Its mineral products. 

 Climate. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Prevailing winds. 



121 



miles inland, for beyond them they are usually no 

 more than twenty inches in depth. Each of these 

 streams has numerous tributaries, which drain a 

 large area of country, and during heavy rains the 

 main branches are suddenly swelled, and cause the 

 floods which, have been spoken of. To the west 

 of the mountains, the water-courses are of a very 

 different character. The Darling, for instance, 

 through a course of seven hundred miles, does not 

 receive a single tributary, although it is said to 

 drain an extent of sixty thousand square miles. 

 It possesses the other character which has been 

 mentioned, of being frequently reduced to a mere 

 string of pools. The Darling, Morrumbidgee, and 

 Lachlan, unite about one hundred miles from the 

 ocean, and their joint stream is known by the 

 name of the Murray, which after passing through 

 Lake Alexandria, enters the sea at Encounter Bay. 

 The surface drained by these streams is about two 

 hundred and fifty thousand square miles. 



Another remarkable occurrence observed in these 

 western waters, is the disappearance of a river in 

 swampy lands, where, as is supposed, it is swallowed 

 up by the caverns in the limestone rocks. This is 

 the case with the Macquarie, which has its source 

 near Bathurst. 



According to all accounts, salt is very generally 

 diffused throughout New South Wales, and even 

 all Australia. It has been reported as being found 

 in masses in the sandstone, but no specimens of it 

 were obtained by the expedition. Scarcely a well 

 is dug in the interior which is not brackish; and, 

 according to Major Mitchell, Captain Sturt, Oxley, 

 and others, many of the rivers are quite saline in 

 parts of their course. The northern tributaries 

 of the Hunter and Darling are instances of this. 



The lakes are also said to be saline, and in some 

 instances sufficiently strong to afford a large and 

 profitable yield of salt ; but being very far in the 

 interior, and without the means of transportation, 

 they are of little value. Along the south coast of 

 Australia, such lakes are described as existing 

 near the sea, and may possibly prove of some value 

 to that portion of New Holland. 



Lead and iron have been found in small quanti- 

 ties ; the deposits of the former are all trifling. 

 Those of the latter afford too impure an ore, and 

 not in sufficient abundance, to be worked. 



The minerals stated to be found in Australia, 

 specimens of which were procured for the expedi- 

 tion, are chalcedony, agates, jasper, quartz, augite, 

 and stilbite; feldspar, arragonite, gypsum, chlorite, 

 mica in granite ; sulphur and alum, galena and 

 plumbago, magnetic iron, iron pyrites, and basalt. 



Fossils appear to be confined to particular 

 localities, but are by no means rare. 



Columns of basalt of great regularity are found 

 on the coast of lllawarra, but the articulations are 

 all plane. 



The water is much impregnated with alum and 

 iron, and its use is avoided by the inhabitants. 



Deserts covered with saline plants are said to be 

 frequently met with. 



The climate of Australia may be considered 

 generally as very dry; the irregularity of the rains, 

 and the nature of the soil, all prove that it is so ; 

 yet the aridity is not marked, as in other countries, 

 by a general tendency in the plants to produce 

 thorns, although the peculiarity of the vegetation 

 makes the dryness apparent in other ways. From 



all accounts, New South Wales is subject to as 

 great atmospheric vicissitudes as the middle 

 United States. For a series of years, droughts 

 will occur, which in turn give place to years of 

 successive floods, and these prevail to an extent 

 that can hardly be credited, were it not that the 

 account has been received from good authority. 

 As a striking instance of it, Oxley, in his exploring 

 journeys into the interior, in 1817, found the 

 country every where overflowed, so as to prevent 

 him from proceeding ; while Mitchell, in 1835, in 

 the same districts, was continually in danger of 

 perishing from thirst. The latter states that he 

 found unios (or fresh-water mussels) sticking in 

 the banks of rivers and ponds above the level of 

 the water ; and also dead trees and saplings in 

 similar situations. 



This alternate change must exert a great in- 

 fluence on the productions of the soil; the rivers 

 ceasing to flow, and their beds becoming as it were 

 dry, with the exception of the pools heretofore 

 spoken of, must likewise have an influence. The 

 prevailing westerly winds sweep with force over 

 the whole country, blighting all they touch. The 

 effect of these hot winds is remarkable, for they 

 will in a few hours entirely destroy the crops by 

 extracting all the moisture from the grain, even 

 after it is formed, and almost ready for harvest; 

 and the only portion that is left is that which has 

 been sheltered by trees, hedges, or fences. They 

 thus destroy the prospect of the husbandman when 

 his crops are ready for the sickle. It is thought, 

 and I should imagine with reason, that were the 

 Blue Mountains a more lofty range, this would not 

 be the case, as they would have a tendency to con- 

 tinue the supplies to the streams throughout the 

 year, by the condensation of the vapour from the 

 sea. 



These hot winds come from the direction of the 

 Blue Mountains, and what seems remarkable, are 

 not felt on the other side of the mountains, or in 

 their immediate vicinity. Yet the extent between 

 the coast and the mountains is not sufficient to 

 produce these winds, being only forty-five miles; 

 and if they proceed from the interior, they must 

 pass over those mountains, an elevation in some 

 places of three thousand four hundred feet. Their 

 great destructiveness is undoubtedly caused by 

 their capacity for moisture, although few observa- 

 tions have as yet (as far as I was able to obtain 

 information) been made upon them, except in rela- 

 tion to the blight they occasion. It has been found 

 that fields which have a line of woods on the side 

 whence they blow, escape injury. The harvest 

 immediately on the line of the coast does not suffer 

 so much, being exempted in part from their wither- 

 ing influence by the moisture that is imbibed from 

 the sea. 



There is a portion of this country that is an ex- 

 ception to the general rule of aridity, namely, the 

 district of lllawarra. This forms a belt of from 

 one to ten miles wide, and has the range of the 

 Kangaroo Hills just behind it, of one thousand feet; 

 these are sufficiently high at this distance from the 

 coast to condense the moisture, and also to protect 

 the district from the blighting effects of the blasts 

 from the interior. 



One is entirely unprepared for the alleged facts 

 in relation to this country; for instance, Mitchell 

 in his journey to the south and west, during the 



