1866. | Geography. 275 
explorations will be continued as long as means’ are forthcoming. 
The governments of Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland have 
given large grants of money, and subscriptions are asked in this 
country. 
The locality of the last new settlement at Cape York, at the 
extreme north of Australia, was described in a paper by Mr. John 
Jardine, a police magistrate. The district is a peninsula of fifteen 
miles in length, almost divided from the mainland by the Kennedy 
River. The soil is fertile: a reddish loam with sand and blocks of 
sandstone. Horses, cattle, pigs, and goats flourish, but the climate 
is unfit for sheep. ‘The rainy season lasts for four months during 
the hottest part of the year, the thermometer reaching 98° in the 
shade. During the rest of the year, from April to November, a 
S.W. wind blows a fresh breeze, and the heat averages from 80° to 
85°. The climate is perfectly healthy, and the colony might 
become a sanatorium for invalids from China and India. Four 
tribes of aborigines inhabit the district. 
Across the continent at its north-western corner lies the River 
Glenelg, discovered by Sir George (then Captain) Grey and Lieu- 
tenant Lushington in 1838. The mouth of this stream had never 
been determined until the expedition in which Mr. James Martin, 
M.B., took a part, and of which he gave an account in a paper 
before the society. The débouchement takes place into Doubtful 
Bay, from which the way leads by a difficult passage into George 
Water, a large expanse, into which numerous channels landward 
seem to run; but they all ended in a tangled mass of mangroves. 
After a search of six days the true channel of the river was found at 
the north-eastern end of the George Water. The party passed thence 
upward, through a rugged hilly country, which afterwards became 
more level. The extraordinary fall of the tide (28 feet) makes the 
navigation very difficult. The country is fertile, but unsuited for 
sheep. 
The misfortunes of Baron von der Decken’s expedition on the 
Juba River, in the east of Africa, engaged the attention of the 
society at its next meeting, to the exclusion of the paper on the 
exploration of the River Purts, which was postponed to the next 
meeting. The Hanseatic Consul at Zanzibar reports that the Baron 
made seven months’ preparation on that coast, and then commenced 
ascending the Juba River with two steamers, one of which was 
wrecked soon after the starting of the expedition. About a 
month after, the Baron arrived at Berdera, where some disagrec- 
ment with a Somali chief arose, which was afterwards settled. <A 
few miles farther up the second vessel struck on some rocks and 
began to fill. The cargo was taken out and the Baron and Dr. 
Lusk returned to fetch assistance from Berdera. Three days later 
some natives from the last-mentioned town attacked the party 
