The forests are inhabited by the panther, rhinoceros, antelope, wild-hog, hare, and rabbit; tame cattle are abundant. Among the fowls may be numbered wildgeese, ducks, quails, partridges, Guinea-hens, and several species of singing-birds: turtles are taken upon some of the islands on the coast. Many kinds of excellent fish are caught in the rivers and seas. The rivers of Delagoa swarm with the hippopotami, and numbers are annually taken, being either entrapped, or wounded by assagayes, so as to cause their destruction. The forests are inhabited by vast herds of elephants, equal in number to those found in any part of this extensive country. Captain Owen was informed that 120 tons of ivory were commonly received at Mozambique annually from this settlement, and that this quantity was in no way considered any extraordinary importation.

What is the character of the climate?

It is said to be healthy; but it would appear that there are pestiferous swamps to the south of it.

The Portuguese lay claim to the entire coast between Cape Guardafui northwards, to the first point of Natal southwards, a tract of coast of about 2,600 miles.

What are the chief vegetable productions of the country along the east coast of Africa?

Two interesting and useful plants, amongst many others, deserve our particular notice; the first is the Colombo plaut, of which the root is a well-known article in the Pharmacopeia, as of singular efficacy in strengthening the stomach and bowels, and curing the cholera morbus, dysentery, and other diseases of the alimentary canal. It has been long used in the East Indies, though its history and native country were envolved in obscurity, some having supposed it to be a native of Colombo, in Ceylon, because of its name. It is now ascertained that it grows naturally in the thick forests that cover the shores of Oibo and Mozambique, as well as inland for several miles. The natives never cultivate it, the spontaneous produce being sufficient; after digging up the root, they cut it in slices, and stringing them on cards, dry them in the sun. It is held in high esteem by the people, who use it for the cure of dysentery, for healing

ulcers, and as a remedy for almost every disorder. The late Sir Walter Farquhar, physician to the king, was very desirous to obtain the Colombo root in a living state, and after many fruitless endeavours, made by his son, Sir Robert Farquhar, governor of Mauritius, who was opposed by the Portuguese authorities on various pretences, but mainly because they were unwilling to permit the exportation of so valuable an article, he finally succeeded in obtaining, through Captain Owen, of His Majesty's ship Leven, growing roots of the Colombo plant. These were distributed to the Mauritius, New Holland, the Seychelles Islands, &c., "and it is thus to be hoped," adds the botanist, "that this valuable plant may be naturalized in these countries, and that its culture may be rendered an object of industry and resource to the planters of the Mauritius." The second is the Telfairia volubilis, a climbing plant lately discovered on the coast of Zanzibar, of very easy cultivation; and producing an esculent fruit, three feet long, and full of seeds as large as chestnuts (264 in one fruit), which are as excellent as almonds, and of a very agreeable flavour; they also yield an abundant oil, equal to that of olives. It was originally brought by M. Bojer, of the Mauritius, from Pemba, on the shores of Zanzibar, where it grows in the forests enveloping the trees with its branches, and sometimes with a stem eighteen inches in circumference. The seeds have been distributed to Bourbon, and New Holland, and, by the missionaries, to New Zealand and Tahite. At Mauritius, it has thriven so well, that it produced stems 30 feet high; and in the stove of the late R. Barclay, Esq., of Bury Hill, to whom Mr. Telfair sent seeds, it grew so luxuriantly, that the pruning knife was in constant requisition to prevent its filling the whole house.

What African islands lie to the eastward of this coast besides the large island of Madagascar and the Comoras?

The French Isle of Bourbon, or Mascarenha, is situa ted in 20° 5' 43" south latitude, and 55° 20' 15" east longitude; it is sixty miles in length and forty-five in breadth. The productions are sugar, coffee, treacle, cacao, wheat, manioc, potatoes, yams, pine-woods, and

timber. The governor and principal authorities reside at St. Denis.

The Mauritius, sometimes called the Isle of France, is situated in 20° 9' south lat., and in 57° 29' east long. This island was taken from the French in 1810; it is about 135 miles in circumference; the climate is healthy, and the soil, though strong, is tolerably fertile. The country is so mountainous that some of the mountains are frequently covered with snow; the whole is well watered, and produces wheat, rice, maize, sugar, indigo, cotton, coffee and cloves.

What sort of harbour is afforded by this island? Port Louis, the principal town, has a safe port, containing fifty large vessels; the town is strongly fortified, and contains about 6,000 houses.

The

What other islands are dependencies of the Mauritius? These are numerous, the principal are Rodriguez, St. Brandon Bank (twelve in number), Diego Garcia, Les six Isles, Les trois Freres, The Onze Isles, Los Peros Banos, Isle Legoun, A. Galega, Coetivi. Seychelles, already mentioned, thirty in number, and of which Malie, the principal, is from 75 to 76 miles in circumference. St. Pierre is an uninhabited island 750 miles north-west from Mauritius, Lastly, the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, about 1450 miles southeast by south from Mauritius.

CONCLUSION.

An examination of the shores of the two oceans that surround Australia, and of Australia itself, suggests new views of various subjects :-man's agency in the distribution of plants and animals-the creation of new centres of commercial enterprise-the effects of steam navigation. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn alone admit of a passage from Europe by sea to those shores, which, in all ages, from the richness of their products, have been most attractive to commerce.

By land, the routes have been various; but although continued through distant ages to the present time, the path of Asiatic commerce has ever had the effect of enriching the cities and countries through which it led— whether through Tyre, Sidon, Baalbec, Palmyra, Alexandria, Genoa, Venice, Lisbon, or Amsterdam. And now, while the Isthmus of Suez and steam navigation admit an access direct to the Indian Ocean from the west: a high way, a mile broad! is proposed to be made direct to the shores of the Pacific, from the east, towards the same favoured regions of India and China.

The cursory view afforded in this book, of the products of the various shores, may suffice to shew why access is so much desired by the commercial nations of the earth, to this side the globe.

The position of Australia commands access to the most favoured regions within the two stormy capes, and it may be said that to this geographical position, considered in relation to more productive regions, rather than to any natural productions of her own, Australia must owe her future importance. For, this country has

not contributed any useful garden vegetable, nor fruit, nor grain, for man's support; nor any domestic animal, nor useful beast of burden. Before the land can be extensively cultivated, it must be artificially irrigated : neither have the medicinal qualities of indigenous plants been discovered, nor has the ingenuity of man been brought to bear on whatever capabilities may exist in the soil or its productions. Neither has the agency of man been yet employed to introduce the numerous natural productions which a beneficent Creator has set before Australians on the opposite shores of surrounding seas, although it is obvious that with the fine soil and climate of Australia, all the elements of wealth and prosperity, may be brought together, to flourish there. To this great end, it behoves the Anglo-Australian youth to study well that portion of the world's geography in which he is thus more immediately interested. If he takes "the wings of the morning," and, following the sun in his course, he examines successively the various countries of South and North America, or even the cold and stormy regions of the north; he must be alike struck with the richness and variety of the vegetable and animal productions, and the ingenuity of man, in rendering them subservient to his use. India and China, the "gorgeous east" of Europe, are covered by his meridian sun, and are his nearest neighbours; while, from even the domestic manufactures of Persia, and the animal economy of Arabia, he might also learn much. But the natural productions of all the other regions and islands washed by the seas of Australia, are either available for cultivation, or accessible to commerce. It is surely, then, impossible for the Anglo-Saxon to be satisfied with the snapper and opossum of Australia, while even the Kamtschadale "enjoys the treasures of his stormy seas," the salmon and the sturgeon; as well as the rich venison, and every species of game, to be found in abundance in his native woods.

While the fur-hunters from the eastern limits of America, the eastern parts of Europe, and western parts of Asia, have all but extirpated the fur-bearing animals, and now face each other at the opposite corner of the Pacific; man