354 
Miscellanea . 
axis of the country as determined by its elevation, and the crys¬ 
talline structure of its rocks, is the long low cordillera which 
trends on the whole from N. to S., and at a short distance only 
from the eastern coast. The journey of the late Mr. Cunning¬ 
ham, who traced the ridge to 27° S. latitude, in the parallel of 
Moreton Bay, and the numerous traverses of it by Sturt, Mitchell, 
and others, in their exploratory passages to the interior, had ne¬ 
cessarily made us acquainted with it at many points. 
Another traveller, M. de Streleski, who has already given some 
short accounts of a southern portion of this chain, will shortly 
appear before the public with an important work explanatory of 
its general structure and physical features. Passing five years in 
the country, he traced these mountains continuously on foot, from 
31° to 44° S. latitude, and whilst making this survey, which ob¬ 
tained for him the warmest approbation of the governors of New 
South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, Sir George Gipps and 
Captain Sir J. Franklin, R.N., M. de Streleski repeatedly crossed 
it; and examining its lithological characters in detail, ascertained 
that it had a mean altitude of about 3,500 feet, and was on the 
average seventy miles distant from the sea. In Van Diemen’s 
Land he found the axis of the same crystalline rocks to be pro¬ 
longed in a circumlinear direction, whilst to the north of our set¬ 
tlements of New South Wales he found, by sailing along the coast, 
the same chain, there coming close to the sea, as determined by 
the admirable survey of Captain P. King, was persistent to 
Torres’ Straits at the north end of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and 
on the north side of these straits it is again prolonged in the 
same direction far into New Guinea. 
With the exception, then, of a few embranchments towards its 
southern end, which throw off the waters of the Darling and its 
tributaries into the new settlements of South Australia, and of 
the curvilinear band in Van Diemen’s Land, this chain may be 
said to have a meridian direction through upwards of 35° of 
latitude, and is therefore considerably longer than the Ural, 
another great meridian chain, of which I have elsewhere spoken, 
even if we include in the latter the great island of Nova Zembla. 
The Australian chain further resembles the Ural in being com- 
