DARLING, a name derived from a governor of New South Wales, and applied to a district, a mountain-range, and a river in Australia.-1. The Darling Downs district includes an extensive tract near the dividing range in the s. of Queensland. The dis trict has an area of about 6,000 sq.m., and is watered by the Condamine, Weir, and Moonie rivers. It is the richest pastoral district in the colony, and comprises a vast extent of fine agricultural land.-2. A mountain range, running n. and s.. about 250 m. long, lying wholly in West Australia. It terminates in the direction of the sea at Point d'Entrecasteaux. Its culminating summit is not less than 3,000 ft. above the sea-level. —3. The river Darling, in New South Wales, aptly characterized as "mysterious," demands special attention, not only in itself, but also in connection with some of the most striking peculiarities of the country. From the western declivities of the almost continuous ridge that skirts the eastern coast, innumerable torrents pour down into the vast plains, which gradually slope away towards the interior. The more northerly of these torrents converge in a central " basin of clay," on the 30th parallel of s. lat., where,
within a comparatively narrow space, meet the Maranoa, the Condamine, the Duma resque, the Gwydir, the Namoi, the Castlereagh, the Macquarie, and the Bogan. In this region, the channels undergo many transformations, sometimes losing themselves in wide marshes, and sometimes presenting an inextricable labyrinth of bifurcations and junc tions. After parting with a large proportion of their volume, under the combined influences of evaporation and absorption, the united streams, now distinguished as the D., pursue a journey of 600 m. to the Murray, through plains which are habitable only on the immediate verge of the water-course. Through this immense reach, the D. receives not a single affluent; nay, on the contrary, it sends out many an offset, to bury itself in some stagnant lagoon. It may be added, that none of the so-called rivers of this region of Australia, with the solitary exception of the Murray itself, is really entitled to the name. Between lofty banks of bare earth, they exhibit at times an inundating flood, at times a mere series of detached pools of every size and shape.