124 Recent Discoveries in 



Her beautiful park-like scenery, clothed with a velvet sward> 

 and luxuriant with vegetation ; her plains abounding in the 

 richest soil now wild and tenantless and her lightly timbered 

 woods and forest land, where the prolific virgin earth has never 

 been disturbed, offer inducements to the settler unknown to 

 other colonies, but now rendered unavailable for want of com- 

 munication with populated districts. 



In conclusion, I would add, that I have written this paper 

 with the hope that more attention will be paid to the subject of 

 Kailways than has hitherto been done, and to describe the 

 physical peculiarities existing in .Victoria, probably unknown to 

 a majority of the inhabitants of Melbourne. 



Art. XV. — Recent Discoveries in Natural History on the 

 Lower Murray. By "William Blandowski, Esq. 



WITH FOUR PLATES. 



[Read before the Institute, 2nd September, 1857.] 



[Preliminary Report (No. IV.), Addressed to the Honorable 

 the President of Public Lands and Works. By order, 

 handed over to the Philosophical Institute] 



Gentlemen, — The Honorable the President of the Board of Pub- 

 He Lands and Works has permitted me to lay before you theresults 

 of my investigations from the 1st of December, 1856, to August, 

 1857. It would be impossible for me to give you, at this 

 present moment, a full account of all my observations ; there- 

 fore, accept the brief outlines I now offer to you according 

 to your request made to the Government. 



In order that you may understand more fully the nature of 

 the country which I have traversed, and the difficulties with 

 which I had to contend, and what prospects I had on leaving 

 Melbourne, I beg to read to you an extract of a single page 

 from Surveyor "White's Beport, dated May 28th, 1849, who 

 surveyed the district visited by me : which document was 

 officially handed over to me before I undertook my late tour. 



October 30, 1849. — " Again encamped at Messrs. Baird and 

 Hodgkinson's, having been so fortunate as to obtain a small 

 supply of water by digging in the sand at a certain spot — thus, 

 having been eleven days without water, succeeded in saving the 

 bullocks, with the exception of four, that died, and in bringing 



