nitude.
Stretching from the 115th to the 153rd degree of east longitude, and
from the 10th to the 37th of south latitude, it averages 2700 miles in
length by 1800 in breadth; and balanced, as it were, upon the tropic of
that hemisphere in which it is situated, it receives the fiery heat of
the equator at one extremity, while it enjoys the refreshing coolness
of the temperate zone at the other. On a first view we should be led to
expect that this extensive tract of land possessed more than ordinary
advantages; that its rivers would be in proportion to its size; and
that it would abound in the richest productions of the inter-tropical
and temperate regions. Such, indeed, was the impression of those who
first touched upon its southern shores, but who remained no longer than
to be dazzled by the splendour and variety of its botanical
productions, and to enjoy for a few days the delightful mildness of its
climate. But the very spot which had appeared to Captain Cook and Sir
Joseph Banks an earthly paradise, was abandoned by the early settlers
as unfit for occupation; nor has the country generally been fount to
realize the sanguine expectations of those distinguished individuals,
so far as it has hitherto been explored.

CHARACTER OF AUSTRALIAN RIVERS.

Rivers which have the widest mouths or the most practicable entrances,
are, in Europe or America, usually of impetuous current, or else
contain such a body of water as to bear down all opposition to their
free course; whilst on the other hand, rivers whose force is expended
ere they reach the sea, have almost invariably a bar at their
embouchure, or where they mingle their waters with those of the ocean.
This last feature unfortunately appears to characterize all rivers of
Australia, or such of them at least as are sufficiently known to us.
Falling rapidly from the mountains in which they originate into a level
and extremely depressed country; having weak and inconsiderable
sources, and being almost wholly unaided by tributaries of any kind;
they naturally fail before they reach the coast, and exhaust themselves
in marshes or lakes or reach it so weakened as to be unable to preserve
clear or navigable months, or to remove the sand banks that the tides
throw up before them. On the other hand the productions of this
singular region seem to be peculiar to it, and unlike those of any
other part of the world; nor have any indigenous fruits of any value as
yet been found either in