received more than double the sums paid in France; while for day-work the advantage is greatly in favour of the former. In France, the payment remains the same, insufficient, while the cost of living and food increases every day."

The liberty which the English workman enjoys, and which, says the report, he knows so well how to use for his own interest and improvement, naturally calls forth the admiration of the delegates, who say that none but the masters are allowed to combine in France, and that the consequence is the reduction of wages, the deterioration of the product, and the ruin of the trade. The French visitors found the English lithographers better lodged and better fed than those of France. Lastly, say the reporters :"The English are stronger than we are; they do not kill themselves at their work."

AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION.

HE extension of our geographical knowledge forms one of the most

adventurous

for which the Anglo-Saxon race are so famous finds constant food in the fields of discovery which yet lie unexplored in distant and difficult regions of the globe, but which are by degrees being opened up by the indomitable perseverance and unflinching energy of brave and daring men. The discoveries of Livingstone, of Speke and Grant, and Petherick, are results of successful exploration by men who have been so fortunate as to achieve the end they contemplated, though they carried their lives in their hands in order to attain it; but the mind recurs with gloom to the sad fate of others not so fortunate, who, like the ill-fated Burke and Wills, overcome by the inhospitality of the regions they traversed, succumbed in the wilderness, and left their bones bleaching in the far interior of Australia. All honour to such men, to whom the sweet reward of a safe return to the abodes of civilized life, and the acclamations of their appreciating fellow-men have been denied—who have thus offered themselves as sacrifices to scientific investigation and a thirst for knowledge of the unknown.

From such a sad picture it is a relief to turn to the success which has lately crowned another attempt to cross the vast continent of Australia, and the return of Mr. Stuart's party to Adelaide. This explorer, it will be remembered, left Adelaide in the beginning of the year 1862 to complete the exploration which he commenced in 1859, and which for the second time he was unable to finish in 1860. On the first occasion he was turned back by hostile natives, and on the second occasion by a dense scrub which separated him from the Victoria River, after he had reached as near to the coast as latitude 17° and longitude 133°. In this third expedition, however, Mr. Stuart has been completely successful. After crossing to latitude 17°, upon his old route, he found in the course of a lengthened examination of the country, that the belt of scrub, which

had seemed to hem him in hopelessly from the coast before, was penetrable in a northerly direction; and instead, therefore, of further seeking to reach the Victoria River, he pressed forward through Arnheim's Land, and came out upon the coast near Point Hotham, opposite Melville's Island. Thus there is now a direct route from Adelaide to Port Essington, and more than three parts of the country through which it runs has been traversed by Stuart and his party six times, this being the third consecutive year that his expeditions have crossed and recrossed this continent. From these facts it will be seen that the exploration is one of vast importance to all the Australian colonies. The journeys of previous explorers who have crossed the continent have terminated at the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the country is low and swampy, and where ships trading with India and China would meet with difficulties in navigation. But a route is now opened from South Australia to a point on the coast six degrees beyond the head of the Gulf, which was the place reached by Burke, and afterwards by McKinlay; and this route is found traversable during the driest of seasons.

The peculiar features of travel in the interior of Australia are well illustrated by a reference to Mr. Stuart's diary, which chronicles the movements of the party from day to day, the appearance of the country, and the natural productions met with, though these last are not described with any scientific accuracy. As far as Newcastle Water, in latitude 17° the route had been several times traversed, but from that point Mr. Stuart's journey was through a new country. Here he was in the middle of April, 1862, the weather very hot, strong winds often blowing during the day, and the falling of the wind at night being the signal for troops of mosquitoes and flies to appear, much to the annoyance of the travellers. With such hot weather he dared not attempt to make the Victoria River, for the horses would not stand a 140 miles' journey without water, the discovery of which was always precarious. Indeed it may be said that a journey of exploration across the continent of Australia resolves itself into a constant search after this indispensable necessary. Water-holes were occasionally met with, sometimes, however, dry, and sometimes merely the deeper parts of the beds of dried-up creeks, and rivers through which water flows during the rainy season. The appearance of a few birds from time to time, such as slate-coloured cockatoos, pigeons, &c., announced the proximity of water, and was therefore always a welcome omen. To add to the difficulty, it was soon discovered that their water-bags, on which their progress, and indeed their very lives, depended, were not by any means satisfactory. On the 8th of May it appeared that the waterbags in a journey of 21 miles had leaked out one half of their contents, and the same circumstance was a frequent source of annoyance and perplexity. It took two men nearly half a day to fill them, on account of the smallness of the orifices, and the American cloth with which they were lined not only did not render them water-tight, but allowed of the water getting between it and the leather, thus rendering the process of emptying them a matter of difficulty.

Mr. Stuart bears a very pleasing testimony to the devotion of his party; and his diary often records his approbation, which he frequently

expressed by naming the various localities after one or other of his retinue. Few spots were of more importance to be specially designated than the water-holes and chains of ponds. Thus on the 2nd of May, the party arriving at a small water-course, with pools of water flowing into the plain, Mr. Stuart observes, "These ponds I name King's Ponds, in token of my approbation of his care and attention to the horses, and his readiness and care in executing all my orders." And this is no solitary instance: other springs were named in a similar manner, "Nash's Spring," "McGorerey's Ponds," "Auld's Chain of Ponds," "Frew's Water-hole," &c., &c., in token of approbation.

As might be expected in a country of such a nature, animal life is anything but abundant. Birds not unfrequently appeared in some numbers, but their kind is not always specified. In the neighbourhood of King's Ponds cockatoos were observed, and old tracks of the emu, but no quadruped game, except one wallaby and one kangaroo. The forest, it appears, grows dense and tangled, though no water be near, but in such situations not a bird was to be seen, nor the chirrup of any heard to disturb the gloomy silence. On Daly Waters, which cover a large area but are not deep, pelicans and other water-birds were observed; and the party here caught a number of small fish, from three to five inches long, something resembling a perch, which were looked upon as a godsend by men who had so long lived upon dry meat. In River Strangways, also, fine large fish were caught, some of them weighing 2 lb. Of these some were of the perch family, and others resembled rock-cod, with three remarkable black spots on each side of their bodies. There were also some smaller ones resembling gold-fish, and other small ones, with black stripes on their sides, resembling pilot-fish.

The vegetable productions of the country vary according to the proximity to water. In a valley through which a stream of water runs, the sides are described as thickly wooded with tall stringy-bark, gums, and various kinds of palm-trees, which were very beautiful, the stems growing upwards of fifty feet high, and the leaves from eight to ten feet long, each side resembling an immense feather: a great number of these shooting out from the top of the high stems, and falling gracefully over, produced a very pretty, light, and elegant appearance. In other places dense scrub and impenetrable forest of gum-trees and tall mulgar, through which they in vain atttempted, by pushing, tearing, and winding, to make some progress, obliged them to make a circuitous journey. Such was that met with near Auld's chain of ponds. This, says Mr. Stuart, would be a fearful country for any one to be lost in, as there is nothing to guide them, and one cannot see more than 300 yards around. "Should any be so unfortunate as to be lost, it would be quite impossible to find them again; it would be imprudent to search for them, for by so doing the searchers would run the risk of being lost too." In such situations the usual resource of climbing a tree sometimes led to deceptive appearances of open country, caused by the shade of the sun on some of the lower mulgar bushes. Near Kewick's large group of springs, in lat. 13° 54′, on some table-land thickly planted with stringy bark, pines, and other trees and shrubs, the party for the first time saw the fan-palms, some of them growing

upwards of fifteen feet high. Again, at Anna's Creek, interspersed with marshy ground thick with trees, bushes, and strong vines, were plains covered with long grass, in this instance reaching to the shoulder of a man on horseback. Such grassy plains appear to be a very common feature, though the grass usually is not of such excessive height, reaching perhaps four feet, and offering sometimes great impediment to the progress of the horses from its dryness, which caused it to break and accumulate before their fore feet. But an inconvenience of a far graver character arose from the habit of the natives of setting fire to the grass. In many places the whole country was burned, and in one instance the explorers had a narrow escape. The country was in a blaze of fire to the east of them, but owing to there not being a breath of wind they were fortunately enabled to pass within a quarter of a mile of it.

No very striking flowers appear to have been met with except those of the bean-tree with bright crimson blossoms, a certain large creeper with yellow blossoms found on the banks of the River Strangways, and "a new kind of lily," evidently a species of Nelumbium, with flowers six inches high, resembling a tulip in form, and of a deep rose colour.

Considering how much the success of a former expedition was frustrated by the hostility and interference of the natives, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Stuart was extremely wary of them on this occasion, and never sought their company. He was usually very successful in avoiding them, although it would appear that the country is by no means destitute of aboriginal inhabitants. Wherever they go they light a fire, and the smoke gave the travellers an announcement of their proximity. Native smokes seen in all directions is a not unfrequent remark of Mr. Stuart's diary, and it was obviously impossible under these circumstances to avoid them altogether. Accordingly, we have some account of the habits and appearance of this degraded type of mankind. In the neighbourhood of Frew's Water-hole they were visited by a few natives, who appeared to be very friendly; they called water (the great topic of conversation in the interior of Australia) "ninloo." These men were armed with spears, about ten feet long, which are described as having sharp flint points about six inches long, with a bamboo attached to the other end. They pointed to the west as the place where they got the bamboo, and the water also, but they appeared to have no knowledge of the country to the north. They were tall, wellmade, elderly men, and went away quietly. A fire in the grass, which they ignited next day, almost surrounded and cut off the exploring party. On another occasion, Mr. Stuart, returning from an excursion, found a number of natives, old and young, hugging his men in the most friendly manner. Some pieces of white tape were given to them, which pleased them much. They still pointed to the west as the place where the large water was. On the banks of River Strangways, they came upon a spot where were numerous recent fires of the natives; there must have been a great many of them, for their fires covered the ground. Great numbers of shells of mussels were also found here—the remains of a feast upon those shell-fish. And in another spot they found a favourite camping-ground of the natives strewed with fish bones, mussel and turtle shells. Mr. Stuart seems to hint at cannibalism when he says, that on the place where the

natives had encamped a day or two before he saw the remains of bones of one of them which had been burnt; and he further describes an apparatus of poles stuck in the ground, making a framework about eight feet high, which he supposes to have been used by them for smoke-drying a blackfellow. This, he says, is a new feature in their customs. In many cases the natives ran off as fast as they could as soon as they saw the white men, yelling and squalling fearfully. On being overtaken, one of them held up a green bough as a flag of truce. A singular character was met with on the banks of Roper River. A number of natives being seen to approach the camp about sundown, preparations were made to receive them. They appeared friendly, however, and the attention of Mr. Stuart's party was attracted by an old man, whose legs are described as being about four feet long, and his body in all seven feet high, and so remarkably thin that he appeared to be a perfect-shadow. A fish-hook in the hat of one of the whites attracted his attention, and making signs that he wished for it, it was given to him, at which he seemed delighted, and handed it over to his son, a short stout man, who was laughing all the time. But although apparently friendly, it was necessary to be ever on the watch, for they were not to be trusted. They would follow up the party during the night without being seen, though their tracks betrayed them in the morning. They will pretend the greatest friendship one moment, and spear you the next. The women are all small and very ugly.

Of course, in such an adventurous journey, the horses were most valuable auxiliaries, and their efficiency was watched with jealous care. Several mishaps occurred in connection with them. On the 11th of May the packhorse died, leaving them in a very awkward predicament. The want of water told upon the poor animals, and it was necessary sometimes to halt for two or three days to recruit their failing strength. One of the riding horses bolted into the forest, tearing his saddle all to pieces, but was recovered without further accident. On another occasion, one of the horses became bogged in a creek, and was with difficulty extricated; and another, less fortunate, was so completely fixed that in the endeavour to get him out the rope broke, and falling into water he was drowned. The carcase was extricated next day, and dried, and they all enjoyed a delightful change of diet. It was a great treat, "for the horse eats remarkably well, though not quite so good as bullock." Then their shoes came off, and the poor beasts were all lamed, till it was determined to stop and shoe their fore-feet with the shoes which were intended to be saved to take them back over the stony ground of S. Australia. At another time, a horse vanished during the night, and was not seen again. These and similar casualties must have been trying in the extreme to men whose lives depended upon the assistance of these valuable quadrupeds.

At length, on July 25th, everything combined to show Mr. Stuart that they were approaching the seacoast. "Stopped the horses to clear a way (through the belt of scrub fringing the beach) whilst I advanced a few yards on to the beach, and was gratified and delighted to behold the water of the Indian Ocean in Van Diemen's Gulf before the party with the horses knew anything of its proximity. Thring, who rode in advance of me, called out The sea!' which so took them all by surprise, that he had