Nov. 12, 1855.] MiJLLER. 3 



with all here assembled, I have listened to the eloquent words of the 

 French Ambassador, and I can truly testify that his Excellency's senti- 

 ments are shared by more than one eminent person of his nation. It is 

 scarcely a month since I had the honour of an interview with Admiral 

 Bruat, Commander-in-Chief of the French fleet in the Black Sea, and 

 while talking to him on board the ' Montebello,' his flag-ship, lying off" 

 ^Sebastopol, he expressed the very same feeling at the lively sympathy 

 which the death of Bellot had caused throughout this country, and a 

 similar hope that it might be the means of cementing the alliance 

 between our two nations. Most cordially do we join in that hope. 



" And while on the subject of Arctic discovery, I may mention, as a 

 singular coincidence, that at one o'clock this day the Admiralty received 

 a telegraphic communication from Aberdeen, stating that Capt. Kellett's 

 vessel, the ' Resolute,' which was abandoned in the ice on the 1st of 

 August, 1854, had drifted out to Davis's Straits, 1200 miles from the 

 spot where it was originally left. The vessel had been taken possession 

 of by an American whaler." 



The Papers read were — 



1. On the Australian Alps. By Dr. Muller. 



i. 

 Communicated by the Colonial Office. 



Leaving Melbourne on the 1st of November, I travelled through the Fern- 

 tree Gullies to the Latrobe River, and thence to the Avon, and ascended 

 Mount Wellington from the ranges of the latter stream on the 14th of 

 November. The altitude of this mountain appears to me more than 5000 feet, 

 a snow-storm lasting here, even at so advanced a season, for a whole day. The 

 main journey to the central part of the Australian Alps I commenced again 

 from the Avon on the 22nd November, proceeding to the Mitchell River, and 

 thence to the Dargo. Following along the scrubby ranges between this river 

 and the Wentworth, I crossed the dividing range between the waters of 

 Gipps' Land and those of the Murray River near the upper part of the 

 Cabongra. Thence I traversed a grassy table-land in a north-easterly direc- 

 tion along the Cabongra downward, until the country appeared practicable, 

 towards the N., to reach the highest part of the Bogong Ranges. 



The ranges hereabouts, which never before have been traversed by civilized 

 men, are generally fertile, and timbered with the mountain white gum-tree 

 (Eucalyptus phlebophylla). 



On the 3rd December I as<iended the south-eastern of the two highest 

 mountains of the Bogong Range. In its upper regions even the vegetation of 

 bushes ceases, the slightly arched summit being covered with Alpine grasses 

 and herbs. About noon I ascertained the boiling water point to be 198° 

 according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, and 75° according to Reaumur's scale. 

 I am at present unable to calculate from this the barometer height and 

 approximative altitude of this mountain, but I believe that it will be found 

 nearly 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The much more abrupt and yet 

 higher summit of the north-weistern mount I ascended from the Upper Mitta 

 Mitta, which skirts its base, on the 6th December. The boiling water point 

 I observed again to be 198° F. (although the elevation of this mountain is 

 unquestionably higher to the extent of several hundred feet), a circumstance 

 owing to the greater atmospherical pressure of that dav. The observation 



B 2 



