We give a second extract from the same traveller. "I learned also, from a Scotchman in Mr. Thorburn's employment, whose family had suffered heavily from sickness last winter, that flowers and parties by no means engross the sole attention of the ladies of New York. He assured me, that within his own observation, it was quite wonderful what they continued to do, in visiting, clothing, and attending to the poor. This man left Glasgow in great destitution about a year ago. He is now in comfortable circumstances, and his family provided for; but the first fortnight which honest Saunders Lee spent in New York, a total stranger, without money or engagement, he described with a shudder, as perfectly awful." The following extract is from the letter of a female emigrant, whose husband had fallen sick,on his arrival:We hired a room, and my husband bought a saw, and went sawing wood, and doing any thing; and we thought we should get through the winter pretty well; but after about three weeks, he was taken ill, and it proved to be a typhus fever. We had no parish to apply to for relief; but you would be astonished at the friends we have found; for people that were quite strangers have called to know if the sick Englishman lived here; one kind gentleman sent for a doctor, and another good old Methodist gave me leave to go to the grocer's for any thing in his name; and others were equally kind. I never thought I should meet with such friends among strangers. Husband is now mending fast."

Mr. Flint says "To-day a vessel from Dumfries arrived; and a few minutes after she was moored, one of the brothers Messrs. Ronaldson went aboard, making inquiries after the views and circumstances of the poorer classes of emigrants. He employed one of them, pointed out where several others would find work, and gave advice to the rest. This is not a new or rare instance of benevolence on the part of these gentlemen.""Every day numbers of European emigrants are to be seen in the streets [of Philadelphia]; I have never heard of another feeling than good wishes to them."

It is frequently mentioned, that difference of rank or of wealth is not so much thought of in America as in this country, and that the industrious labouring man stands more nearly on an equality with his employer than with us. The following extracts relate to this subject.

Extract of a letter from a labourer:-"A person must not think of coming here without working, and they despise drunkards; but if a person keeps steady, he is respected much more than in England; he is admitted at table with the farmer."

The following extract is illustrative of American manners in various respects. It is from Mr. Stuart: When they meet us walking, they, whether acquainted with us or not, frequently stop their vehicles, and very civilly offer us a ride with them, and will hardly believe us to be serious when we decline to avail ourselves of their kindly meant invitations, and tell them we prefer to walk. There are few more striking points of difference between this country and Britain, than in the numbers of people who ride and walk on the public roads. It absolutely seems disgraceful to be seen walking. The circumstance, no doubt, proves the easy circumstances of the mass of the people, as well as the value of time to a mechanic, whose wages may be from one to two dollars a day, and who can better afford to pay for a conveyance and spend less time, than to walk and spend We have not hitherto," he adds in another place, "secn any thing like a poor man's house, or a beggar, or any one who did not seem well clothed and well fed."

more."

Such are some of the traits of character of the inha bitants of North America, who, although speaking the English language, and living under institutions strictly English in their character, differ, as may be supposed, in several respects in their manners from the people of this country. They do not lay claim to that artificiality and polish which distinguishes what is called "good society" in Great Britain; they are more downright and frank in their behaviour, less ceremonious, and are in every way a more independent people in their thoughts and actions than the generality of English and Scotch From all that we can understand of their character, they seem to possess less of the quality which produces cringing" than any people on the surface of the earth It may be conceived, from the extraordinary mixture of classes of persons from most European countries, and the wide field offered for adventure and enterprise, that the Americans have little of that staidness of disposition and subdued tone of mind which are characteristic of the British nation. Society, in the partially settled districts, is therefore still in a loose condition; and emigrants will require to be more alert in regard to their interests, and much more on their guard against deception, than in this old-established country. It is deeply to be regretted, that, for a number of years, there has been a class of writers in Great Britain, and a few travellers, whose deeply-rooted object it has been to vilify the American nation in the gross, and to hold up not only their institutions and usages, but all that belongs to the country, whether in nature or art, as fit subjects of ridicule and contempt. The unworthy calumnies which have been industriously circulated by these splenetic writers, need not in the smallest degree produce hesitation among emigrants in reference to settling in the United States. The citizens of the North American Union are essentially British in their origin and character. Their other peculiarities have naturally arisen from the fortunate circumstances under which they are placed; and in which peculiarities we would equally partake, had we fewer public burdens, fewer causes to be careworn, as well as a greater scope for the profitable exercise of our industry In comparing Canada with the States, every intelligent traveller allows, that the citizens of the Union are infinitely more active than the subjects of Great Britain Within the colonial territories, all public works, and most of the settlements, proceed slowly, the system seem ing to be rather inert; while on the States' side of the boundary, every species of work proceeds with the most astonishing rapidity-canals being cut, railways formed, and towns built, in an inconceivably brief space of time. As Upper Canada has nearly the same natural advantages as the States, and as the people, may be presumed, are as well educated and as generally intelligent, it would seem that the true cause of the difference we specify is in the mode of conducting public affairs. It may be conceded, that the provinces are as well managed as they could possibly be; but it must also be allowed, that it is not in the nature of things that a country, with its seat of government three thousand miles distant, can be so advantageously conducted as another country, where the government is not only on the spot, but consists of the people themselves. It is not, however, our object here to draw any comparison between the political condition of the colonies and States. Both have free institutions, and both possess those capabilities which can yield comfort to settlers. The honest, the indus trious, and the enterprising, will do well in either, and will command respect and ascendency wherever they may fix their place of settlement.

AUSTRALIA is an island of extraordinary magnitude, orming the chief of a group lying off the southern coast of Asia, and collectively termed Australasia. Next to the great continents composing the four "quarters" of the world, it is the largest mass of land of which we have any certain acquaintance, being in length from east to vest 2000 miles, and in breadth from north to south 1700. It lies between 9° and 38° of south latitude, and 112° and 153° east longitude. Australia was discovered by the Dutch in 1616, and from them it received the name of New Holland, which is now generally disused. The Dutch having done little more than merely point out the island, it was afterwards visited and more carefully examined by several English navigators, and among those by the celebrated Captain Cook, who bestowed upon its eastern coast the name of New South Wales. Its distance from Great Britain is 16,000 miles by ship's course. Australia has a few small islands near its shores; and one of larger dimensions on the south, called Van Diemen's Land, from which it is separated by a channel named Bass's Straits.

The physical geography of Australia is in some respects peculiar. The country, taken as a whole, and as far as it has been explored, exhibits less hill and dale, with less compact vegetation, than most other parts of the world. At different places there are extensive ranges of moun.ains, between which and the sea there are generally some fertile valleys; other parts of the coast are flat and sandy; while the greater part of the interior is said to consist of extensive plains, with rising terrace-like land, and low ridges of hills, with open forest. Nowhere are there any dense forests like those of North America; the timber is for the most part thinly scattered, and the scenery has in numberless places been compared to that of a gentleman's park in England. The herbage in nearly all quarters, except the fertile valleys, is thin, and what in England would be called scanty; yet there are spots in which the vegetation is exceedingly beautiful. Australia has a variety of rivers, great and small, as the Hunter, the Hawkesbury, the Macquarrie, Lachlan, Murumbidgee, &c., but they all less or more possess the peculiarity of being subject to great flooding at certain seasons, and being very low at others; consequently, none can be said to be navigable for any great length. Some of the rivers are liable to be so greatly dried up in summer, that they cease to flow, and their course is only known by a series of pools, from which alone water is to be obtained. A natural result of this general deficiency of rrigation, is the scanty herbage already noticed, and the adaptation of the land more to pasturing than to agriculture. It is to be remarked, however, that the coarse scanty grasses are extremely nutritious; those named oat-grass and kangaroo-grass are distinguished for their fattening qualities for horses, cattle and sheep.

In a late expedition into the interior, from the eastern coast, Captain Sturt advanced towards the north beyond the 145th meridian, and on the south beyond the 140th, and found that the country preserved, as far as he was able to see from some hills, the same uniform appearance of an immense level plain. This extensive country resembles as little the plains of South America, covered with abundant grass, as the African Sahara, with its moving sands: it seems to approach in character to the wide steppes which surround the lake of Aral, and extend to the Caspian Sea ard the Ural Mountains. But

we are inclined to think that they are somewhat better adapted to sustain inhabitants than the steppes of Asia. These plains of Australia are, in many parts, extremely level; in others, they are slightly undulating; and here and there, but at great distances, sometimes of more than a hundred miles, a sandy eminence rises, which hardly deserves to be called a hill: the loftiest of these eminences are not above 300 feet higher than the plain on which they stand.

"All over this extent of country the soil presents only two varieties: it is either a red sandy loam or a white coarse sand. In some places it is entirely destitute of vegetation, in others it nourishes only salsolaceous plants, without a blade of grass between them. Others, again, are covered with polygonum, a gloony and leafless bramble; and in a few tracts patches of ground are discovered, which appear to be moist, and in which the calystemma is abundant. Such patches probably form quicksands in the rainy season. Those parts of the plains which seem to have the best soil, produce stunted gum-trees and cypresses. Large tracts of country are covered with shells and the claws of cray-fish, and this soil, although an alluvial deposit, is superficially sandy They bear the appearance not only of being frequently inundated, but also of the floods having subsided upon them. On their surface no accumulation of rubbish is observed, so as to indicate a rush of waters to any one point; but numerous minor channels are traced, which evidently distribute the floods equally and generally over every part of the area which is subject to them.

"My impression," says Captain Sturt, "when travelling in the country to the west and north-west of the marshes of the Macquarrie, was, that I was traversing a country of comparatively recent formation. The sandy nature of the soil, the great want of vegetable decay, the salsolaceous character of the plants, the appearance of its isolated hills and flooded tracts, and its trifling elevation above the sea, severally contributed to strengthen these impressions on my mind."*

The conjecture of Captain Sturt, that Australia is of a more recent formation than the rest of the globe, is by no means singular, but how far it is correct it is here unnecessary to inquire. It is at least remarkable, that nature has, in several instances, put on very different forms in Australia from what are customary elsewhere. Among the animal tribes, the chief are of the pouched kind, and move forward by springing. The kangaroo is the principal animal of this description, and there are different kinds of it; some are from four to five feet in height, when sitting on their hind legs. They will, in some cases, leap twenty feet at a single bound, by which odd species of movement they are able to outstrip a horse at full gallop. This interesting and pacific class of animals is fast diminishing in numbers; they are now seldom seen in the settled parts of the country. Opossums are numerous. There is an animal half-bird, half-beast, or possessing the bill and feet of a duck, and the body of a mole or rat (ornithorhyncus paradoxus). Wild savage animals are unknown, the native dog excepted, which has been pretty well hunted in some quarters. Of birds there are some singular varieties, both large and small. There are, in particular, a great variety of parrots, parro quets, and cockatoos, all with exceedingly beautiful plu

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mage-green, red, purple, and white. The doves are equally splendid in their feathery coverings. There are several kinds of native bees, "which are without stings, and produce a great deal of delicious honey."-(Martin.) Of snakes there are several varieties, some of them poisonous. Musquitoes prevail in the uncleared districts, as they do in all warm uncultivated regions where there are marshes and trees to harbour them; but we do not see it anywhere mentioned that they form that horrid nuisance which they are in almost every part of North America. In some places, fleas are described as forming a serious nuisance. The rivers abound with fish, some with cod of a large size; and of aquatic birds the usual kinds are seen, including swans of a dark colour. Shrimps, mussels, and oysters, are plentiful; the oysters, though small, are of a very superior quality, and abound on some parts of the coast to an extent quite unprecedented in any other quarter of the globe. The seal and whale fishery on the coasts of Australia offer boundless scope for profitable adventure to those acquainted with this branch of industry, and who have capital to risk.

The mineral riches of Australia are also of great amount. "Coal and iron, the most valuable of minerals, are met with in inexhaustible abundance, the latter being not infrequently found in the state of native iron in large detached masses on the surface of the ground. Limestone is still more abundant, and in some parts of the territory, as in Argyle county, New South Wales, it passes into marble, of which beautiful specimens have already been cut and polished by a skilful artisan from London, now established in Sydney.”—(Lang.) The colony also possesses clay fit for pottery. A manufactory of brown and glazed earthenware, of the best quality, has lately been commenced on a large scale at Irrawang, near the confluence of the rivers William and Hunter, by that enterprising and scientific settler Mr. King, the wellknown discoverer of the superior quality of Sydney sand for the manufacture of glass.

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Vast as are the latent resources of Australia with respect to its fruitage, mining, and fisheries, it is not to these departments of industry that the country at present looks for its advancement. Its grand resource consists in an illimitable extent of pasture-land, which it presents to the sheep-farmer or the proprietor of cattle in every direction."-(Lang.) No country on the face of the earth seems to be so admirably adapted for the feeding of sheep and produce of fine wool. America, as is well known, is not a sheep-feeding or wool-growing country. In Canada and other northern parts, sheep require to be housed and fed by artificial means for several long winter months; while on the fine prairies of the States, the sheep which are left at large throughout the year do not yield wool of a valuable quality. Australia, on the other hand, resembles Spain in its qualities for pasturage in all seasons; and its climate produces equally fine, if not superior wool. At the present moment, Australian wool enjoys the highest reputation in England and America-it takes the lead in the market-and so readily and so profitably is it disposed of, that the cost of transport of sixteen thousand miles goes almost for nothing in the grower's calculation of profits. Most of those beautiful and soft woollen fabrics which go by the names of Indianas, Merinoes, and Challis, and are in so great request by ladies, in the shops of our haberdashers, are chiefly manufactured from this fine Australian wool; and it is obvious, from the growing taste and demand for these articles, which are so well suited to our climate, that (barring fiscal interference) the production and sale of this species of wool must soon become one of the first trades connected with British commerce.

The aborigines or natives of New South Wales are now very inconsiderable in numbers. They lead the usual wandering life of savages, roaming throughout the interior in small tribes, each claiming as head-quarters a

respective territory. They are jet black in complexion, in general tall and thin in their persons, with large large lips, and wide mouths, and are altogether the re of beautiful, according to our ideas of that quality. have been considered, although the opinion is not pletely borne out by experience, as among the low all known savages in the scale of intellect. Th certainly less mechanical genius among themcontrivances to improve the original condition of than are to be found among the natives of any quarter of the globe. Their only arms are a rule or rather pointed pole, which, however, they throw great force and precision; and a short club, ca themselves a waddie. Their huts are of the poo scription, and they wear no sort of covering whate their bodies. All attempts to civilize them, and to them to abandon their wandering life, have hithert nearly ineffectual; and with the exception of a the neighbourhood of Sydney, and some other of the lonial towns, whom this contiguity has, in some è forced into a half-domesticated state, they still wan roving tribes throughout the interior. From the las counts, it does not appear that the white settlers an suffering much from these miserable beings; inde seems that any person may command their good the slightest efforts of kindness and conciliation.

The climate of Australia, confining ourselves of n to the settled portion of the country, although vari considerably in different districts, is altogether agreeable and salubrious. According to Mr. Ca ham, who was a surgeon in the colony of New So Wales, exposure produces no bad effect, from the ness of the atmosphere; and it has been recomme to consumptive patients. The summer commenc December and extends to February, during which p the heat is considerable. Dr. Lang states that the e mometer seldom rises above 75° in Sydney, except wa the hot winds blow from the west. Another w mentions having walked two miles to church, with thermometer at 146° in the sun, and 95° in the shar yet felt no inconvenience, the air being dry and In the lower districts, the air is tempered by a coo delightful sea-breeze, which blows steadily and regul through the day, and is succeeded at night by an a steady and grateful breeze from the land. The ate temperature at Sydney during winter is 55°, and ** is only one instance on record of snow having fal the town, which was on the 17th June, 1836. I higher districts, of course, the cold is greater; the t mometer at Paramatta sometimes falling so low a and in the district of Bathurst snow lies for a short t in winter.

A peculiarity in the climate of Australia is the p lence of hot winds during the summer. These blowe the north-west, and resemble a strong current of air f a heated furnace, raising the thermometer to 100° int shade, and 125° when exposed to their influence. Ty seldom occur more than four or five times every sunty and last only a few days. It has been supposed t these winds derive their extreme heat from passing a great extent of arid and heated country, which depra them of all moisture. Breton, in his tour in New S Wales, says "I rode fifty miles a day, in the hot wa without feeling more inconvenience than in a hot day England; and at night I have slept in the open air, m saddle for a pillow-the breeze balmy, the firmate studded with innumerable bright stars shining sweet! through the deep blue of that cloudless sky, and neve yet experienced any ill effects from it; indeed, in a mate like that of New South Wales, I question if y thing is to be feared from night exposure."

Regarding the mortality in Australia, no certain tale have as yet been formed. Dr. Lang says "Ian D clined to believe that the probabilities of life for my

Cumberland. Following out the line of coast, as originally proposed, we now come to the county of Cumberland, which has a coast line, stretching southward, of about fifty-six miles, namely, from Broken Bay to Coal Cliffs, about eighteen miles south of Port Hacking, and running inland about forty miles. This county, though one of the smallest, and in point of fertility of soil one of the worst in New South Wales, is nevertheless the most important of the whole, from its containing the principal towns in the colony, and among these Sydney, the capital. In this county, also, is situated the celebrated Botany Bay. The towns and ports in this district are Sydney, the capital Paramatta, Windsor, Liverpool, Campbeltown, and Darling Harbour. By a reference to the map, it will be observed that the coast here is opened up by spacious inlets of the sea, all of which form excellent harbours; into the head of one of these harbours flows the Hawkesbury river, whose banks present a stretch of fine alluvial lands, to the extent of a few thousand acres.

Sydney is situated about seven miles inwards from the head of Port Jackson, which is considered to be one of the finest natural harbours in the world. It is built upon two necks of land, with an inlet between, called Sydney Cove, possessing a depth of water which enables vessels of the greatest burden to come close to the land. Half a century ago, the ground on which Sydney stands was a barren, desolate wild, covered with wood, and tenanted only by savages and the kangaroo. In the year 1800, its population, consisting of free settlers and convicts, amounted to about 4000, and now it is reckoned to be upwards of 30,000. Sydney is in general a handsomely built town, and here are to be found more than all the conveniences and luxuries of a British town of the same extent-regular and handsome markets, public seminaries, banks, flour-mills, warehouses, hotels, distilleries, breweries, steam-engines, stage-coaches for different parts of the colony, five newspapers-the Sydney Herald, the Sydney Monitor, the Sydney Gazette, the Australian, and the Colonist, besides the Government Gazette, equally respectably-looking periodicals with any published in this country. Being the seat of government, here centres the colonial business; and the shipping to and from England and other parts of the world is on an extensive scale.

The wharfs and warehouses in Sydney are of surprising extent, and the fine secure harbour in front, so advantageously adapted for general traffic, as well as the reception of vessels employed in the sperm-whale fishery of the southern ocean, is a grand feature in the scene. From all we can learn of Sydney, it appears that the industry and enterprise of its inhabitants, acting on the great resources around them for inland and external trade, promise to raise this chosen seat of population to a high pitch of prosperity; and we may expect that in a few years Sydney will be by far the most important British city in the colonies. The environs of the town are said to be very charming, and include a botanic garden, laid out with handsome walks and rides.

Next to Sydney in importance, though much inferior to it, is Paramatta, situated at the head of the narrow inlet of the sea in which Port Jackson terminates above Sydney. Between the latter place and the former, a distance of about sixteen miles, there is frequent and regular communication both by land and water, two coaches, one morning and evening, and two passage-boats, daily plying between the two places, the fare of the former 4s.

of the scenery which presents itself on all sides as you proceed to Paramatta by water; the sea generally smooth as glass, or but gently rippled by a slight breeze; innumerable little promontories covered with wood to the water's edge, stretching into the sea, and forming a corresponding number of beautiful little bays and inlets, in endless succession and variety. Paramatta contains upwards of 5000 inhabitants. The greater part of the houses here are built of brick or white freestone, and being for the most part unconnected with each other, cover a greater extent of ground altogether than its population would seem to warrant. The situation of Paramatta is exceedingly delightful. It lies in a spacious hollow, covered with the richest verdure, and surrounded by hills of a moderate height. Here too, are churches, hoteis, taverns, seminaries, &c., and all the other appendages of a considerable country town, with a military and convict barracks, jail, government house, and the female factory, an establishment for the reception of incorrigible female convicts. Many of the private houses are of elegant construction, with parks and gardens attached; the place altogether thus forming rather an assemblage of cottages than a town: the streets, however, are regularly laid out, running north and south, east and west.

Pursuing an inland course for about twenty-one miles, the traveller next arrives at Windsor, containing a population of about 2000. From Paramatta to this little town a coach runs three times a week. Windsor, which, in the description of its buildings, much resembles Paramatta, is built upon a hill close by the River Hawkesbury, which forms the north and north-western boundary of the country, and which, after a circuitous route of about 140 miles, discharges itself into Broken Bay Windsor also contains a handsome government house, with extensive gardens, &c.; two churches, a jail, courthouse, military and convict barracks, taverns, inns, shops, &c. The lands in the neighbourhood of Windsor are exceedingly fertile, but this advantage is more than counterbalanced by its extreme liability to inundation from the Hawkesbury (in consequence of its vicinity to the Blue Mountains), which has been known to rise to the almost incredible height of 93 feet above its ordinary level. Inundations of 70 and 80 feet are of frequent occurrence, and the consequence to settlers within its reach are often fatal, and always ruinous to their settlements. The town itself, which is built on an eminence of about 100 feet above the level of the river, has hitherto escaped these tremendous overflowings; but as its elevation above the highest known floods is only a few feet, it cannot be considered as free from danger. Next to Windsor in importance is Liverpool, at the distance of about eighteen or twenty miles from Sydney, in a south-west direction. Between these two places a stage-coach runs several times a week. Liverpool is situated on the banks of George's river, which discharges itself into Botany Bay. It possesses a church, two or three good inns, stores, court-house, jail, and the usual accompaniments of a town in New South Wales-a convict and military barracks. The soil around Liverpool is of a very indifferent quality; but as the town occupies a central situation between Sydney and some fertile districts in the counties south and west of it, it is, notwithstanding, a place of considerable bustle, and of rising importance. George's river, on which it is situated, and which is about half the size of the Hawkesbury, is navigable for boats of about twenty tons burden as high up as the town. Recurring again to the coast line, we come to the county of

Camden-extending south from Coal Cliffs to Shoa Haven, a distance of from thirty-five to forty miles, and stretching interiorly north about sixty miles, with ap average breadth of about twenty miles. There are no