Excerpt from Australasia, Vol. 1: Australia and New Zealand IN the present volume an attempt has been made to give a compact description of our great Australian Colonies, which shall be useful to intending visitors or emigrants; and which will also be interesting to the general reader who may wish to become acquainted with the natural features and social condition of the Britain of the Southern Hemisphere. A very full account has been given of the natural history and geology of Australia, and the many interesting problems connected with its past history are discussed. The physical characteristics, customs, languages, and probable origin of the aboriginal inhabitants have also been treated at considerable length. A chapter is devoted to the history of Australian exploration with its thrilling records of physical endur ance and heroic sacrifice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Australasia, Vol. 1 For this reason the Portuguese were very careful to keep the secret of their discoveries in the South seas, and they cleverly disguised their charts so that the actual position of the Australian coast was wrongly indicated, and this made the charts useless to all navigators except their own, who knew how to read them correctly by a secret code of explanation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.