468 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
again to a second range of mountains, which develope at length into 
the Rocky Mountains. The climate in both cases is not vastly 
different from that of the Old Country, but the absence of the Gulf 
Stream, and the presence of currents from the Arctic regions, causes 
the temperature of the sea to be much colder than the ocean to which 
we are accustomed. In some respects the conchology is peculiarly 
boreal. Again, a great extent of snow-covered hill to the north of the 
colony causes cold but bright weather as late as Midsummer day. The 
principal wealth of both colonies seems to be mineral. Coal is found 
in some abundance in several places, and is of good quality. In 
British Columbia the principal attraction at present is the gold, which, 
according to Lieut. Palmer, promises the most inexhaustible field in 
the world. The veins appear to run north and south, but to be carried 
westward by the action of the torrents. |The whole country produces 
magnificent forests, the trees of which reach enormous sizes ; 300 feet 
is an ordinary height for a pine, whilst cedars reach the girth of 
57 feet at a height of 5 ft. 6in. from the ground. The country pro- 
mises well for the farmer, being very similar in soil and production to 
our own land; but as yet there is little likelihood of much develop- 
ment of these resources, owing to the want of means of communication 
and the dearth of markets for the produce. A great number of 
Americans had emigrated to British Columbia, making excellent 
citizens, showing great enterprise, and exhibiting every disposition to 
settle permanently in the colony. The natives are, in the main, a 
peaceful and inoffensive race, though apt, if they consider their rights 
invaded, to retaliate in a manner consistent with the extremely 
degraded state of barbarism into which they have fallen. 
Two papers on Queensland were read before the Society, one on 
an ‘Overland Expedition from Port Denison to Rockingham Bay,’ by 
A. J. Scott ; the other was a communication from the Governor of the 
colony, Sir George Bowen, to the Duke of Newcastle, on the forma- 
tion of a colony at Cape York, the northernmost point of the Austra- 
lian continent, and on the survey of the inside of the Great Barrier 
Reef. The object of the former expedition was to discover a nearer 
approach to the sea from the Valley of Lagoons than Port Denison, 
which is 200 miles distant. Though no passage was made, an open- 
ing was diswovered which only required that a certain portion of 
jungle should be cut through, in order to form a convenient road to 
the neighbourhood of Rockingham Bay. A continuous line of stations 
reaches northward of the Valley of Lagoons over a country well 
suited for Europeans, and for stock, and containing coal, iron, copper, 
and gold. 
The Governor proposes a preliminary settlement on Albany Island, 
where the climate is remarkably cool for the tropics. ‘There is abun- 
dant pasturage here for sheep, cattle, and horses, and large tracts for 
the cultivation of cotton, sugar, &c., and timber, stone, and lime exist 
in abundance. The survey of the inside of the Barrier Reef com- 
pletes a most valuable and important work. It affords not only a 
safe means of communication between the colonies, but will un- 
doubtedly in time become the route of the homeward-bound mails. 
