TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 
delineate their interesting rock-formations by colouring any one of the defective 
county =e of that region. With my expression of regret on these points, I am 
bound to declare that the large cadastral plans are admirably executed; and that 
for the registration of property they are of material value. As such great land- 
marks, they will always be mementos of the highly useful services of Sir Henry 
James and his associates. 
Let us now cast a rapid glance over the progress of discovery in distant lands, 
and particularly where cur countrymen have signalized themselves. In this wide 
field wherein our knowledge has been extraordinarily increased within the last few 
years, I will limit my remarks to three or four regions; the more so as I have 
recently addressed the Royal Geographical Society at large on many collateral 
topics in a Discourse which is now in circulation. 
Australia, scarcely known to the civilized world till after Cook’s voyages (1770- 
75), has of late been so rapidly colonized by Britain, that ere long she will be no 
mean rival of those vast regions of North America which were first occupied by 
subjects of the British Crown. At former Meetings of this Association we have 
dwelt on the early discoveries of new lands in the interior of Australia, in which 
the names of Mitchell, Eyre, Sturt, Leichardt, and others have been always 
mentioned with honour and respect. The later journeys of the brothers Augustus 
and Frank Gregory have earned for those good surveyors the highest honours of 
the Royal Geographical Society, for their extensive researches and determinations 
of longitude and latitude in Northern, Eastern, and Western Australia. Whilst 
more recently the bold expedition of Burke and Wills cost those noble fellows 
their lives, the latest researches of their successors stand out as indeed most singu- 
larly successful. M‘Douall Stuart, after various previous triumphs, in one of which 
he reached the watershed of North Australia, has actually passed from Adelaide, in 
South Australia, to Van Diemen Bay on the north coast, in latitude 15° S. Con- 
temporaneously with this last expedition, M‘Kinlay, proceeding also from Adelaide, 
reached the Gulf of Carpentaria, and thence travelled to the eastern shore; and 
Landsborough, realizing all the value of the discoveries of Burke and Wills, and 
 agenorieg from the Gulf of Carpentaria, traversed the continent southward until 
e regained the noble colony of Victoria, in which the expedition was organized. 
‘As I have recently dwelt at some length on these bold adventurers in my Anni- 
versary Address, referring also to some geographical determinations by Mz. Walker, 
of Queensland, I will now simply direct your attention to the huge map of Aus- 
tralia which hangs upon the wall, and on which all the routes of these explorers 
are laid down. 
The rapid rise of the different Colonies in Australia is truly marvellous; and, 
whilst we have successfully occupied all the available ports and lands along the 
eastern, southern, and western sides of the great Continent, we are now, I rejoice 
to say, beginning to extend our settlements to the north coast, the occupation of 
which I have advocated for many a year, on political as well as on commercial and 
colonial grounds. A few years only of practical researches have dispelled our 
ignorance respecting the interior of this vast mass of land, in which, though there 
‘are wild desert’ tracts, there are also many rich and well-watered oases of fine 
pasture-grounds, through which the colonist may open out communications across 
the Continent from the south and east to the northern shores. A short time only, 
I venture to predict, will elapse before towns shall arise at the head of the Gulf of 
Carpentaria, as well as at the mouth of the Victoria River of the North, from whence, 
as well as from the new settlement of Cape York, Australians will have a direct 
communication with our great Indian Empire. In speaking of the Bnet of these 
remarkable Colonies, it may be considered invidious to seem to select any one for 
special notice, where all of them have such high claims to our notice. I may, 
however, in passing, mention the last-formed of these wonderful separate Govern- 
ments. This is Queensland, possessing a surface six times greater than that of the 
United Kingdom, and the very grazing-grounds of which (according to its accom- 
plished Governor, Sir G. Bowen) are about twice as large as the British Isles, in- 
eluding large tracts peculiarly adapted to the growth of cotton. 
Nor can | omit to notice the striking encouragement given to geographical ex- 
ploration, and, indeed, to the cultivation of many branches of science, by rene 
