GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 357 



only tell when the California gold mines are a little exhausted. Two 

 parties have been sent to Oregon Territory. 



"As the triangulations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are extended 

 from their bases, they will meet, forming a connected geodetic work, 

 and the bases which now serve as the groundwork of the operations 

 will then serve as bases of verification ; the work in each section, 

 meanwhile, being adequate to furnishing preliminary maps and charts 

 for the use of navigators. Connected with this work has been a most 

 important exploration of the Gulf Stream, off our coast, from Cape Cod 

 to Cape Hatteras. 



" In connection with Lieut. Davis's proposal for an American prime 

 meridian, it has been argued that it will destroy all our coast survey 

 maps. But we took this meridian of New York as a temporary one ; 

 it was avowed temporary. The meridian of Greenwich is also 

 marked upon our maps. But it is a matter of very little consequence 

 indeed to us, whether the meridians have to be changed or not. Af- 

 ter the map has been engraved, the next step is to copy it, by the 

 electrotype process. A plate in relief is deposited upon the original, 

 and upon this plate, thus produced, we can make any alterations we 

 please. With a common scraper, we can scrape out these meridians ; 

 electrotype that again, and we can put in upon the new sheet any new 

 lines we please. We do not use the original plates in printing our 

 maps, because they soon deteriorate and wear out, so that very 

 few impressions could be taken. We use, in general, the electrotype 

 copies." 



INTERIOR OF AUSTRALIA. 



THE interior of Australia, in spite of the numerous expeditions 

 which have of late years been undertaken, yet remains a question to 

 be discussed and set at rest by future travellers. The centre of that 

 vast island, which some suppose to have been formed by an archipelago, 

 and some to consist of a great belt of sand encircling an undiscovered 

 sea, has given rise to more inquiry than perhaps any other recent geo- 

 graphical problem. The adventurous spirit of a Mungo Park might, 

 perhaps, have unravelled this difficult question. We have no such 

 travellers now. Few men would care to toil, alone and unprotected, 

 through so savage a wilderness as that which the explorer must trav- 

 erse, in order to penetrate the remoteness of Australia. The dan- 

 ger of the enterprise deters men from it ; and perhaps the character 

 of the country is less propitious to the adventurer, than even the wild 

 solitudes of Africa. Scarcity of provisions and water, the risk of 

 hostile collision with the natives, the inhospitable nature of the coun- 

 try, these are dangers and obstacles which induce the explorer to 

 set forth attended by a numerous company, and furnished with cum- 

 brous wagons, and other means of conveyance. These obstruct the 

 progress, while they increase the comfort of the traveller, but are, 

 perhaps, unavoidable evils, when we consider the character of the 

 little-known districts of the Australian continent. Edinburgh Mag- 

 azine. 



