AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



63 



Gold-mining continued to be carried on suc- 

 ily in tin- various colonies. .New mines 

 li -..-ove ml early in the year at the head 

 of tho 1'almer River, in the colony of Queens- 

 laud, and large numbers flocked thither. The 

 crops were generally poor. In New South 

 \\ ales a la-uvy drought was reported, while in 

 Victoria the crops were seriously damaged by 

 .successive heavy rainfalls. 



I'lu- plan to unite all the Australian colonies 

 into one confederacy continued to be strongly 

 ur^oil during the year. A considerable im- 

 pulse was given to it by the Intercolonial Ex- 

 nibition held at Melbourne in the early part 

 of the year. 



The laying of the submarine cable between 

 Sydney and New Zealand was successfully 

 completed in the beginning of the year, and 

 it was opened in February. 



The exploration of the interior of the Aus- 

 tralian Continent continued to be carried on 

 with unabated energy. News was received in 

 August from Mr. Wilshire, in the Northern Ter- 

 ritory, announcing the discovery of good land 

 on the Victoria and Daly Rivers, with grassy 

 plains and soil tit for all tropical productions. 



The last surviving native of Tasmania died 

 during the year. It was the Queen, Lidgi- 

 widgi Tancaninni, called Lalla Rookh by the 

 white population. Tasmania, or the island of 

 Van Diemen, which became in 1803 an Eng- 

 lish colony, had in 1815 a native population of 

 5,000; in 1847 there were only 45 left, and 

 now the last of the race is dead. Lalla Rookh 

 had been married five times, and each time to 

 a king. She lived at Hobart Town, in the 

 house of the Government inspector, and re- 

 ceived a small pension from the British Gov- 

 ernment. She was seventy-three years old, 

 and died of paralysis. 



A sanguinary affair took place among the na- 

 tivos of Feejee in the early part of the year. 

 A number of tribes not yet converted to Chris- 

 tianity made an attack upon the colony. They 

 were aided by a number of natives who, once 

 converted, had reverted to their heathen state 

 in consequence of the measles, which had 

 raged so terribly in the colony in 1875. They 

 destroyed entire villages, and celebrated their 

 victory by eating eighteen women and chil- 

 dren. In consequence of these atrocities the 

 Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, marched against 

 "lera, and succeeded in completely defeat- 

 them. Thirty-five of the leaders were 



ied and sentenced to death, but only fourteen 

 rere executed. 



During the middle of the year the vessel 



mcing "Wave was captured by the natives 

 the Solomon Islands, who devoured the en- 

 re crew. Only one escaped and reported 

 affair. The man-of-war Sanafly was sent 



it to punish the murderers. 



Mr. R. Abbay, in an article on the periodi- 

 ity of fresh-water lakes of Australia, in No. 



12 of Nature, makes the following interesting 



itements : Lake George, in New South Wales, 



which is from 23 to 24 miles long, and in its 

 widest part seven miles wide, did not exist 

 twenty-four years ago. In 1862 the deepest part 

 of the lake was covered by a morass, while all 

 the rest was rich alluvial ground. The depth 

 of the present lake is only 25 to 80 feet, which, 

 considering its great extent, is a strong argu- 

 ment in favor of the supposition that the 

 lake has existed at some previous time, and 

 was at least just as extensive as at present. 

 This supposition is strengthened by the old 

 alluvial terraces of the creeks, which lie 10 or 

 12 feet above the present level of the lake. 

 But this could not be the case one or even 

 several centuries ago, as the present lake is 

 surrounded by a wide belt of forest-trees, 

 which must have grown at a period which 

 dates farther back than a century from the 



BOTTLE-TREE OF AUSTRALIA. 



date of the present inundation. The chief 

 reason for the present growth of the lake, 

 Abbay thinks, may be found in the destruction 

 of the forests in the cavity, the southern end 

 of which is at present occupied by the lake. 

 The consequence of the disappearance of the 

 forests was a more rapid drainage of the en- 

 tire basin, the water could flow off quickly and 

 accumulate in the deepest part of the basin, 

 while the loss by evaporizing was greatly di- 

 minished, as the water now reaches the lake 

 in a few hours, even from the most distant 

 part of the basin. Lake Bathurst, a few miles 

 distant, also shows a considerable increase in 

 its volume of water. 



During the month of March meetings were 

 held in Sydney to discuss a new journey of 

 exploration of D'Albertis in New Guinea. 

 D'Albertis proposed to travel up the Fly River 

 to the centre of the island, where he expected 

 to find its source, and then to return overland 

 to Yule Island or Port Morley. He expected 

 to perform the journey in from six to eight 

 months. This plan was very favorably re- 



