280 SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS IN NEW HOLLAND. 
perished, and great distress prevailed in the colony; but 
during the four months of my sojourn at Sydney, showers 
fell frequently, and with almost tropical. violence. 
The climate is charming, the air exceedingly pure, and cool 
in the winter season, when those individuals who have resided 
in it long are apt to complain of feeling rather too cold. In 
the afternoon, the sea-breeze always blows; and I never 
beheld such glorious sunrises and sunsets ; nor a more lovely 
moon, even in the Bay of Naples, or shining on the Cam- 
panile at Pisa. The stars may glow equally brightly in 
France; but the firmament in this hemisphere is richer in 
those of the first magnitude. In the constellations of the 
Southern Cross, the Centaur, the Argonaut, the Dog-star, 
the Scorpion, the Virgin, Boótes, &c., the individual stars 
are peculiarly large and bright. At this present time, Jupiter 
and Venus nightly adorn the sky. : 
Bunga-Bunha District, Archer's Station, 
rani . . Jan. 6,1844. . i 
I quitted Sydney, after. having devoted six months to 
studying the Botany of its environs, with the assistance of 
R. Brown's * Prodromus," and the 7th Volume of De Can- 
dolle’s great work, . There were. several tribes of plants, 
however, which I could not investigate; the Euphorbiactæ; 
for instance, because I had not the necessary books: among 
the other kinds, I made greater progress ; and soon found 
myself competent to undertake some. public herborizations, 
the first ever known in this colony, and to give a course 
lectures on Botany, when I endeavoured to explain ibo 
structure of the different families of plants, and especially to 
direct the attention of the inhabitants, during their walks, t? 
the more common and. prevalent species, particularly Myr- 
tacee, Rutacee, Proteacee, Epacridee, and Cycadee. E 
At the close of August, 1842, I left the. capital of New | 
South Wales, and proceeded to the Hunter river, in order to 
investigate its geology, and especially the position of its 3 
coal formation. The mouth of the river is by no means 50 — 
