ference to the rocks which they intersect, the volume is closed with the following paragraph, containing the history of the filling of mineral veins.

"The Huttonian hypothesis, that veins have been filled from beneath, appears to me perfectly gratuitous; and the Wernerian hypothesis, that they have been filled from above, though it derives some support from the circumstance of trees and rounded pebbles having been occasionally found in them, is irreconcileable with the alternate opening and closing of veins which we have shewn to take place not unfrequently on their passing from one rock to another."

In this essay, and indeed throughout the whole work, the author frequently employs provincial terms, to which he attaches no explanation, so that the reader, who has not resided in the districts in which they are used, is unable to comprehend their meaning. Thus, we have Killas, Sill, Hazel, Plate, Elvan, Grauan, Cornstone, and many others, for which more intelligible terms might easily have been devised. The style of the author is colloquial throughout; in many cases it degenerates into flippant.

Before taking our leave of Mr. Greenough, we feel disposed to state candidly, that his performance is one by no means calculated to advance his own reputation, or promote the interests of geology. A considerable degree of industry is displayed in the number of books which he has consulted, but the remarks to which they have given rise are thrown together without order, and without reflection, and resemble more the abbreviated entries of an adversaria, than the cautious expressions of a critical disquisition. He appears to be totally unacquainted with the laws of evidence. With him the testimony of every mineralogist is of equal value; all are supposed to have been equally well informed, to have studied the subject with equal care, to have enjoyed equally favourable opportunities for making observations, and to have communicated their knowledge in terms to which they all attached the same significations.

There has resulted from all this a kind of geological scepticism, which we regard in this instance as the index of a mind unaccustomed to philosophical induction, but which others may consider as the mark of free and independent thinking. It is calculated to disgust the adept, and to perplex the tyro. It has been publicly intimated, that the author is a gentleman of independent fortune, and that he has expended large sums in furnishing an extensive collection of minerals. These circumstances, while they aggravate his errors, and render him more dangerous as an authority, recall an expression of the late illustrious Playfair in reference to De Luc, "to reason and to arrange, are 66 very different occupations of the mind; and a man may de"serve praise as a mineralogist, who is but ill qualified for the "researches of geology."

ART. V.-Journals of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales, undertaken by order of the British Government in the years 1817-18. By JOHN OXLEY, Surveyor-General of the territory, and Lieutenant of the Royal Navy. With maps and views of the interior, or newly discovered country. London. John Murray. 1820. Pp. 426. 4to.

WE E mean no disparagement to the merits of this gentleman, when we say that the result of his labours falls vastly short of the expectations we had entertained of them, in common with all who felt interested in the progress of Australian discovery. He has received the public thanks of the highly respectable gover nor, on whose authority he undertook the expeditions here narrated; and no intelligent person who contemplates the difficulties he had to encounter, the hardships and privations he expe rienced, and the sagacity and persevering spirit which he is proved to have displayed in the discharge of the duty enjoined him, will hesitate a moment in approving of that consolatory award. This sentiment, which for our own parts we cordially cherish in the midst of no ordinary disappointment, we think it right to premise in justice to Mr. Oxley; because we happen to have heard what appear to us very unreasonable insinuations, touching the failure and unprofitableness of the enterprise in which, we had almost said, it was his misfortune to have en gaged. Our countrymen, we fear, are generally too confident of their abilities for any task in which resolution and hardhihood are required, to make due allowance for obstacles of any kind which occur in the way of duty; and the nation, which for so long a time has been consciously enriching the history of mankind, by discoveries of the highest consequence, and achieve ments of unsurpassable glory, cannot tolerate with any decency the mortification of a defeat, whether the opposition present itself in the field of battle, or be sustained by the energies of creative power. But, without questioning the theory that suc cess is the only proper proof of desert, more especially when all the operative circumstances are, or may be known, previous to the commencement of an undertaking,-the injustice is quite manifest of applying it where the very first step is into the regions of uncertainty and ignorance, and where the impediments and dangers cannot so much as be guessed at, so that due measures may be taken to avoid or to conquer them. The public mind, we are satisfied, will soon arrive at this conclusion; and, after all, perhaps, the discontent which has been expressed

on the present occasion, is no farther censorious in its nature or its manifestation, than as it is directed to the mode in which the account of a failure has been conveyed to the public.

A little moderation, it may be argued, ought to have been practised on the part of the author or his publisher, as to the aspect, the getting-up, so the phrase is, and consequently the cost of a work, the contents of which bear so miserable a proportion to what was anticipated from it. And on this head we confess, that as we have not materials for a defence, we shall abandon the task of a special pleader. The price of a book we hold to be one of the elements of its character, and one to which, independently of regard to the ability of purchasers, we think it of consequence to attend, for a literary and philosophical reason. It is clear that the interests of authors must be sacrificed, where unnecessary expense, incurred in bringing their productions to market, retards or prevents the sale of them, and that therefore less remuneration will be given by publishers than authors actually and justly require for their labours; whilst, by the same means, the aid which the press may and ought to afford to the public, by the diffusion of knowledge, is to a certain extent virtually denied. Whether in the instance of this work, which may be thought to claim something of the dignity of an official document, etiquette warrants exemption from the laws of economy, we are unable to determine; but whatever be the rule or the caprice of fashion on the subject, we cannot help remonstrating against the impolicy, no less than the ungenerousness, of forcing materials, which, to say the most and the best of them, and on a perfectly liberal calculation, ought not to have been valued at more than ten shillings, into a shape for which it is conceived to be canonical to demand five times that sum as an equivalent. If the transgression, for such it seems to us, were not palpable and enormous, we should have been among the last persons in the world, for. sufficient reasons, to notice it. That our readers may have some idea of its magnitude, we think it right to state, that a page of the book, exclusive of the appendix of official documents, contains only twenty-two lines, consisting on an average of ten words in each. But much of the expense, it is admitted, is incurred on other ground. The maps and charts are ostentatiously good; and the plates, which are pretty enough, but of little value, might well have been spared. We really are grieved to descend from the higher functions of our office to particularize such matters; but as on the one hand a more flagrant piece of extravagance has not hitherto occurred

VOL. IV. NO. V.

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to us, and indeed is scarcely conceivable; so, on the other, we are resolved that no private consideration shall arrest the conscientious course of our public duty.

The nature and result of the first expedition, of which we are here presented with the journal, to the amount of half the volume, were previously known to the public; and were actually specified by ourselves in our review of Mr. Went. worth's work, No. XIII. where our information respecting it was conveyed in a quotation from Mr. Oxley's letter to the gover nor on returning from the expedition, which letter forms a part of the appendix. In one sense, then, it may be thought, we have only half of this work to notice. But as every thing rela tive to this singular country is of present moment, and we have not hitherto had an opportunity of describing its interior, from which so much has been expected, we are induced to enter fully into the contents of this part of Mr. Oxley's work, and indeed entirely to confine ourselves to it for the present. The amount of extracts and remarks we shall make, will shew the interest we take in the subject.

This first expedition, then, was undertaken with a view to three particulars: 1st, and chiefly, as we have elsewhere men tioned, to trace the course and termination of the Lachlan river, which had been discovered by Mr. Evans, deputy-surveyor, near the new settlement of Bathurst, beyond the high lands known by the name of the Blue Mountains; 2dly, to ascertain, in the event of its being found to fall into the sea, as was hoped, the exact place of its embouchure, and whether such place would answer as a safe and good port for shipping; and 3dly, to examine the general face of the country through which the river had its course, the nature of the soil, the woods, and the various vegetable, animal, and mineral productions. The importance of the first object is distinctly recognized in the instructions delivered to Mr. Oxley, whence it is easy to infer the ulterior intentions of government, should the issue of the expedition be what was wished.

"As it is expected that the Lachlan River will be found to empty itself into that part of the sea on the south-west coast of Australia, between Spencer's gulf and Cape Otway, it is hoped you will be able to make all the necessary discoveries, and return again to Bathurst considerably within five months; as the greatest distance from thence to that part of the coast where the river is supposed to fall into it, cannot exceed six hundred miles. It is also hoped and expected that the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers unite at some distant point from where Mr. Evans terminated his trace of the Lachlan River; and in case these two rivers are found to form a junction, the exact place of their confluence must be clearly and exactly ascertained in regard to latitude and longitude, and noted down accordingly."

The party employed on this enterprise consisted in all of thir

teen persons, including Mr. Oxley himself, chief of the expedi tion; Mr. Evans, second in command; Mr. Allan Cunningham, king's botanist; Mr. Charles Fraser, colonial botanist; and Mr. William Parr, mineralogist. It was amply furnished with whatever was thought requisite for the several purposes now explained; and, with a view to its adequate support during the longest period that the expedition was judged likely to be employed, a liberal supply of provisions for five months was directed to be got ready, and to wait its arrival at a depot specially established near the last discovered point of the Lachlan River, where its destined labours were to commence. This depot is reckoned to be in south latitude 33° 40′, and east longitude 148° 21', and at an elevation supposed to be no more than 600 feet above the level of the sea, which is remarkably low, considering the distance from the west coast.

Mr. Oxley quitted Sydney on the 6th of April 1817, and arrived at Bathurst on the 14th, when he learned that the provisions and necessary stores had been duly forwarded to the appointed place on the Lachlan River, which he reached all well on the 25th of the same month. The following description ap plies to much of what was observed by him during his track along this first part of the Lachlan; and is one of the very few passages in which he has occasion to allude to any human beings seen in the course of his melancholy journey.

"At two o'clock saw the river, which certainly did not disappoint me; it was evidently much higher than usual, running a strong stream; the banks very steep, but not so as to render the water inaccessible; the land on cach side quite flat, and thinly clothed with small trees; the soil a rich light loam; higher points occasionally projected on the river, and on those the soil was by no means so good. The largest trees were growing immediately at the water's edge on both sides, and, from their position, formed an arch over the river, obscuring it from observation, although it was from 30 to 40 yards across. At four o'clock we arrived at the depot.

"We had scarcely alighted from our horses, when natives were seen in considerable numbers on the other side of the river. I went down opposite to them, and after some little persuasion, about twenty of them swam across, having their galengar or stone hatchet in one hand, which, on their landing, they threw at our feet, to shew us that they were as much divested of arms as ourselves. After staying a short time they were presented with some kangaroo flesh, with which they re-crossed the river, and kindled their fires. They were very stout and manly, well featured, with long beards; there were a few cloaks among them made of the opossum skin, and it was evident that some of the party had been at Bathurst, from their making use of several English words, and from their readily comprehending many of our questions. The few words of which we were enabled to obtain the meaning from the natives were different from those used to denote the same objects by the natives on the east coast."

Having loaded the boats prepared for the party with as much of the provisions as they could carry, and made arrangements