Australia produces wheat, Indian corn, and barley, in abundance; they have planted vines, from which they are making good wine; tobacco is successfully and extensively cultivated; but the principal source of wealth is derived from the growth of wool, for the production of which the lands watered by the tributaries of the Murray are as well adapted as the valley of the Mississippi is for the production of cotton. Australia takes a prominent position with respect to civilization, in the midst of the pastoral employment of her population. It is a vast arcadia, the poetical side being cast into shade by the industrial occupation of its inhabitants, and perhaps somewhat damaged by a very natural corruption of morals. It has been called a mine of wool and tallow; 20,000,000 of sheep are said to be pastured on its plains. In England the use of Australian wool has almost entirely superseded that of Germany and Spain, and the Yorkshire manufacturers cannot now dispense with it. In 1850 Australia exported 137,000 bales, and in 1851, 130,000; 130,000 bales are worth about [109]65,000,000 francs. The mother country receives, then, from Australia about £3,000,000 sterling of raw material in exchange for £3,000,000 of English manufactures; the result is most profitable for capital and labor; it is to this beneficial and flourishing trade that the sudden appearance of gold has threatened a most unexpected and alarming interruption. Sir Roderick Murchison, whose opinions are considered as of high authority, commenting on the writings of Count Strelecki on the geology of New South Wales, announced, in the year 1845, that gold would be found in the sides of those great chains of hills, which may be called their Alps or their Pyrennees. At different times, fragments of the precious metal had been brought either to Sydney, or to Melbourne, without having excited the belief in the minds of the public that they were really the product of their own soil. In the month of March, 1851, a person, less incredulous than his neighbours, a Mr. Hargraves, struck with the similarity of the geological features of the country to California, whence he had lately arrived, made up his mind that gold must be to be found in New South Wales, and set himself resolutely to work to hunt for it at the foot of the mountains, and in the beds of the adjacent rivers. Having found some small portions, he followed the pursuit until he had satisfied himself of the existence of gold in a great number of places. He then went to Bathurst, an advanced post in the country, called a public meeting, openly announced his discovery; and in order to give practical proof, took many of his hearers to the seat of his own exploits, in a little valley at the foot of Mount Sumner, where he employed nine miners to dig actively, and to wash the earth. Four ounces of the purest gold were brought to light, as the produce of three days’ labor; each man had gained £2 4s. 4d. (61