as stated in the Penny Cyclopædia, Art. "Australia," of which forty-three, or about four fifths, are Marsupialia, or of that tribe who carry the young in a pouch. The whole of these fifty-three species are peculiar to the country. The ten species not of the Marsupialia are two of the Cheiroptera, or bats, one of the Carnivora, a dog, five Rodentia, and two Edentata. The Ruminantia, or ruminating animals, are wholly wanting. The prev alence of Marsupialia, almost amounting to a monopoly of the mammalian department of land animals, forms a strong peculiarity in the zoology of the country; five of the rat and weasel kind, one dog and two bats, and the two amphibious Edentata, duck-billed, — whose rank as Mammalia seems not quite settled,- being all of the class that are not marsupial, except those inhabiting the sea. In the department of ornithology Australia is remarkable for the absence of all the gallinaceous birds, and for the presence of that "rara avis in terris," the black swan. This is rather smaller than its white congener, which has had the honor of being sung by the poets, and has a longer neck, and, it is said, more grace, than the white. The emu is a gigantic bird, whose wings will not sustain a flight, whose flesh is of very agreeable flavor, and forms a luxuriant viand greatly esteemed by the English set

tlers; it is mentioned by Malte-Brun as a species of cassowary. Mr. Howitt mentions the soldier-bird (it does not appear whether the same as the flamingo), a small water-hen, and he and others many varieties of the pigeons and most of the birds known in England. He mentions also a late-found sloth. In fact, the classification given of Mammalia above must be taken only as partial, including such animals as were known at the time, but not all of the class on the continent.

The botany of the country is not less peculiar in its organization than the zoology. A large proportion of the genera among its plants, and indeed even some entire natural orders, are confined to this continent, or do not extend beyond the neighboring islands. Several species of the Acacia have been well known for years. among us, having been domesticated in our green-houses and gardens. This is the most numerous genus of the Australian vegetable kingdom. The Eucalyptus also includes many species. Some of these, which are mentioned by travellers under the common name of gumtrees, are of a large size, being one hundred and fifty feet in height, and from thirty to forty in girth. The Callitris, a species of pine (or, as described, a genus), is represented as a very stately and beautiful tree; and there is one called the celery-topped pine, whose leaves resemble, in appearance and in taste, the plant from which it is so named. A singular tree, called the grass-tree, appears like a boughless stump, but bearing at its extreme topmost point a tuft resembling long grass. In New South Wales, from Sydney to Moreton Bay, near the sea-coast, Hodgkinson, Mitchell, and others mention the cedar, rosewood, fig-trees, nettle-trees, and plum-trees on the bottoms, and black-butt, myrtle, turpentine, corkwood, and mahogany in the mountains; also ironwood, lightwood, sassafras, Australian tamarind, box, Australian palms, and brush fig-tree. These are mostly different from trees bearing the same names in other countries. The cedar is distinguished into red and white; but both are wholly different from trees having those designations among us. Both are deciduous, and of large size. The Australian tamarind is not the same as the Indian tamarind; and the mahogany and rosewood differ from the woods known to us under those names. Many of these, and others, are peculiar to the country.

After a residence in Victoria, or Australia Felix, near to the city of Melbourne, three months, Mr. Richard Howitt thus describes this part of the country in a letter to his brother: "We have been here a quarter of a year, and ought by this time to know something of Australia Felix. Whence it derived this felicitous name, God knows, and Major Mitchell; but certainly not from the nature of the country. It is however deservedly called the Land of Promise, performance being yet in speculation. The land has grown gold to those who have bought and sold it, almost, at present, its only growth. It is neither a land of rivers and springs of water, nor does it overflow with milk and honey; honey there is none, and milk is 6d. per pint."

Mr. Howitt represents the weather as hot and dry in the extreme in summer, in winter cold, with great and sudden changes. The soil, he says, is not so good as was represented to them in England. Many who came out with us are dissatisfied; some will return as soon as they have realized their expenses out to England."

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To sum up the characteristics of Australia, as found from English writers having a most intimate personal acquaintance with the country described, the soil is, about eight or nine tenths, utterly unsuited to cultivation and to the wants of man; and is greatly deficient in that first of all necessary things, water. Its climate is uncom fortable from the excess of heat, and from sudden and extreme vicissitude. It has been mentioned that Captain Sturt's thermometer rose to 137° and burst. says also, "In the morning we sat by a fire to warm, and in six hours the thermometer stood at 104°." Mr. Howitt says the heat was so great, and the atmosphere so dry, that "books have their covers curled up as if you had been reading by a hot fire" (p. 103). This was in early summer, December 7th, and on July 3d, or mid-winter, the thermometer was as low as 25° in the morning, with ice, and at noon, so sudden and intense was the change that it was up to 85° (p. 219), which is extremely warm summer weather with us in Massachusetts. A change of 60° in six hours seems to us utterly incredible, complaining as we do of our changeable climate, and rarely having half that degree of change in twenty-four hours. Mr. Howitt further says (p. 222): "Cold weather there