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SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON’S ADDRESS. [May 24, 1858. 
equally saline region on the north as made known to ns by Sturt. 
Now, although this belt may possibly serve as a line of traffic be- 
tween South and West Australia, it yet remains to be proved if, 
by surmounting the natural obstacles and want of water on the 
north, experienced by Sturt, it be practicable to reach beyond the 
saline desert in that direction, or find in the centre of Australia, 
any oases of good land supplied with natural springs. Mr. Herschel 
Babbage, who had distinguished himself by a former survey in 
South Australia, is now determining the question. This gentleman 
has recently explained to the Philosophical Society of Adelaide the 
detailed manner in which he hoped to carry out his survey ; and I 
am happy to say that his project is devised with the mathematical 
precision and accuracy of delineation, whether as regards the instru- 
ments he was to use, or the methods by which he hoped to over- 
come the obstacles opposed to him, which are well worthy of the 
son of our eminent mechanical philosopher. 
When we reflect upon the arduous task to be accomplished, and 
the incessant labour of extracting fresh water from salt throughout 
so vast a breadth of saline country as the party must traverse to 
reach any portion of the expected land of promise, we cannot too 
much admire the devotion and skilful appliances with which such 
difficulties are to be overcome. A cheering vista has indeed been 
suggested in the reports that cattle have migrated from the north, 
where they must have pastured : but whether this should prove to 
be well founded or not, whether the colonists may be gratified by 
the discovery of a rich interior, which we must all heartily wish for, 
or depressed by ascertaining the positive continuation of a saline 
desert northwards, geographical science must gain curious additions 
by this arduous enterprise. 
Gold produce of Victoria . — As fourteen years have elapsed since I 
first addressed you on the rocks of Australia, which were des- 
tined to prove auriferous, and as I have in subsequent years, 
including our last Anniversary, adverted to the produce of gold, 
it may be expected that I should say a few more words on the sub- 
ject, particularly in relation to the highly productive colony of 
Victoria. Mr. Selwyn, a distinguished eleveof the Geological Survey 
of Britain, and Professor M‘Coy, the well-known palaeontologist, have 
now completely set the geological features of the case at rest, and 
have demonstrated that the principal auriferous quartz veins (or 
those from which all the productive gold shingle or gravel has been 
derived) occur in slaty rocks of Lower Silurian age, as proved by 
