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 and adding to our very imperfect knowledge of the geography of a very important portion of our beautiful province.

"I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, ". "Gawler-place, Adelaide, Dec. 18, 1843."

"Mr. Smith notices discrepancies between the statements of the two parties; but a little explanation from us may, perhaps, go far to put matters to right. We found Harris to be rather a silent man, and he spoke principally in answer to our questions, and, as we only examined him upon the subject of the good country and as to his route after he left Lake Newland, we did not ascertain the fact of his having struck into the interior from Streaky Bay, and of his visit to Mount Cooper, so that here Cummings's statement is additional—not different. The same may be said of the rest of Cummings's statement, and it is, therefore, a valuable addition to that of Harris. Mr. Smith states, in his letter, that an easterly course from Lake Newland will not strike Mount Wedge. On referring to the large map, taken from Mr. Eyre's original tracings, we find this to be a mistake, as the Lake and the Mount are nearly in the same latitude; and if the departure was taken from a spot near the S.E. end of the Lake, the travellers, by holding a due E. course, would strike the very centre of the Mount. We find that by a typographical error Mount Wedge was, by our account, placed in long. 134°, in place of 135°, the meridian line of which last passes over it. We should also have said that Mount Wedge is farther to the north-east, in place of north-west, than Mr. Eyre placed it; but Mr. Smith and Cummings must be wrong in placing it so far to the E. as 135° 20' or 30', as a 'direct southerly course' from these points would have taken a traveller much nearer Sleaford Bay that Point Drummond. We had almost forgot to mention that the apparent discrepancy of Mount Wedge being called conical by one, and like a wedge by the other, is easily reconciled, because it might have been conical on one side and like a wedge on another. It may or may not be wedge-like, but we understand it was named after a Mr. Wedge, of Van Diemen's Land."

III. — Progress of Discovery in the Middle Island of the New Zealand Group.

The narrative of an exploring party from Nelson, published in the first part of the present volume, threw some additional light on the conformation of the land on the S. side of Cook's Strait. The four short papers which we have here classed under the above title render that information more precise, and carry it further into the interior. The account of Mr. Cotterell's route connects the valley of the Waimea, opening into Tasman's Gulf, with the valley of the Wairau, opening into Cloudy Bay, by