uch of which are probably destined yet to float
in vessels on the adjacent sea.

HARBOURS.

The character of the country behind Cape Northumberland affords fair
promise of a harbour in the shore to the westward. Such a port would
probably possess advantages over any other on the southern coast; for a
railroad thence, along the skirts of the level interior country, would
require but little artificial levelling and might extend to the tropical
regions or even beyond them, thus affording the means of expeditious
communication between all the fine districts on the interior side of the
coast ranges and a sea-port to the westward of Bass Strait.

THE MURRAY.

The Murray, fed by the lofty mountains on the east, carries to the sea a
body of fresh water sufficient to irrigate the whole country, which is in
general so level even to a great distance from its banks that the
abundant waters of the river might probably be turned into canals for the
purpose either of supplying deficiencies of natural irrigation at
particular places, or of affording the means of transport across the wide
plains.

The high mountains in the east have not yet been explored but their very
aspect is refreshing in a country where the summer heat is often very
oppressive. The land is in short open and available in its present state
for all the purposes of civilised man. We traversed it in two directions
with heavy carts, meeting no other obstruction than the softness of the
rich soil and, in returning over flowery plains and green hills fanned by
the breezes of early spring, I named this region Australia Felix, the
better to distinguish it from the parched deserts of the interior country
where we had wandered so unprofitably and so long.

This territory, still for the most part in a state of nature, presents a
fair blank sheet for any geographical arrangement whether of county
divisions, lines of communication, or sites of towns etc. etc. The growth
of a colony there might be trained according to one general system with a
view to various combinations of soil and climate and not left to chance
as in old countries or, which would perhaps be worse, to the partial or
narrow views of the first settlers. The plan of a whole state might be
arranged there like that of an edifice before the foundation is laid, and
a solid one seems necessary where a large superstructure is likely to be
built. The accompanying sketch of the limits which I would propose for
the c