The Worlc of the Year. 7 



the absence of the notes and photographs of S. de Capanema, 

 the geologist to the expedition ; Professor Allemao, the leader 

 of the enterprise, having abundant material for a representa- 

 tion of the botany and geology of the country. Dr. Living- 

 stone continues his labours with unabated ardour ; Sir Robert 

 Schomburgk is gathering information on the products of Siam ; 

 Captain Blakiston, who explored the Kootanie Pass, through the 

 Rocky Mountains, three years since, is now penetrating un- 

 trodden regions of Central Asia, and will be able to add much 

 to our knowledge of the geography of China; the French 

 expedition to Southern Siberia is at work on the regions border- 

 ing the Amoor ; and Dr. Beke is on his way to determine the 

 true site of the Biblical Haran, a point considered so far set- 

 tled already, that there is but small prospect of any important 

 consequences. 



Conspicuous among the items of information on the subject 

 of physical geography, are the two recent explorations of the 

 interior of Australia ; the one by Mr. Stuart, which was well 

 conducted, and came to a happy end ; the other, by Mr. Robert 

 O'Hara Burke, which was wofully mismanaged, and terminated 

 disastrously. We now know satisfactorily that the predictions of 

 the geologists respecting the interior of that vast continent 

 were founded in error. Instead of interminable wastes of 

 sterile rock, broken only by lakes of brine, there are immense 

 tracts of fertile country ; mountain chains, whence issue streams 

 that water flowery valleys, and extensive tracts of metalliferous 

 soil. We are only beginning to understand the extent of the 

 resources of the prosperous colonies of Australia, to which we 

 may turn with renewed hope during the present American 

 crisis, believing in the possibility of an abundaut supply from 

 thence, of every product for which hitherto we have been so 

 largely dependent on the other side of the Atlantic. The ex- 

 plorations of Captain Sturt comprised, perhaps, the gloomiest 

 and most forbidding regions of the interior ; those of Mr. Stuart 

 were from Chamber's Creek to within 250 miles south-west of 

 the Gulf of Carpentaria, from which point he retraced his steps. 

 In the centre of Australia he planted the British flag on a pile 

 of stones, within which was inclosed a bottle, containing a 

 statement of his progress up to that point. The configuration 

 of the surface, and the vegetation during the greater part of 

 the toilsome journey, indicate that there is an almost inexhausti- 

 ble extent of country fitted for the diffusion inland of the 

 civilization which now prospers on the coast. The expedition 

 under Mr. Burke left Melbourne on the 20th of August, 1860, 

 crossed the continent, and reached the tidal waters of the Albert 

 River, which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and returning 



