7 2 Voyage of the Novara. 



and shrub, which till that connection was made could not 

 diffuse themsel^^es, so as thus to reach the European con- 

 tinent, where they are even now found, despite the lapse of 

 myriads of years, in the shape of well-preserved fossils. 

 Thus too, for similar reasons, the geologist to our Expedition, 

 like Professor Unger, regarded Australia as not a youthful, 

 lately-born continent, but a country decaying with antiquity, 

 which had played its part in the physical history of the globe, 

 and had spread its scions far and wide. Some alteration of 

 level is not merely indicated by the numerous coral reefs en- 

 circling Australia and its island groups, pointing to a similar 

 sinking among them as that already noticed among the smaller 

 Polynesian islands : — The whole characteristics of the soil, the 

 wastes of the interior, the innumerable salt lakes, the rivers 

 which lose themselves in these, &c. &c., tell of a coming geo- 

 loofical transformation, which however — we mention this for 

 -the consolation of the settlers — may yet be postponed for 

 myriads of years. 



The system of transportation, concerning which so loud an 

 outcry has recently been made, has so materially assisted in 

 developing the resources of the country, that it would hardly 

 be right to quit Botany Bay without a few remarks on the 

 penal colony which was in existence there till 1840. For 

 there is no spot on the globe better adapted than New South 

 Wales to serve as a stand point, whence any one might 

 accurately study the advantages and drawbacks of the English 

 transportation system, as also its influence upon a strongly 



