MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
83 
railways, but also as roads, to open a way into tbo in¬ 
terior, and to carry off its produce. It may be appre¬ 
hended, therefore,’ that it will he found necessary to 
bring the velocity to a rate not much exceeding that of 
the best public conveyance on common roads. If this 
position be conceded, wo therefore return to our old and 
constant friend the horse, and to an improved method 
of employing his power on colonial railways. 
In coming to this conclusion, the an iter wishes to 
guard against being misnnderstood. In thinly popu¬ 
lated districts the home railway is amply sufficient for 
all purposes, hut between trreat and populous cities it is 
not, and there are certain localities in the colony where 
there is a fair prospect that increased facilities will lead 
to increased traffic, in which it may he desirable to con¬ 
struct a railway capable of being worked ultimately by 
steam-power ; but u is equally true that, as a part of a 
general system, it will he found far more economical to 
commence with horse-power until the increaso of the 
traffic and of the population shall be such as to call for 
the more powerful aid of the locomotive engine. 
FREDERICK S PEPPERCORN, 
Civil Engineer and Surveyor. 
Richmond River, July 21st, 1857. 
It will be observed that we have omitted 
the proceedings of the Philosophical So¬ 
ciety for the present month. The meeting 
was held on Wednesday, the 9ih inst., Dr. 
Woolley in the chair. A valuable paper 
was read by Frank TIaes, Esq., on Photo¬ 
graphy, which we hope to he able to insert 
in our next number. 
THE INFLUENCE OF AN AUSTRA¬ 
LIAN CLIMATE ON THE CON¬ 
STITUTION OF THE WESTERN 
EUROPEAN. 
)[7/A Statistical Reports on the Sickness , Mortality , 
and Invaliding among the Troops in the United 
Kingdom anel New South Wales. 
By P. Divortv, M.AM.B., L.R.C.S., Edinburgh. 
Assistant Surgeon II. M. XI. Regiment. 
The following important contribution has 
been kindly supplied by Mr'. Divortv of 
the SI Regiment. The subject matter of 
this paper affects so deeply the health of 
our population, that we are sure we need 
not bespeak for it an attentive and earnest 
perusal. 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
The period of observation embraced in the Statistical 
Report having been completed only on the 7th of last 
month, and little spare time being at my disposal amidst 
the bustle in preparing for an early embarkation for 
Europe, the following paper is hurriedly conceived and 
written. It was not at first intended to give it publicity 
in this country, but having been advised to lay it before 
the Philosophical Society of New South Wales previous 
to my departure ,• and, as sonic parts may appear in a 
detached form* I trust that the subject mailer\ more 
than the arrangement , will be looked to. I am aware 
that different views are entertained by some as to the 
Geological formation of New South Wales; but in my 
remarks I liavo adhered to that which has appeared to 
me the most natural. 
Pari I.—GENERAL REPORT. 
Australia presents features of interest and impor¬ 
tance too numerous for me even to allude to, and I 
shall therefore confine my remarks to such as are 
more or less, directly or indirectly, connected with 
the subject. 
This country is interesting to the geologist, as it 
would appear to have pleased the Most High, in his 
unsearchable wisdom, to suspend, for a season, the 
play of an inexorable law in creation, the terrible 
manifestations of which we have before us in other 
parts of the globe. From what is at present known 
of geology, the creative power seems to have been 
exercised by the Almighty with great uniformity 
throughout the different ages of the Preadamite 
earth, until that succeeding the carboniferous, when 
there appears to have been, in New South Wales, at 
least, an anomaly or interruption in the sequence of 
geological formation. In oiher countries are found 
the different strata (with their respective fossils) of 
the tertiary formation of geologists, superimposed 
through the agency of central disturbing forces; 
but in this country these upheaving forces appear 
to have been kept at bay for many long ages. From 
the period when the type of the vertebrata was first 
called into being, until our own day, this land ap¬ 
pears to have been comparatively free from general 
convulsions; so that man. instead of having the dif¬ 
ferent layers of the tertiary formation under his feet, 
is here treading on the carboniferous sandstone, 
whereon the reptile may havo been crawling for per¬ 
haps myriads of years before the time of Adam. 
Although this country appears to have lain undis¬ 
turbed, as it were, lor many ages, yet the law of 
progressive organisation appears to have been in 
operation. Were it supposed otherwise, nothing 
might be looked for in this country but the fauna 
and vegetables, characteristic of that era; with, 
perhaps, the chelonian reptile at the head of ani¬ 
mated creation. 
From what has been said, it can readily bo per¬ 
ceived that a wide field is open for the naturalist, 
seeing the long absence of any great eruption calcu¬ 
lated to swallow up the different organized struc¬ 
tures that might come within its influence, for there 
is reason to believe that many living specimens, 
both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, long 
since extinct in other countries, may havo come 
down to the present time, especially among the 
saurian reptiles, as also among the aquatic animals, 
where some extinct species of fishes may be looked 
for, and various species of the marine in vertebra ta. 
In the vegetable kingdom interesting specimens 
arc and may be found among the vascular ferns and 
other acrogens. Among the birds and mammals 
many interesting species have already been dis¬ 
covered. Of some 700 of the birds which have been 
met with many are remarkable, especially the Scau- 
sores, for their singular plumage, and others are no 
less interesting for their habits and structure. Most 
of the mammals, especially the smaller quadrupeds, 
belong to the lower orders of naturalists, and man 
himself is apparently little removed from the quad- 
rumana ; but as mine has not been the province of 
the explorer or the naturalist, I leave this subject, 
especially as comparatively little attention has been 
devoted to it by others. 
Australia is interesting and important to the 
moralist and the statesman, on account of the many 
new psychological and other phenomena that have 
developed themselves in consequence of the late ir¬ 
ruption in social physics.” There are evidences 
of disturbing forces in physics; so in metaphysics, 
by diving into the depths of time, there are found 
manifestations of many past convulsions. But there 
has been, in our own day, a moral disturbance in 
the Gold Discovery,” the extent of which, of its 
kind, has never been equalled in the history of the 
world. This, at first, produced but a ripple on the 
