i893- SOME NEW BOOKS. 461 



but are everywhere intersected by depressions, and a subsidence 

 of 2,000 feet would convert the whole continent into a group of 

 islands ; though this, of course, is true of most other continents. A 

 further peculiarity of these uplands is their distribution mainly 

 along the coast, and skirting the interior where no extensive 

 mountain-ranges have hitherto been discovered. The forbidding and 

 desolate plains of the interior of Central and Western Australia are 

 described, and attention is called to their peculiar vegetation (the 

 " Mallee scrub " and the " Mulga scrub") and the extraordinary 

 deficiency of water. 



The river-system of the eastern half of the continent is compared 

 with those of the Old and New worlds, and notes are given as to 

 the excessive irregularities of droughts and floods. In the central and 

 western portions streams appear in the wet seasons, but after a short 

 time disappear in the sands; hence, while one explorer has found a 

 total absence of water and herbaceous vegetation, another, arriving in 

 the same region after one of the rare rainy periods, has been delighted 

 with the running streams, luxuriant herbage, and abundance of 

 animal life. 



The climate is much less variable than might be supposed. It 

 may be described as hot and dry, and on the whole healthy. The 

 mean temperature at Melbourne is 58 Fahr. ; at Sydney it is about 

 63 ; at Adelaide it is slightly higher, while at Perth it is about the 

 same. The extremes of heat are reached when the hot winds blow 

 from the interior, the highest point yet recorded being the bursting 

 of Captain Sturt's thermometer at 127 in the shade. The same 

 traveller found a mean temperature of ioo° Fahr. for three months 

 on one occasion. The rainfall is heaviest at Sydney (50 inches), 

 diminishing as one goes inland, while in the south at Melbourne it 

 is 25 inches, and in Western -Australia about 30 inches. 



The chapters on the Botany, Zoology, and Geology, as one 

 might expect from Dr. Wallace, are full and interesting. The geo- 

 logical map presents a mass of detail, and is generally effective, but 

 one would like to have seen a more modern and precise word 

 than "Trap" used, and the "Crystalline or Metamorphic " rocks 

 not put down as Primary or Palaeozoic. We fancy also that it will 

 be news for some geologists to find Oligocene classed as Lower Ter- 

 tiary, and Volcanic rocks under the head " Igneous or Plutonic." 



Each division of Australia is treated in similar detailed fashion, 

 but want of space forbids us from giving a general sketch of each. 



Xew Zealand occupies the last 70 pages of the book, and receives 

 a careful description, similar to that given to Australia. Dr. Wallace, 

 however, is not quite correct in saying that the secluded and romantic 

 waters of lake Taupo are furrowed only by the canoes of the natives, 

 for there is an English settlement there, and we believe the ardent 

 sportsman may now be conveyed by the more expeditious, if less 

 picturesque, steam launch. We also rather doubt the magnificent 

 spectacle of six geysers playing at once, as shown in the somewhat 

 wooden cut of a view on the river Waikato(p. 418). A little contempt, 

 too, seems to be bestowed on the great extinct birds in the sentence — 

 No birds or reptiles have been found except such as are allied to forms 

 still living on the island. But Dr. Wallace refers more kindly to 

 these important relics of the past on p. 446, and our readers have 

 been kept well up-to-date as to recent discoveries and observations 

 on moas in the pages of this Journal. 



Taken as a whole, the book is full of interest, is generally well 



