Climate.—The climate of Australia is generally hot and dry, but very healthy. In the tropical portions there are heavy rains, and in most of the coast districts there is a sufficiency of moisture, but in the interior the heat and drought are ex treme. Considerable portions now de voted to pasturage are liable, at times, to suffer from drought.
Mineralogy.—Australia is a region containing a vast quantity of mineral wealth. Foremost come its rich and ex tensive deposits of gold. Australia also possesses silver, copper, tin, lead, zinc, antimony, mercury, plumbago, etc., in abundance, besides coal and iron. Various precious stones are found, as the garnet, ruby, topaz, sapphire, and even the dia mond. Of building stone there are granite, limestone, marble, and sand stone.
Plant Life.—The Australian flora pre sents peculiarities which mark it off by itself in a very decided manner. Many of its most striking features have an un mistakable relation to the general dry ness of the climate. The trees and bushes have, for the most part, a scanty foliage, presenting little surface for evaporation, or thick leathery leaves well fitted to re thin moisture. The most widely spread types of Australian vegetation are the various kinds of gum tree (eucalyptus), the shea-oak (casuarina), the acacia or wattle, the grass tree (xanthorrhcea), many varieties of proteacem, and a great number of ferns and tree ferns. Indi vidual specimens of the peppermint (E. amygdalina) have been found to meas ure from 480 to 500 feet in height. As timber trees the most valuable members of this genus are the E. rostrata (or red gum), E. leucoxylon, and E. marginata, the timber of which is hard, dense, and almost indestructible. A number of the gum trees have deciduous bark. The wat tle or acacia includes about 300 species, some of them of considerable economic value, yielding good timber or bark for tanning. The most beautiful and most useful is that known as the golden wat tle (A. dealbata), which in spring is adorned with rich masses of fragrant yellow blossoms. Palms—of which there are 24 species, all except the cocoa-palm peculiar to Australia—are confined to the N. and E. coasts. A plant which covers large areas in the arid regions is the spinifex or porcupine grass, a hard, coarse, and excessively spiny plant. Other large tracts are occupied by herbs or bushes of a more valuable kind, from their affording fodder. Foremost among those stands the salt-bush (atriplex num mularia, order clienopodiacem). Beauti ful flowering plants are numerous. Aus tralia also possesses great numbers of turf-forming grasses, such as the kan garoo grass (antiiistiria australis), which survives even a tolerably pro tracted drought. The native fruit trees are few and unimportant, and the same may be said of the plants yielding roots used as food; but exotic fruits and vege tables may now be had in the different colonies in great abundance and of ex cellent quality. The vine, the olive, and mulberry thrive well, and quantities of wine are now produced. The cereals of Europe and maize are extensively culti vated, and large tracts of country, par ticularly in Queensland, are under the sugar-cane.
Animal Life.—The Australian fauna is almost unique in its character. Its great feature is the nearly total absence of all the forms of mammalia which abound in the rest of the world, their place being supplied by a great variety of marsupials —these animals being nowhere else found, except in the opossums of Amer ica. There are 110 kinds of marsupials (of which the kangaroo, wombat, bandi coot, and phalangers or opossums, are the best known varieties), over 20 kinds of bats, a wild dog (the dingo), and a num ber of rats and mice. Two extraordinary animals, the platypus, or water mole of the colonist (orizithorhynchus), and the porcupine ant-eater (echidna) constitute the lowest order of mammals (monotre mata), and are confined to Australia. Their young are produced from eggs. Australia now possesses a large stock of the domestic animals of England, which thrive there remarkably well. The breed of horses is excellent. Horned cattle and sheep are largely bred, the first attaining a great size, while the sheep improve in fleece and their flesh in flavor. There are upward of 650 different species of birds, the largest being the emu, or Aus tralian ostrich, and a species of casso wary. Peculiar to the country are the black swan, the honey sucker, the lyre bird, the brush turkey, and other mound building birds, the bower birds, etc. The parrot tribe preponderate over most other groups of birds in the continent. There. are many reptiles, the largest being the alligator, found in some of the northern rivers. There are upward of 60 different species of snakes, some of which are very venomous. Lizards, frogs, and insects are also numerous in various parts. The seas, rivers, and la goons abound in fish of many varieties.
Peoples.—The natives belong to the Australian negro stock, and are some times considered the lowest as regards intelligence in the whole human family, though this is doubtful. They are be lieved to number between 75,000 and 100,000, exclusive of those in the unex plored parts. They are of a dark-brown or black color, with jet-black curly, but not woolly, hair, of medium size, but inferior muscular development. They have no fixed habitations; in the summer they live almost entirely in the open air, and in the more inclement weather they shelter themselves with bark erections of the rudest construction. They have no cultivation and no domestic animals. Their food consists of such animals as they can kill, and no kind of living crea ture seems to be rejected, snakes, lizards, frogs, and even insects being eaten, often half raw. They speak a number of dif ferent languages or dialects. They are occasionally employed by the settlers in light kinds of work and as horse-break ers. The weapons of all the tribes are generally similar, consisting of spears, shields, boomerangs, wooden axes, clubs, and stone hatchets. Of these the boom erang is the most singular, being an in vention confined to the Australians.
Government.—In addition to the cen tral federated government (see AUSTRA