in the bush. Natal, which is mainly an English colony, and possesses a superior climate, has progressed more rapidly' than Cape Colony.

Griqualand West, the Transvaal, and the Basutos have only lately been taken charge of by the English Government. 559. TOWNS. Cape Town, population 25,000, is the largest town, and bears still a resemblance to the towns of Holland.

Graham's Town is the principal town in the west of the colony, with a population of 5,000; it is about 600 miles from Cape Town.

Pieter-Maritzburg, the capital of Natal, contains 3,500 inhabitants, and is about 400 miles from Graham's Town.

Sect. XLI. THE AFRICAN ISLANDS.

560. Madagascar is more than twice as large as Britain; but the population is supposed less than that of Ireland, viz., about 5,000,000 souls. The climate of the lower region of the island is moist, tropical, and unhealthy; but there are extensive elevated temperate healthy districts in the interior of the island, where the central range of mountains which runs the whole length of the island attains 10,000 feet altitude.

The ruling nation of the island, the Hovas, are supposed to have affinity with the Malays; the other more numerous tribes being Negro.

Madagascar contains many curious animals and plants that are found nowhere else in the world (such as the aye-aye and lemurs); but its fauna and flora are most nearly allied to those of the nearest part of the African coast. Madagascar is known to contain gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and coal.

Madagascar has always been governed from within; no European nation having ever conquered the island or made any considerable settlement on it. The Government of the Hovas is a monarchy.

English Missionaries first established themselves in the island in 1820. Subsequently Queen Ranavolana expelled them and persecuted the converts; since her death the island is again open, and there are now 5,000 native Christians.

561. Bourbon, Mauritius, and several smaller islands, constitute the Mascarene group of islands.

Bourbon is a sugar island belonging to France; it contains an active volcano.

Mauritius, colonised by the French, was captured by the English and retained by them at the peace of 1814. It produces sugar, also coffee and cotton. The island is small, but has a population exceeding 300,000 nearly all black. The whites mostly speak French. Coolies from Bengal are largely imported to work the sugar plantations.

562. St. Helena and Ascension are mid-ocean and small, and are occupied by England as stations where ships can get supplies. The population of St. Helena is about 5,000, and that of Ascension about 500.

563. The islands off Cape St. Verde, called shortly The Verdes, are very hot, and suffer from drought. They belong to Portugal, and are a coaling station for steamships.

564. The three Macaronesian groups (their ancient Greek name=The "Isles of the Blessed") were so named from their delightful climate and excellent fruits. They are all the summits of volcanoes that rise from the deep bed of the Atlantic so high that their tops are out of water; and their soil is very fertile, as is usually the case with disintegrated volcanic rocks.

(a) The Canaries are generally reckoned seven islands, of which Great Canary is the chief. Teneriffe is celebrated for its Peak, a volcanic cone 12,240 feet high. Ferro is the island through which the prime meridian of geographers (other than the English) passes.

The Canaries are an integral part of Spain, as Wight is of England, and are inhabited by pure Spaniards. They are deficient in springs of water. They export wine, cochineal, and Spanish onions.

(6) Madeira (which has several islets attached to it) is better watered than the Canaries. It belongs to the Portuguese, and the inhabitants are in the main Portuguese. It exports wine.

(c) The Azores, or Western Islands, are cooler, windier, and wetter than the two former groups. They belong to Portugal. They produce in large quantity the finest oranges, which are largely exported. In England the best oranges are sold as St. Michael's" oranges, St. Michael being the largest island among the Azores.

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Sect. XLII. AUSTRALIA.

565. EXTENT. Australia is about three-fourths the area of Europe, but is larger than that portion of Europe which has a mild enough climate to grow corn.

566. ATTACHED ISLAND. Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, is attached to Australia as Ceylon to India. New Guinea, and many other smaller islands of the Malay archipelago, belong to the Australian region of animals and plants.

567. CLIMATE, About one-third of Australia lies within the tropics, and the remainder is warm-temperate.

In tropical Australia the climate is hot and moist, much resembling that of India. There is a regular season of rains, which follows the hot season of November and December.

The southern coast of Australia is well into the temperate zone, and open to the prevailing south-west breeze from the ocean. It thus gets rain in the cold season (June to August).

In the vast intermediate area of Australia the rain is insufficient and very irregular, so that particular districts may remain two or three years with scarcely any. A district thus suffering becomes a desert; and there are also considerable permanent deserts in Australia. The heat of the sun in these Australian deserts is fully as great as in the Sahara; and throughout even South Australia the heat of the sun in summer is extreme, and hot winds occur. But

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the climate of South Australia is on the whole one of the finest in the world; the sky is clear, the air generally very dry, and even in winter there is little frost. The country is found eminently healthy for Englishmen, and suitable for all domestic animals that have been imported.

568. MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS. Australia differs from Europe, Asia, and Africa, in having no great central body of elevated land. A broad band running through the middle of it, from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north to the Great Australian Bight of the south coast, and comprising the greater part of its entire area, is but little raised above the sea, though isolated hills on it attain 2,000 feet.

The principal range of mountains in Australia runs from Cape York in the north to Bass Strait in the south, and is sometimes called the Australian Alps. It runs near the eastern coast through its entire length, and forms a continuous watershed, so that no considerable river falls into the sea from the eastern coast of Australia. The most elevated part of it is the southern, where the highest points do not exceed 7,500 feet.

In West Australia there are also mountain ranges running parallel with or near to the coast, but they in general do not exceed 1,000—2,000 feet in height, though particular points attain 5,000 feet.

There is a line of extinct volcanoes near the south coast in Victoria and South Australia.

Australia is on the whole a continent of extensive gently sloping plains, in some places grassy, and well adapted for grazing, but in many other places desert or producing only scrub.

569. RIVERS. The only river of any size in Australia is the Murray, which, collecting the water from the west side of the Australian Alps, falls into the sea near Adelaide.

The Swan river, on the west coast, gives its name to the government of West Australia, which was formerly called the Swan River Settlement.

Many of the Australian rivers dry up in seasons of drought, while on the occasion of heavy rains they overflow and form

large lakes, which again gradually dry up. Other Australian rivers seem to lose themselves in lagoons in the interior and never to reach the sea.

570.

COMMUNICATIONS. Australia has many fine natural harbours: such are Port Jackson, the port of Sidney; Port Philip, the harbour of Melbourne and Geelong; Port Adelaide, St. George's Sound; and Moreton Bay.

There are good roads in all the populous settlements, and fifteen hundred miles of railway have been opened near the several capital towns.

571. RACES OF MEN. The indigenous Australian race is very low in physique, intelligence, and capacity for civilization. The Australian natives are much inferior to the Papuans and other branches of the race. Australia was very thinly peopled when visited a hundred years ago by the earlier navigators, and the Australians disappear before the European immigrant. They have utterly disappeared in Tasmania, and in Australia it is believed that not more than 60,000 of them remain, mostly in the north-west of the continent, where there is no European population. The whites in Australia are more than 2,000,000, mostly English.

572. RELIGION AND LANGUAGE. The language of the white population is English, their religion Christianity. The religion of the blacks is Fetishism or none. The Christians belong mainly either to the Church of England or to various Protestant sects.

573. HISTORIC SKETCH. The existence of a great mass of land south of the Malay archipelago was discovered in A.D. 1606 by the Dutch, who gave it first the name of Terra Australis, i.e. the South Land, but afterwards called it New Holland. Not much was done, even in surveying the coast, till Captain Cook visited it in A.D. 1768. The first convicts were sent in A.D. 1787 to Botany Bay near Sydney, so named by Captain Cook because the naturalists attached to his ship landed and made good collections of novel wild plants there, Australia remained thus a convict settlement till A.D. 1830, when English settlers, attracted by the excellent pastures, began to colonize