The birds are no less singular than the beasts, there being black swans and white eagles; the former every where in such multitudes as to spoil a proverb that had held good for two thousand years ; and their song, if we may credit Mr Bass, " exactly resembles the creaking of a rusty sign on a windy day." The Mcenura superba, with its scalloped tail feathers, is perhaps the most singular and beautiful of that very elegant race of birds known by the name of birds of paradise ; cockatoos, parrots, and parroquets, are in numerable, and of great variety. The mountain eagle is a magnificent creature, but the emu is per haps the tallest and loftiest bird that exists, many of them standing full seven feet high.
The plants are no less singular than the animals. Of these Mr Brown has given a very curious and in structive account in his Geographical and Systema tical Remarks, in the Appendix to Flinders's Voyage. He collected nearly 3900 species of Australasian plants, which, with those brought to England by Sir Joseph Banks and others, supplied him with the ma terials for a Flora Terra Australis, consisting of 4200 species, referable to 120 natural orders : but he remarks, ;hat more than half the number of spe cies belong to eleven only of those orders. Of the Eucalyptus, or gum-tree, the largest yet discovered, there are not fewer than 100 different species. " The Eucalyptus globules of Labillarcliere, says Mr Brown, ' and another species, peculiar to the south of Van Dieman's Land, not unfrequently attain the height of 150 het, with a girth near the base of -from 25 to 40 feet." Of this magnificent genus there are 50 different species within the limits of the colony of Port Jackson. Of the beautiful and elegant Melaleuca Mr Brown collected upwards of 80 species; all of which, with the exception of the two species She Letwodendron and Cajapitti, appear to be confined to Terra Australia. The tribe of Stackhousem is en tirely peculiar to that country. Of the natural order of proteacem, consisting of about 400 known species, more than 200 are natives of New Holland, of which they form one of its characteristic botanical features ; the Basksia, in particular, being one of the most striking peculiarities of the vegetable kingdom. The Casuarina, of which 13 species have been disco vered, is another characteristic feature of the woods and thickets of New Holland. The most extensive genus, however, is the leafless Acacia, of which there are more than 100 species ; and this, with the Eucalyp tus, " if taken together," says Mr Brown, " and consi dered with respect to die mass of vegetable matter they contain, calculated from the size as well as from the number of individuals, are perhaps - nearly equal to all the other plants of that country. The Casuarina and the Eucalyptus are represented as furnishing excellent timber for ship-building, and for all the purposes of domestic furniture, and agri cultural implements ; and the gum of the Eucalyptus is medicinal ; of one species it might be employed as pitch. Freycinet says, they procured a resinous sub
stance from the EanthorThea, which served them to caulk their vessels. The bark of a tree on the Hawkes bury is said to be as efficacious in tanning leather as the oak-bark ; and a creeping plant (smilax) is used as a substitute for tea. Nutmegs were found by Binders on the northern coast, but they were small, and had so little of an aromatic flavour, that Mr Brown gave the plant the specific name of insipida. Among she curious productions of the vegetable world is the Cephalotus follicularis, or pitcher plant, of which a - very correct and detailed drawing is given in the Atlas to Flinders's Voyage. (For an account of the history of the British Colony in New Hollapd, see Naw HOLLAND in the EPIC ; and BOTANY BAY, in this Supplement, or an account of its Fe sent state.) II. Having marked the progressive discovery of this fair and fertile Island, until it was ascertained to be such, by Tasman, Marion, Furneaux, Cook, D'En trarasteaux, Bass, and Flinders; we shall not think it necessary to notice the minor discoveries of Bligh, Hunter, Cox, &c. but proceed to give a general out line of its dimensions, surface, and natural produc -. tions. It is situated between the parallels of 41° and 4.9°.32' south latitude, and 144° 32' and 148° 25' east longitude ; its medial length, from north to south, being about 160, and breadth, from east to west, 145 geographical miles. Its surface possesses every variety of mountain, hill, and dale ; of forests and open meadows ; of inland lakes, rivers, and in lets of the sea, forming .safe and commodious har bours, that can render a country valuable or agree able; and it enjoys a temperate climate, which is, per haps, not very different from that of England, though less subject to violent changes. In ing to our November, Labillardiere observed the mountains in the interior covered with snow. The western and southern coasts are bold, steep, and rocky, the latter terminating so abruptly, as to appear as if it had been broken off: and the group of Islands, named De Witt's Isles, to the southward, twelve in number, formed out of the fragments. Cook found the cliff; on the eastern side composed of sandstone ; but the vast buttresses that look towards the southern seas of ice, are stated by Flinders to be composed of ba saltic columns, appearing like so many stacks of chimneys. Labillardiere found, near this southern extremity, a stratum of coal feet thick, and 200 fathoms long, resting on sandstone.