New South Wales. 459 



every practical astronomer. This being the last meeting of 

 the Society's present session, an adjournment took place until 

 the 12th of November next. 



ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 



Feb. 16 (continued). — M. Poisson read his Memoir on 

 the Theory of Magnetism. 



Feb. 23. — M. de Humboldt gave a verbal account of a 

 work by M. Auguste Saint Hilaire, entitled " Description 

 des Plantes Naturelles du Bresil," Cahier I. 



M. Moreau de Jonnes announced that earthquakes had 

 been felt at the Antilles on the 11th of November and 13th 

 of December. 



M. Percy, on exhibiting to the Academy an original por- 

 trait of Copernicus, which he proposed to present to the 

 Royal Observatory, read a biographical notice of that Philo- 

 sopher. The new propositions of the Commission on Gas 

 Illumination were approved of by the Academy. M. Dulong, 

 in the name of a Commission, gave an account of a Memoir 

 by M. Longchamp, on the Analysis of Phosphoric Acid, and 

 of the Phosphates. 



LXXVI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



JUNE 16, arrived off the Isle of Wight, the Competitor, 

 Captain Ascough, in one hundred and thirty-four days from 

 Sydney, New South Wales, with a cargo consisting of various 

 kinds of colonial timber, seal skins, elephant oil, and two hun- 

 dred and eighty bales of wool. Came through Book's Straits, 

 New Zealand, and by way of Cape Horn. The Elizabeth, 

 Brooks, sailed the same day as the Competitor; and the Ocean, 

 Harrison, was to follow in ten days after, both loaded with si- 

 milar cargoes. 



Mr. Oxley, surveyor general, had returned in January from 

 surveying part of the coast to the northward, and succeeded in 

 discovering a river in Moreton Bay, lat. 28° (which he has 

 named the Brisbane), superior to any yet known in New Hol- 

 land. He ascended it for 50 miles, and saw its course from 

 an eminence for 30 or 40 further, being compelled to return 

 from further examination for want of provisions. , It is three 

 miles broad at the entrance, and has usually from three to 

 nine fathoms water up to where he left off the survey ; but 

 about twenty miles from the sea it is crossed by a ledge ol 

 rocks, over which there are only twelve feet at high water. 

 At the distance to which he penetrated, the tide rose four leet 

 3 M 2 and 



