There is a general impression in Europe that Australia is defi­cient in harbours and navigable rivers. With regard to har­bours on its coast line nothing can be more erroneous. It is in interior navigation that the country is found wanting; but even in this respect recent research has discovered that great prac­tical advantages exist, which only require ordinary energy to render internal rivers available to an immense extent of coun­try, which is as yet without the means of any but the most expensive modes of conveying produce to the port of ship­ment. The colony of New South Wales contains an abundance of excellent harbours, into which some considerable rivers disem­bogue themselves. The best way, perhaps, of giving to the general reader a knowledge of the hydrography of this portion