422 Reviews — Western Australia — 



This tract is within a moderate distance of the coast, thus rendering 

 its productions easily accessible for shipment to foreign ports. 



Stems of these giant trees have been measured 80 feet to the 

 first branch, with a circumference of 32 feet at 5 feet from the 

 ground, while the maximum height of the Jarrah is certainly not 

 over estimated at 400 feet. 



The entire acreage of the colony is estimated at 624,588,800 acres ; 

 of this area not more that 161,459 acres were under cultivation in 

 1S92, This is not surprising when we find the population in this 

 vast area, at its highest, recorded at 60,000,^ the larger proportion 

 of whom is engaged in mining, in the timber trade, and upon the 

 construction of railways in the colony, or living in towns and 

 occupied in commerce. 



The Constitution under which Western Australia is now governed 

 was granted on the 15th August, 1890, and the present Ministry 

 assumed office on the 29th December, 1890, so that, for a " four- 

 year-old " government that of Sir John Forrest deserves the highest 

 praise for the work it has accomplished in so brief a period of 

 its existence. 



3. "The Mining Hand-Book," by Harry P. Woodward, F.G.S., 

 the Government Geologist, deserves notice as a most laudable effort 

 to supply the requirements and answer the questions of a vast 

 number of people who " want to Itnov:" and insist upon having 

 official information, on the geography, geology, and mineral resources 

 of the colony generally. The author tells us he has not written it 

 as a scientific treatise, but has tried, as far as possible, to give the 

 information required in as simple a form as possible, so as to bring 

 it within the understanding of persons who have had no scientific 

 training. After a general description of the physical and geo- 

 graphical features of the colony, its water-supply, timber, etc., 

 Mr. Woodward deals with the geognosy of each district in detail, 

 commencing with the Kimberley District in the north ; then the 

 North-Western District, followed by the Gascoyne District, which is 

 succeeded by the Victoria ; the South- Western District, the Plan- 

 tagenet and the Eastern District. 



The author then proceeds briefly to sketch the geology. He points 

 out that the earlier notion regarding this continent, which assumed 

 it to possess only a very limited number of formations, was 

 erroneous, and that every formation known in other parts of the 

 world is represented here, from the most ancient Archaean rocks 

 with Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous, attested by 

 the evidence of the fossils they contain, which have been figured 

 and described by Mr. Wilfrid Hudleston, P.R.S. (see Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. 1883, vol. xxxix. p. 582. pi. xxiii.), by Dr. G. J. Hinde, 

 V.P.G.S., Dr. H. Woodward, P.G.S., Mr. A. H. Foord, F.G.S., and 

 Mr. R. B. Newton, F.G.S., in the pages of this Magazine from 

 1886 to 1894, whilst the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary forma- 

 tions have also been certified by their organic remains, described 



1 Sir Malcolm Eraser, on 15 August, 1894, gives it at 71,000 on 31 March last, 

 and 86,000 on 30 June, 1894, an increase due to the steady influx of mining 

 prospectors now taking place, especially in the south. 



