Natural History i?t London. 261 



" From Africa we are still without any communication from any of the 

 settlements on its extensive coasts. 



" f am happy to say there is every day new reason to hope for the ex- 

 tension of geological enquiry in India ; where the liberality of the Company 

 in carrying on the magnificent trigonometrical survey has already laid the 

 best foundation for such researches. A copy of the portion of the great map, 

 which has been already published, has been presented to us by the Directors ; 

 and there is every reason to suppose, that they are as much disposed to 

 favour geology, as they have shown themselves to be to advance the pro- 

 gress of astronomy and scientific topography. We owe, under this head, 

 considerable obligation to the exertions of our own distinguished member 

 Mr. Colebrooke, whose activity and varied information have enabled him 

 to contribute so much to several departments of literature and science in 

 connection with the East. 



" The Asiatic Society, also, has recently taken up the extension of geolo- 

 gical enquiry with much interest and zeal ; and has opened an intercourse 

 with India upon this subject, though Sir Alexander Johnstone, the chair- 

 man of their committee of foreign correspondence, from which the best re- 

 sults may be expected. The attention of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta 

 has of late been particularly devoted to this department of natural science ; 

 and we have, in the different settlements, several friends and fellows of this 

 Society, who have shown their desire to promote our views. 



" The Society has received from the Admiralty, in the course of the pre- 

 sent session, a small collection of specimens, from the site of the intended 

 settlement in the vicinity of Swan River, on the west coast of Australia ; 

 and Captain Stirling, before his departure from England, in the capacity of 

 its governor, was good enough to place in my hands some brief notes re- 

 lating to them, which I shall take an early opportunity of laying before the 

 Society. From the zeal expressed by that distinguished officer, we may re- 

 gard this contribution as an earnest of what may be expected hereafter 

 from the colony under his superintendence : and having already received 

 from the eastern shores of Australia enough to prove the resemblance of 

 the rocks to ours, and even to point out the relative position and structure 

 of the formations on some points of the coast, we may with reason expect 

 the solution of some of the great questions respecting that region, which 

 still are undetermined. It is remarkable, for example, that no traces have 

 yet been descried of any active volcano along the whole circuit of those 

 shores; although the latitudes nearer to the equator, and under nearly the 

 same meridians, are the scenes of some of the most tremendous volcanic 

 phenomena on record. The mode in which the waters condensed upon 

 the vast continent of Australia are disposed of, — whether by evaporation 

 from inland seas or lakes, or conducted to the ocean by rivers, whose exist- 

 ence has hitherto escaped detection, is another great question connected in 

 all probability with its geological structure. But there is no subject of 

 greater interest to us, at present, than the fossil organised remains of that 

 country ; a knowledge of which, especially the remains of animals, will be 

 an addition of capital importance to our subject, and probably not less valu- 

 able to the zoologist. The diluvium, therefore, respecting which we have 

 at present no information whatever, is deserving of the greatest attention ; 

 and since the existing races of Australian animals are so widely different 

 from those of every other portion of the earth, the identity, on the one 

 hand, of these animals with those occurring in a fossil state, would lead to 

 some of the most important inferences ; while, on the other, the agreement 

 of the fossil remains of Australia with the existing races of other regions, 

 now disjoined from that country, would give new support to some of the 

 most popular speculations of our day. With a view to these enquiries, 

 scarcely any thing that can be collected by oiu* fellow-labourers in that 

 quarter, will be without interest to their friends in Europe. 



