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U. History &f Astronomy for the Year 1803. Read at tk& 

 Cdllege de France by Jerome De Lalande. 



[Concluded from p. 221.] 



Astronomical geography this year has made some pro- 

 gress, particularly at New Holland. This immense part 

 of the world, which contains almost five hundred thousand 

 square leagues of surface, might alone maintain four hun- 

 dred and fifty millions of inhabitants, which is more than 

 half the number on the whole earth; This is sufficient to 

 show the importance of the voyage. 



Captain JBaudin, who set out on the 13th of October 

 1800, from Havre-de- Grace, wrote on the 12th of No- 

 vember 1802, that he had sufficiently explored, for the se- 

 curity of navigation, Lew in's- Land, Concordia and De 

 Witt's Land, d'Entreeastcaux's Channel, the island Ma- 

 ria, the eastern coast of the large island of Van Diemen, 

 Basse's and Banks's Straits, and the whole of the south- 

 west coast of New Holland, from Cape Wilson to the 

 islands of St. Peter and St. Francis. He proposed to direct 

 his course through Basse's Straits, in order to explore a large 

 island discovered by English fishermen, King's Island, 

 Kangaroo Islands on the south-west coast of New Holland, 

 the southern part of which neither he nor captain Flinders 

 were able to examine, and he expected to go thence to the 

 islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, to ascertain the direc- 

 tion of the continent in that part which is unknown to him ; 

 then to proceed to Lewin's Island, to terminate the labour 

 of the large Bay De Geographe, and then to De Witts's 

 Land, the northern coast of New Holland and Carpentaria, 

 They hope to return in a year. If all this is not performed, 

 it will not be the fault of the astronomer Bernier; for he 

 possesses all the zeal and ability which I announced when 

 1 proposed him for the expedition, which I did with great 

 regret. 



The French have admired the immense labours performed 

 by the English during the twelve years *hey have been 

 established in Port Jackson; and the splendour and opulence 

 of this colony, formed near our antipodes, which is the 

 fruit of a lar^e navy, by which they can easily unite the 

 extremities of the universe, and which will long be wanting 

 to the prosperity of France. The observations of Bernie'r 

 at New Holland, from the 27th of May 1802, are indicated 

 in the Moniteur of August 15, 1803, The examination 



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