GEOGKAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, ETC. 395 



the direction of the Gulf of Carpentaria. At last they arrived in 

 sidht of a chain of mountains which appeared to be composed of 

 igneous rocks, giving evidence of the existence of mineral wealth. 

 Here they met a large party of natives, who resisted all attempts at a 

 parley, and greeted the hapless explorers with showers of boomerangs. 

 They were compelled to return, and reached their starting point in 

 September, having travelled two thousand three hundred miles in six 

 months and two days. Their furthest point was two hundred and 

 fifty miles south-west of the Gulf cf Carpentaria, in the extreme north. 

 Had they therefore been allowed to proceed a few days longer, they 

 would have reached the northern coast of Australia, and have fully 

 accomplished their object, 



Admiral Hope, of the British Navy, has succeeded in ascending the 

 great river of China, Yang-tse, to a distance of five hundred and 

 seventy nautical miles from its mouth, without any accident ; and it 

 was stated that it was navigable for a hundred and fifty-seven miles 

 further up, making in all seven hundred and twenty-seven nautical, 

 or about eight hundred and forty-two statute, miles from the sea. 

 The Yang-tse, therefore, although it be, in point of navigation, neither 

 the Mississippi nor the St. Lawrence, far excels the Ganges, the Rhine, 

 and the Danube; is, indeed, the finest navigable river in the Old 

 World. 



A party of French officers have succeeded, during the year, in 

 crossing the Great Sahara Desert, and visiting the sources of the 

 rivers Gambia and Senegal. 



A Dutch party has lately made a partial exploration of New 

 Guinea. On the western coast they found a group of six islands, the 

 largest of which, Salo Adi, is twenty-five miles long, and five broad. 

 They entered the great Papuan island, near the spot where the river 

 Kariifa empties into the sea. This stream rises in the mountain range 

 nearest the coast, flows through alluvial soil covered with jungle, and 

 discharges its waters by five mouths. The portion of the island vis- 

 ited is described as a level plain, from which rises, towards the north- 

 east of the Karufa mouth, a chain of mountains two thousand feet 

 his;h. To the west is a second range of limestone hills, through a 

 break in which a sharp and lofty peak was discovered, having the 

 appearance of a volcano. A dark green forest overspreads the whole 



region. 



Mr. David Forbes, a Scotch geologist, has been engaged for some 

 years in a geological exploration of Bolivia and Southern Peru. lie 

 states that the remarkable saline plains of that portion of South 

 America extend through the rainless regions for a distance of five 

 hundred and fifty miles, yielding prodigious quantities of nitrate of 

 soda, and considerable deposits of borate of lime. One hundred thou- 

 sand square miles of the great chain of the Cordilleras are now known 

 to consist of silurian rocks, and to contain fossils to a height of twenty 

 thousand feet. 



Natural Geographical Changes. Attention has recently been 

 drawn to certain important geographical changes which are in the 

 process of accomplishment in Western Asia, The Sea of Azof, the 

 outlet of the commerce of the Don, is rapidly becoming a vast and 

 impenetrable marsh. Between two measurements, thirty-two years 



