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raves.

struments.
virility. 26. Drinking vessel made of a human skull.

39

incoln. 7. Australian from Queensland. 8. Paintings on rocks, N. W. Australia, 9. Tasmanian woman 13. Tasmanian drawings. 14. Mare Islander. 15. Taunese. 16. Queensland woman. 17. North 20. a, wooden war-knife; b, boomerang. 21, 22. Spear, with throwing stick. 23. Axe. 27. Net-work basket. 28. Opossum skin water32. Club. 33. Stone mortar. 34. Instrument to make noise wherewith to frighten off 38. Stone axe. 39. South Australian kangaroo dance.

their backs.

Spear points.

which order includes the genus banksia, already noticed in the geology-connects the flora of A. with that of the cape of Good Hope, to which there are also other points of resemblance; and although true heaths do not appear, their place is supplied by a variety of heath-like plants of other natural orders, and particularly of the order epacridacea, of which some (of the genus epacris) now take their place with heaths among the favorite ornaments of our greenhouses. Araucarias (q.v.) form a connecting link between the flora of A. and that of Chili. In the more northern parts, palms and other tropical productions connect it in like manner with that of the s.e. of Asia.

Few of the trees or shrubs of A. produce edible fruits, and those known as Tasmanian currants, Tasmanian cranberries, etc., are not of much value. The seeds of the araucarias are edible, having some resemblance to almonds. Almost none of the native vegetable productions of A. have been found worthy of the care of the gardener, except as objects of beauty or curiosity; and it produces no plant which has yet found its way, or seems in the least degree likely to find its way, into agriculture-unless, indeed, somo of its pasture plants may prove to be peculiarly adapted to dry climates. But the cultivated plants of other countries have been introduced with great success by the colonists, and their gardens boast not only of the fruits common in England and the south of Europe, but of some of those of China.

The zoology of A. is particularly characterized by the prevalence of marsupial (q.v.) quadrupeds, of which comparatively few exist in any other part of the world. Some of them are herbivorous, as the kangaroos (q.v.), potoroos (q.v.), and wombats (q.v.); some feed indifferently on roots and insects, as the bandicoots (q.v.); some are carnivorous, as the thylacine (q. v.) and the dasyure (q.v.)-the tiger and the wild cat of the colonistsbut all are marsupial; that is, the females have a pouch for the young, which are born in a much less advanced state than the young of other viviparous animals. Besides its marsupial quadrupeds, A. has few others, yet known, except some species of bat; a kind of dog, known as the dingo (q.v.); and the echidnas (q.v.) and duck-bills (ornithorhyn chus) (q.v.), animals which have been regarded as forming a connecting link between quadrupeds and birds, both upon account of external form and anatomical structure, and to which nothing at all similar exists in any other part of the world.

Many of the birds of A. are very beautiful, but they do not exhibit peculiarities so general and striking as its quadrupeds, or even its plants. The emu (q.v.) may be regarded as the Australian representative of the ostrich and cassowary. The black swan is chiefly remarkable for its color. Ducks of various kinds, falcons, doves, parrots, and many other birds of families well known elsewhere, connect the natural history of this isolated continent with that of the other regions of the globe.-Reptiles are numerous, but exhibit as a class no very marked peculiarities, nor is there in any other department of zoology so wide a difference from the rest of the world as in the mammalia. Among the fish of the Australian shores and rivers are many species which are not found elsewhere, but they present no remarkable common characteristic. Among them are no trouts, salmon, or other salmonida, which, indeed, do not extend into the southern hemisphere. Attempts to export ova to A., and colonize her waters with salmon, have not been successful.

Produce.-Wool, and that of the finest quality, is the grand staple of Australia. For sheep-farming, the country, so far as it is not a desert, seems to be admirably adapted. The colonist, instead of having, as in America, to hew his way through dense forests, with tangled underwood, sees around him either open pastures or park-like woods overshadowing their green sward. His main difficulty is the scarcity of water, or rather the possibility that such a scarcity may occur. Wheat is grown to advantage, particularly in South Australia; cotton, tobacco, and sugar are produced in New South Wales and Queensland; the vine is grown extensively by the colonists, who have begun to avail themselves of the capabilities of the respective colonies by rearing the productions of tropical and temperate climates, both of which are possessed by Australia.

History.-In 1606 the north coast was descried by the Dutch on board of the Duyfen, and about the same time by a Spanish expedition sent from Peru in 1605, one of the commanders of which gave his name to Torres Straits. It is probable, however, that A. had been long known to the Chinese. In 1619 and 1622 respectively, the west and southwest coasts were seen. In 1642 the island, called for some time Van Diemen's Land, but now Tasmania, was visited by Tasman, who, within a month, sighted also New Zealand. In 1697, Swan river was discovered by Vlaming. In 1770 Cook, then on his first voy. age, explored nearly the whole of the east coast, designating the same New South Wales. In 1798 Bass, a surgeon in the navy, ascertained the separation of A. and Tasmania, by passing through the strait that bears his name. In 1802 Port Phillip was entered; and in the same year, Flinders pretty nearly completed the general outline by sailing along the southern shore. To pass from discovery to colonization: there was established, in 1788, the settlement of New South Wales, and from this all the other British Australian settlements, with the exception of Swan river, have successively been planted. Norfolk island, erected, in 1790, into a penal settlement for New South Wales, was in 1856 allotted to the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, most of whom were removed for this purpose from Pitcairn's island. The other colonies, whether offshoots or not of New South Wales, assumed an independent existence in the following order: Tasmania, 1825; Western A. or Swan river, 1829; South A., 1834; New Zealand, 1841; Victoria,

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