General Considerations. 5 



mildness, equability, and salubrity, and a population so limit- 

 ed * in proportion to the extent of surface, was naturally an 

 object of deep interest for the members of the Novara Expe- 

 dition. Accordingly during their stay of thirty-two days they 

 set diligently to work, not only to enlarge their acquaintance 

 with the scientific idiosyncrasies of this vast portion of the 

 globe, but also to examine minutely the prospects it holds out 

 to German commerce and German emigration, and to inves- 

 tigate the influence which has been exercised on the develop- 

 ment of the colony by the system of transporting convicts 

 thither. And it is not less significant of the high repute en- 

 joyed by the Imperial Expedition in foreign countries, as 

 honourable to its members, to record, that the then Governor- 

 General of New South Wales, Sir William Denison, who has 

 since been transferred to the much more important and lucra- 

 tive post of Governor of the Madras Presidency, and who en- 

 joys no slight reputation in scientific circles as a conchylio- 

 logist, expressed his anxious desire that the geologist of the 

 Novara should thoroughly examine the geological formation of 

 the province of Auckland in New Zealand, and exerted him- 

 self vigorously to forward the accomplishment of this project. 



* The total superficial area of the somewhat oval-shaped continent lying between 

 10° and 45° S. and 112° and 154° E., is about 2,100,000 geographical square miles in 

 extent, the coast outline of which is about 7000 miles, so that for each mile of coast 

 there are about 300 square miles of surface, or rather more than double the proportion 

 in Europe. The united English population of the different colonies founded in 

 Australia (exclusive of Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand amounts to 

 about 1,400,000 souls. Within twenty years the population has increased six-fold, 

 and the value of the exports twenty-fold. 



