254 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 25, 1860. 



wholly irrespective of profits gained through the attraction of the precious 

 metal. The great discoveries of Sturt, Eyre, and Leichhardt were made 

 "before the existence of gold was known ; and even now, when it is the most 

 seductive of baits to entice the traveller, see what vast regions the brothers 

 Gregory have laid open in Northern, Eastern, and Western Australia, without 

 the recompense of a single yellow nugget. Again : look to South Australia, 

 where gold is scarcely known — at least, in any appreciable quantity — and see 

 what its inhabitants have done in pushing far into the interior, simply to 

 acquire fresh pasture-lands. In contemplating these recent discoveries we read 

 with astonishment of what one individual, Mr. M'Dougall Stuart, has accom- 

 plished in so short a time, and of the privations he underwent to realize the 

 existence of fresh- water streams and oases on the borders of the great interior 

 saline desert. ^ 



Still more were we surprised when we learned that this great continent, the 

 rivers of which were so long considered to be useless, has had its one mighty 

 stream, the Murray, rendered navigable for 1800 miles. With its affluents, 

 the Darling and Murrimbidgee, this river may indeed be said to have been 

 laid open for 2500 miles, i. e. between many new towns which have sprung 

 up in the interior and the sea ; and all this by the clearing away of the stems 

 and stumps of trees, the result of ages of decay. 



There are now, indeed, in England some of the eminent men, whether 

 governors, statesmen, or explorers of this great colonial region, who will, I 

 hope, before we adjourn, throw fresh light on these recent discoveries. 



Having presided for several years over the Eoyal Geographical Society, it 

 has been my duty to pass in review the progress made by the sons of Britain in 

 different parts of the world, and it has ever been to me a source of the sincerest 

 gratification to watch the rapid strides made by the colonists of Australia, 

 and to observe how they have carried with them all the energy of our race into 

 the land of their adoption. If I traced with deep interest the explorations 

 of their boldest travellers through the bush, and witnessed with delight 

 the working out of that golden wealth, of which perhaps, because I was a 

 Highlander as well as a geologist, I had a sort of second sight ; or if I revelled 

 in seeing their ports filled with ships and abounding in commerce ; not all these 

 attributes have rejoiced me more than the knowledge I acquired that our 

 Australian colonists are truly and sincerely attached to Britain and their 

 Sovereign. 



As it is out of my power on the present occasion to advert to all the recent 

 advances in ethnology, I will now only say that, besides many communi- 

 cations from other gentlemen, including Mr. Lockhart's excellent notes on 

 China, my eminent and valued friend Mr. John Crawfurd will give us two 

 memoirs : the one, ' On the Eelation of the Domesticated Animals to Civili- 

 zation ;' the other,. ' On the Aryan or Indo-Germanic Theory ;' each of 

 which will, i doubt not, be worthy of the President of the Ethnological Society 

 of London. 



Let me, however, offer a few general observations on those sciences, to the 

 cultivation of which the business of this Section is devoted. Geography, 

 regarded only as the description of the outlines of the earth and the deter- 

 mination by astronomical observations of the relative position of hills, rivers, 

 and valleys, to be laid down by the topographer on a map, is but the key- 

 stone of that splendid science when viewed in its most comprehensive bearings. 

 For, of how much real value is it deprived if not followed in its train by 

 all the affiliated sciences which relate to the phenomena of our mother earth ! 

 How infinitely is the important basis of our science enriched by the descrip- 

 tions of the animals and plants which, teeming on the surface of our planet, 

 are distinguished by forms peculiar to each region, — such distribution being 

 coincident with relative differences of climate } 



# 



