It is pleasing to observe how a better acquaintance with Australia, both in the way of discovery and settlement, is surely leading on to the belief that it will yet be the home of a numerous population. For a long period it was reckoned unfit to be the habitation of civilized man, except along the seaboards. The want of water, and continuous deserts, were supposed to have placed the interior beyond the pale of settlement. But experience has already revealed a system of compensations by which this hasty judgment has come to be reversed, and the back country settled by a thriving population. There are deserts, indeed, in which one might search in vain for a blade of grass, but they contain many patches of nutritious shrubs, which not only keep alive, but even fatten, stock. Water, too, is scarce, but, by another of these admirable compensations, it is capable of being stored in any quantity, and for any length of time, without becoming putrid--an advantage unknown to the home countries. The rainfall, moreover, is very scant --perhaps not more than seven inches per annum in the far interior--but then the recent borings with the diamond drill have shown that an abundant supply may be obtained from subterranean sources. The latest announcement made to us, now standing on the threshold of the centennial year, is the most encouraging of all. By the ticking of the telegraph we learn that an experiment at Barcaldine, in Queensland, has brought to the surface of the bore a daily discharge of something approaching to 100,000 gallons of water fit for all purposes. Experience is ever revealing new relations of material adaptability. There is a sympathy between a country and its inhabitants, which may have a deeper foundation than the fancy of the poet. The land and the people are the complements of one another. "God made the earth to be inhabited," and there is now no fear of Australia being an exception to the rule. INDEX. Aborigines, 67, 79, 88, 103, 106, 123, 125, 127, 128, 136, 140, 147, 149, 150, 162, 179, 186, 191 Abundance, Mt., 160, 161 Adelaide, 97 River, 23, 207 Albany, Port, 145, 149 Albert R., 23, 182, 193 Alexandrina, L., 82 Alice R., 143 Amadeus, L., 230 Arnheim B., 18 Austin, Mr. R., 240 Australia, why so called, 13 Western, 97 Crossing, 209, 210 Centre of, 197, 201 _Australis, Calamus_, 146 Balonne R., 138 Barcoo R., 95, 143 Bass's Discoveries, 6-19 Strait, 11, 12 Bathurst, Plains of, 30, 67-70 Laid out, 36 Batman, John, 126 Baudin, 15 Belyando R., 142 Bight, Great Australian, 99-101, 221 Blacks--_see_ Aborigines Blaxland, Gregory, 28 Blue Mts., 25-33 Unsuccessful attempt to cross, 25-27 Crossed, 28-33 Bogan R., 71, 119-121 Botany B., 1 Bottle Trees, 139 Bourke, Fort, 121 Bridge, St. George's, 138 Brisbane R., 57 Broken B., 5 Burdekin R., 166 Burke, R. O'Hara, 168 and Wills, 169-181 Byng, Mt., 134 Camels, 169, 213, 215, 218 Campaspe R., 134 Carpentaria, 135, 193 Gulf of, 18, 173, 189