features of the Australian continent, and when we look at the great blank in the map of that vast territory, we cannot but admit the service that intrepid traveller is doing to the cause of Geography and Natural History, by the undertaking in which he is at present engaged.  It is doubtful to me, however, whether his investigations and labours will greatly extend the pastoral interests of the Australian colonies, for I am disposed to think that the climate of the region through which he will pass, is too warm for the successful growth of wool.  As I stated in the body of my work, the fleece on the sheep we took into the interior, ceased to grow at the Depot in lat. 29 degrees 40 minutes, as did our own hair and nails; but local circumstances may account for this effect upon the animal system, although it seems to me that the great dryness of the Australian atmosphere, where the heat is also excessive, as it must be in the interior and juxta-tropical parts of it, would prevent the growth of wool, by drying up the natural moisture of the skin.  Nevertheless, if Dr. Leichhardt should discover mountains of any height or extent, their elevated plateaux, like that of the Darling Downs, which is one of the finest pastoral districts of New South Wales, and is in lat. 27 1/2 degrees, would not be liable to the same objections; for I believe no better wool is produced than in that district, and that only there, and in Port Phillip, has the sheep farmer been able to clear his expenses this year.  Were it not, therefore, for the almost boundless and still unoccupied tracts of land within the territory of New South Wales, we might look with greater anxiety, as regards the pastoral interests of Australia, to the result of Dr. Leichhardt’s labours.  At present, however, there seems to be no limit to the extent either of grazing or of agricultural land in New South Wales.  The only thing to be regretted is, that the want of an industrious population, keeps it in a state of nature, and that the thousands who are here obtaining but a precarious subsistence, should not evince a more earnest desire to go to a country where most assuredly their condition would be changed for the better.

APPENDIX.

ANIMALS.

But few mammalia inhabit Central Australia.  The nature of the country indeed is such, that we could hardly expect to find any remarkable variety.  The greater part is only tenable after or during heavy rains, when the hollows in the flats between the sandy ridges contain water.  On such occasions the natives move about the country, and subsist almost exclusively on the Hapalotis Mitchellii, and an animal they call the Talpero, a species of Perameles, which is spread over a great extent of country, being common in the sand hills on the banks of the Darling, to the S.E. of the Barrier Range, as well as to the sandy ridges in the N.W. interior, although none were met with to the north of the Stony Desert.