THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Ill 



NOTES. 



The Nile of Australia. — Such is the title of a reprint of a 

 series of articles by Mr. D. J. Gordon, which recently appeared 

 in the South Australian Register. The pamphlet (74 pp.) has 

 been published by the River Murray League of South Australia 

 with the hope that it will serve to arouse interest in the question 

 of locking the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Darling Rivers, and 

 so render them available for traffic at all seasons of the year. It 

 is illustrated by a number of views, from which it is possible to 

 form an idea of the scenery in the Murray basin, and, though 

 written to a certain extent from a political standpoint, brings 

 forcibly home to the reader the great possibilities which are yearly 

 being lost by the neglect to utilize our great river system to its 

 fullest. The writer sets down the mileage of the waterways which 

 could be made available in the three rivers at no less than 3,212 

 miles, made up thus — Murray to Albury, 1,366 miles ; Murrum- 

 bidgee to Gundagai, 666 miles; and Darling to Walgett, 1,180 

 miles ; or as far as from Adelaide to Port Darwin and more than 

 half-way back. 



Western Australian Year-Book. — The thirteenth issue of 

 this work, for 1902-4, is to hand, and contains in assembled form 

 the various parts of statistics, etc., which had been published as 

 issued from the press. Part 2 (descriptive) is that which princi- 

 pally interests naturalists, and contains condensed articles on the 

 physical features, fauna, flora (these have been given in more 

 detail in press issues), forest resources of the State — the latter 

 chapter being well illustrated. In Part 7, under " Beauty Spots 

 and Holiday Resorts," is given a good description, accompanied 

 by numerous illustrations of the caves in the south-west, near 

 Busselton, which are said to be unrivalled for beauty in the 

 Southern Hemisphere, and, as they have been reserved and 

 placed under Government control, will doubtless become one of 

 the show places of Australia. Another series of caves has been 

 discovered near Yanchep, some 35 miles north of Perth, in which 

 there are some very beautiful formations. Part 9 — Mineral 

 Resources — contains a full account of the principal geological 

 features, with a census of minerals, and accompanied ty a good 

 map showing the localities where the different minerals occur. 

 The volume contains several excellent m-aps, the first of which, 

 showing the general features of the State, has an inset map 

 coloured to show the areas occupied by each of the six principal 

 timber trees (all eucalypts) in the south-west division. 



Tasmania. — The Department of Lands and Survey, Hobart, 

 has recently issued an advertising sheet of the State, entitled 

 " Tasmania : its Advantages for Settlement." Half of the sheet 

 is occupied by a map of the island on the scale of 12 miles to an 



