Australian.

1851; and, lastly, Queensland or Moreton bay, 1859 (see these heads). Besides these flourishing colonies, a settlement was established near Port Essington in 1839, but was abandoned in 1845, on account of the unhealthiness of the climate. Subjoined is a summary table of statistics for all the more important of these dependencies.

Totals........

8,076,940 3,067,803 48,866,168 45,060,665 17,877,829 6,146,094 141,251 6,862,750 17,069,016 89,910,249

Population. The population is nearly all of European origin; but in 1881, about half had been born in the colonies. Chinese laborers are found chiefly in Victoria and Queensland. The native population belongs to the race or group of tribes variously designated as negritos, Austral negroes, or kelænonesians (“black islanders"). The chief members of the group, besides the Australians, are the papuans of New Guinea, New Caledonia, and New Hebrides, and the natives of Tasmania. See ETHNOLOGY, NEGRITOS. The Tasmanians are now extinct, and the Australians are rapidly diminishing in number; their condition will be considered under the head of cach colony. In Victoria they number only 700 (not included in the foregoing table). The 44,000 natives of New Zealand (also not included in the table) belong to the Polynesians (q. v.).

Government.-Each colony forms a separate province, and all except West A. enjoy responsible government. The legislative assembly is, in all four colonies, elected by manhood suffrage. There is a strong feeling in favor of a general confederation.

AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATIONS. Sturt's expedition from South Australia to the center of A. in 1845, dispelled the notion of a great inland sea, but it substituted the much less hopeful one of a vast and burning lifeless waste; and this opinion appeared to be corroborated by the fate of the gallant Leichhardt, who, after his successful overland journey from New South Wales to Port Essington in North Australia, started in 1847 to traverse the island from Queensland to Western Australia, and was never more heard of. It was for a time universally considered as decided that a million of sq.m. in the interior was hopelessly barren, and in consequence further explorations were abandoned. However, in 1858, John M'Douall Stuart, a companion of Sturt in his travels, having made a short expedition to the n.w. of the colony of South Australia, brought back the cheering news that a very extensive tract suitable for colonization existed in that quarter, well supplied with lakes and running "creeks," and presenting millions of acres of excellent pasture. Despite, therefore, the arrival of Gregory in the same year from the n.e. of the colony with additional unfavorable reports, Stuart resolved to resume once more the exploration of the interior from s. to n.; and, starting from South Australia in 1860, he held a generally n. by w. course, till his further progress was stopped by the threatening aspect of the natives, at a point in lat. 18° 17' s., long. 134° e. Returning with his two companions to organize a stronger force, he retraced his steps (1861) on the previous track; but, after traveling 100 miles further than before, was baffled by an impenetrable scrub, through which he in vain sought a passage. Want of provisions forced him to return a second time; but nothing daunted he started once more in 1862 along the now familiar path, and on July 24th of that year stood on the shore of the Indian ocean at Van Diemen's gulf. Mr. Waterhouse, the naturalist, who accompanied Stuart in his third expedition, divides the country passed through into three regions: the first, extending as far n. as lat. 27° 18' s., is watered by springs and is suitable for pastoral purposes, though subject to great heat and drought in summer. The springs either issue from the surface of the plains or from the tops of curious conical eminences evidently of volcanic origin; these eminences varying from the size of a beehive to a considerable hill. The second region, extending northwards to lat. 17° 36′ s., is much more defective in watersupply, and its vegetation chiefly consists of a pungent-flavored coarse grass, known as "porcupine grass" (otherwise spinifex or triodia pungens), good pasture being only found in the hollows of creeks. This region also presents several ranges of hills of low elevation, the maximum height being 2000 feet above the plain. The third region, which extends from lat. 17° 36' s. to the sea-coast, possesses a rich soil, sometimes lacustrine and sometimes alluvial, clothed with the usual abundance of tropical vegetation, and well

timbered.

The resumption of the exploration of interior Australia by Stuart had the effect of arousing general attention to the subject in the other colonies; and accordingly, while Stuart was on his 1860 expedition, the colony of Victoria was fitting out another party for the same purpose. This expedition, which was put under the command of R. O'Hara

Australian.

Burke, consisted of a large party with a number of camels (which had a short time previously been imported by the Victorian government from India), and left Melbourne on Aug. 20, 1860, reaching Cooper's creek in the middle of December. Finding that his company was too numerous and too much encumbered, Burke left the greater portion at the creek under Brahe, to await his return, and with his second in command, William John Wills, and two others, Gray and King, started, with 6 camels, 1 horse, and 12 weeks' provisions, in a northerly direction, reaching the mouth of the Flinders river, at the head of the gulf of Carpentaria, on Feb. 11, 1861, being the first explorers who crossed Australia from sea to sea. Unable, however, to obtain a view of the ocean, on account of the extensive marshes which skirt the coast-line, they commenced their return journey, and, arriving at Cooper's creek on April 21 found, to their astonishment, the camp completely deserted. From indications marked on a tree close by, they were induced to dig at its foot, and found a small supply of provisions, and a note to the effect that the party in waiting had left Cooper's creek to return home; the note being dated April 21, the very day on which the exhausted explorers reached the camp, and having been only seven hours written when read by Burke. In their worn-out_condition, it was a hopeless task to think of following this fresh party to the river Darling through 400 m. of desert, though, had they done so, they would have met Brahe returning with a third section of the expedition, which he had met at the Darling, and led back to Cooper's creek, reaching it on May 8, but retracing the road to the Darling, on finding (after a very slight examination) no signs of Burke's party having arrived there; so Burke, resolving to gain the nearest pastoral station of South Australia, 150 m. distant, the three travelers (Gray had already succumbed to fatigue and famine) pursued this new route at the rate of 4 to 5 m. per day, till want of water compelled them to return to the Cooper, though, had they known that the station they sought was not more than 50 (instead of, as they thought, 100) m. off, they might by a strong effort have reached it, and been saved. Instead of this, they returned to Cooper's creek; and their camels being now all dead, and their provisions nearly exhausted, they resolved, as a last resource, to seek out some camp of natives, where they might remain till assistance reached them from the colony. But their limbs were growing feebler and feebler; at last, on June 28, Wills lay down to die, requesting the others to go on; and on June 30, Burke also succumbed. King, the sole survivor, succeeded in reaching the natives, with whom he lived for 24 months, till a party under Howitt, which was sent out from Victoria in quest of Burke and Wills, arrived at the creek, and rescued him. Burke's experiences of the interior are, as far as we can gather from the scanty records, equally favorable with those of Stuart. He found some good grassy country n. of the Cooper, then passed through a sandy and stony district; but from the tropic of Capricorn to the sea, a large proportion was richly clad with verdure and well watered, with now and then a range of hills traversing it. The unaccounted for absence of Burke and Wills produced much excitement in the two southern colonies, and gave birth to three separate expeditions, with the view of bringing aid to the missing explorers. Two of these were fitted out by Victoria, and one by South Australia. The former two were intended to act in concert, and were sent round from Melbourne to Rockhampton, in Queensland, in the Firefly of 200 tons. At Rockhampton, Walker and his party were landed, in order to make the gulf of Carpentaria overland, while the brig pursued her voyage to the head of the gulf, and landed Landsborough and his party at the mouth of the river Albert, in the middle of Oct., 1861. On the 17th, Landsborough commenced his march, and following out his instructions to make for Stuart's "central" mount, followed up the Albert and Gregory rivers, and thence diverging more to the w., found that the water-supply had wholly failed. Turning then southwards along the river Herbert, his small party of three whites and two aborigines in all were compelled to stop in lat. 20° 11' s. by the menacing atti tude of the natives, and returned to their dépôt on the Albert, which they reached on Jan. 19, 1862. Here they learned that Walker had arrived on Dec. 7 bringing the important news that he had found traces of Burke's party on the Flinders; and Landsborough accordingly resolved to penetrate in an easterly direction. On reaching the Flinders, he found all traces obliterated by the rains, but notwithstanding ascended the river for 280 m., then crossed to the Thompson, followed it up for the greater part of its course, afterwards striking out eastwards to the Barcoo or Cooper, and failing to reach Cooper's creek on account of the extreme drought, made for the settlements on the Darling, and arrived at Melbourne in Aug., 1862. Landsborough found the country between the gulf and the Thompson to consist of good soil thickly grassed; and, with rare exceptions, water was generally abundant.

The South Australian expedition was got up on a much larger scale, consisting of 8 men, 4 camels, 26 horses, 12 bullocks, and 100 sheep, and was put under the command of M'Kinlay, an experienced explorer. It started from Adelaide on Aug. 16, 1861, and on Sept. 24, had passed the furthest settlements of the colony; crossed the formerly mysterious lake Torrens, which was at that time a dry desert; and came into a district abounding with lakes and creeks, and luxuriantly clad with grass whenever the rain afforded support to animal life. Here it was learned that the fate of Burke and Wills had been ascertained, and the party then held northwards for the gulf of Carpentaria. Leaving the lake district, they entered the great desert, whose inhospitable nature had been so vividly described by Sturt 16 years before; but curiously enough, in a district

Austria.

in which Sturt had almost perished of thirst, M'Kinlay's party were almost carried away by a flood. In lat. 25° s., they emerged on an extensive country, abounding in grassy plains, watered by rivers, and intersected by hill ranges; and in lat. 22° s. they entered upon a country of tropical character, reaching the Leichhardt, which they followed down till the deep and broad mangrove creeks and boggy flats which form a wide border round the beach of the gulf, hindered their further progress; so that, like all the preceding explorers, with the exception of Stuart, a glimpse of the ocean was denied them. From the Leichhardt river they then proceeded in an e. by s. course, reaching Bowen at Port Denison, in Queensland, in the beginning of Aug., 1862, and thence reached Adelaide by sea.

The results of these explorations of interior Australia agree in this, that there is a much larger extent of territory available for colonization than was formerly believed; that, in fact, by far the greater portion of the interior is more or less suitable for colonization, and that only to that portion of it lying in the center in lat. 27° to 25° s. can the term desert be with justice permanently applied. Yet Sturt's desert was certainly no fancy, and his route to the center of the interior was through a barren waterless waste, while M'Kinlay, who followed nearly the same track, was delighted with abundance of rich pasture and water. The truth seems to lie between the two extremes; Sturt's expedition was carried out during a year of unusual drought, while the recent expeditions here sketched took place during exceedingly moist seasons, the year 1861 and 1862 being the wettest the colonists of Victoria had ever known. Consequently, we should err in supposing the interior to be a mere desert on the one hand, or a blooming, well-watered expanse on the other. It is in reality a surface covered with soil more or less fertile; the basaltic rocks and clays being the most, and quartz, sandstone, and granite least fertile; and the rainfall is sufficient, in ordinary seasons, to revive the dormant germs of vegetable life, and cover the surface with a crop of grass more or less luxuriant. On the other hand, the occasionally long continuance of drought, accompanied with an excessive amount of evaporation, wholly dries up some streams, converts others into a series of pools, connected by threads of water, or "creeks," reduces extensive lakes to marshes or to shallow pools, in which the concentration of the soluble salts of the soil renders the water so brackish as to be wholly undrinkable, and restores the verdant surface for a time to the condition of a desert, herbage remaining only on the banks of creeks. The rainfall, which is the sole water-supply in the central districts, does not occur at regular intervals, but there is every reason to suppose that the excessive drought experienced by Sturt has not reappeared since 1845. Occasionally, the fall of rain is so excessive as to convert the whole of the plain, as far as the eye can reach, into a shallow sea, which, however, soon disappears by the drainage of the rivers and creeks, or under the influence of the excessive evaporation, and in an almost incredibly short period thereafter, the ground is clothed with verdure. The climate of the northern districts is very different; there we have a temperature even higher, but its effect on vegetation is rendered very favorable by the frequent and moderate rains.

These expeditions have also contributed a few facts respecting the rivers of North Australia. The Flinders was estimated by Landsborough to be fully 500 m., and the Albert 100 m. long; the Roper was found by Stuart to be a deep wide river at about 100 m. from its mouth; on the whole, the river system of North Australia is much more extensive than was formerly supposed.

In 1865, an expedition under the command of M 'Intyre, was undertaken to ascertain the fate of Leichhardt, but it could not advance further than Cooper's creek.

Our knowledge of the interior of western Australia was considerably extended by the expedition which started from the west under Forrest in 1869; and the observations made during the construction of the overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Port Darwin, on the gulf of Carpentaria, confirmed the view that some of the interior of the island continent is fitted for agricultural purposes. The expeditions of Gosse and Warburton in 1873 explored part of the terra incognita w. of the central telegraph line. Forrest in 1874 again crossed the country from Perth eastward, reaching the telegraph lines in 27° s. lat.; waterless and treeless wastes were the distinguishing features. Giles in 1876 traversed the continent in a n.e. direction, finding the country to the eastward desolated with drought. H. V. Barclay in 1878 crossed the hitherto unknown country between Alice Springs on the telegraph lines and the e. boundary of South Australia, in e. long. 136° 30'. All the water-courses and creeks passed over were dried up, but some fine country was laid open. The view northwards in s. lat. 21° 50', only disclosed sand ridges and spinifex.

AUSTRASIA, or the East Kingdom, the name given, under the Merovingians, to the eastern possessions of the Franks, embracing Lorraine, Belgium, and the right bank of the Rhine, and having their central point at Metz. At the time of the rise of the Frankish power, these districts were of great importance, as they formed the connection with the German mother-country, and were the most thickly inhabited by Franks. After the time of Charles Martel, the division of the Frankish kingdom into A. and Neustria lost its political importance. Under Charlemagne's successors, A. merged into Germanyand Neustria, or west Frank-land, into France.