ate regions might then be brought to one common market.

PROPORTION OF GOOD AND BAD LAND.

Where there is so much unproductive surface the unavoidable dispersion of
population renders good lines of communication more essentially
necessary, and these must consist of roads, for there are neither
navigable rivers nor in general the means of forming canals. This colony
might thus extend northward to the tropic of Capricorn, westward to the
145th degree of east longitude, the southern portion having for
boundaries the Darling, the Murray and the seacoast. Throughout the
extensive territory thus bounded one-third, probably, consists of desert
interior plains; one-fourth of land available for pasturage or
cultivation; and the remainder of rocky mountain or impassable or
unproductive country. Perhaps the greater portion of really good land
within the whole extent will be found to the southward of the Murray, for
there the country consists chiefly of trap, granite, or limestone. The
amount of surface comprised in European kingdoms affords no criterion of
what may be necessary for the growth of a new people in Australia.
Extreme differences of soil, climate, and seasons may indeed be usefully
reconciled and rendered available to one community there; but this must
depend on ingenious adaptations aided by all the facilities man's art can
supply in the free occupation of a very extensive region. Agricultural
resources must ever be scanty and uncertain in a country where there is
so little moisture to nourish vegetation. We have seen, from the state of
the Darling where I last saw it, that all the surface water flowing from
the vast territory west of the dividing range, and extending north and
south between the Murray and the tropic, is insufficient to support the
current of one small river. The country southward of the Murray is not so
deficient in this respect for there the mountains are higher, the rocks
more varied, and the soil consequently better; while the vast extent of
open grassy downs seems just what was most necessary for the prosperity
of the present colonists and the encouragement of a greater emigration
from Europe.

DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA FELIX.

Every variety of feature may be seen in these southern parts, from the
lofty alpine region on the east, to the low grassy plains in which it
terminates on the west. The Murray, perhaps the largest river in all
Australia, arises amongst those mountains, and receives in it