heep-farming Returns
No. IV. List of Geological Specimens
No. V. Official Report to the Colonial Government, (Jan. 1829.)
No. VI. Ditto (April 1829.)

ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE FIRST VOLUME
(Not included in this etext)

Native Burial Place near Budda
Vice Admiral Arthur Phillip
Cataract of the Macquarie
A Selenite
Chrystallized Sulphate of Lime

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER

Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early
Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port
Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances in
prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of Sydney--Growth
of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious exertions--Whale-fishery--Other
exports--Geographical features--Causes of the large proportion of bad
soil--Connection between the geology and vegetation--Geological features--
Character of the soil connected with the geological formation--County of
Cumberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages of the
remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the
interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the
interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their success
or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration recommended--Hints
to emigrants--Progress of inland discovery--Expeditions across the Blue
Mountains--Discoveries of Mr. Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures
respecting the interior.

PURPOSE OF THIS PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

When I first determined on committing to the press a detailed account of
the two expeditions, which I conducted into the interior of the Australian
continent, pursuant to the orders of Lieutenant General Darling, the late
Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, it was simply with a view of
laying their results before the geographical world, and of correcting the
opinions that prevailed with regard to the unexplored country to the
westward of the Blue Mountains. I did not feel myself equal either to the
task or the responsibility of venturing any remarks on the Colony of New
South Wales itself. I had had little time for inquiry, amidst the various
duties that fell to my lot in the ordinary routine of the service to which
I belonged, when unemployed by the Colonial Government in the prosecution
of inland discoveries. My observations had been in a great measure
confined t