Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/19

Rh an opening from "Lake Alexandria" into the Gulf of St. Vincent; and he is of opinion that the whole of that country is formed by alluvial deposit from the vast interior, through which flow the rivers Murray, Darling, Castlereagh, and Peel; as also that the Darling will be found to be one of the longest rivers of the world.

'We have recently ascertained that the finest tract of land exists to the south, immediately beyond our present boundary, which is abundantly watered by streams said to take their rise from snow-clad mountains. These facts induce me to think we should abandon the idea of pushing our settlements, at present, father into the interior, and that we ought to form a belt of colonization along the north and south coasts. The water communication would give employment to seamen, and be the means of converting the Colonial youth into sailors, who, in case of need, might contribute to the manning of the navies of the mother country.' Thus far Colonel Dumaresq. With regard to the discovery of bones, Major Mitchell, the Surveyor-General in New South Wales, thus writes to Mr. Hay:—'At length an immense quantity of the remains of antediluvian animals has been discovered, precisely in a situation such as that described by Professor Buckland. What is most singular is, that there appears no affinity, as far as I can discover, between these bones and those of the caves of Europe, although some are very large. A bone, the ulna of some huge animal, is somewhat like that of an ox, but it is four times as large.' Colonel Dumaresq's observation, that the finest tracts of land are found towards the south coast of this great continent, is fully confirmed, as to the western part of the same south coast, by the discoveries made by Dr. Wilson of the navy, to the distance of eighty or ninety miles northerly, from King George's Sound, recently annexed to the settlement of Swan River. Of this journey a brief account is contained in the following paper, and it is a!so sketched on the map. Our acquaintance, however, is yet far from being minute with this south coast, from Cape Leuwin to Port Philip,—an extent of at least fifteen hundred geographical miles,—otherwise an estuary of sixty miles in length, by thirty or forty in breath, could not have escaped observation until discovered from thee interior; and our knowledge of other parts of the coast is even still more defective. For instance, on the western side, from North-west Cape, in lat. 22°, to Clarence Strait, in lat. 12½°, a distance of more than one thousand miles, there are numerous large openings, not yet examined, in which no land is visible to the eyes of the spectator in the interior, and through