of keeping records in books rather than in rolls. Being asked whether there would be more danger of losing leaves of books than of losing part of a roll, he answered, "I do not think there is any great danger of that; I have frequently observed the threading of the rolls give way, and I have found half of a roll at one end of the office, and some time afterwards the other half at the other end." This evidence again is opposed to that of Mr. Bailey, who says, "For security, I think the roll would be preferable; but for facility of reference, I think the book is preferable. You are liable to lose part of a book, when you cannot of a roll; you may have a leaf torn out of a book, supposing it was for the advantage of the party to destroy the record; but they could not take a part of a roll." Being reminded of what Mr. Hewlett had said, respecting the injury arising from damp in rolls, he observed, "There is the same likelihood in regard to a book; and, besides, it would be more liable to damp, particularly if it were bound. Mr. Hewlett recommended binding in boards; but that would subject them to worms. I have books, in boards, which have introduced the worms; I would rather use a strong pasteboard, in which there are various substances which a worm could not get into." He added, that he thought it almost impossible to carry away a roll clandestinely. To show, however, that this feat was not so difficult as Mr. Bailey seemed to imagine, Mr. Hewlett related the following anecdote to the committee:-The master of Christ's-hospital once came to me in the Prothonotary's office, in the Temple, with a very large roll, and said that his tailor's

boy had bought it of a man in the street for 4d.; the tailor was about to cut it up for measures, when he (the master) saw it; and not being able to read the hand, brought it to me to know what it was. It turned out to be an escheator's roll, stolen out of the office, of very large bulk indeed." Thus much respecting the mode of keeping the records. A large portion of the evidence relates to the ink and parchment at present employed in the public offices. It appears that the ink has been deteriorating from the period of Henry 8th, and that it is now extremely bad. But it really appears that sufficient pains are not taken to procure the best that could be had: for instance, it was stated in evidence that very good ink used to be furnished to some of the public offices by an old man, who had lately died and left a wife and family. It is very natural to suppose that this man imparted the secret of the manufacture of this ink to his family. The committee, therefore, asked one of the witnesses, who appeared to have employed the old man, whether his family knew how to make the ink; the answer was, "I never inquired." And this, indeed, is the fact. The ink is now supplied to all the public offices and the Houses of Parliament, by the Stationery office. Mr. Caley in his evidence said "I understand there is now a carelessness about the use of ink (in the public offices), and consequently documents up to a hundred years ago cannot be read so well as those of an earlier date." Mr. Caley considers the ink used in the time of Elizabeth extremely bad; the par liamentary rolls of that date are much faded. Some of George 3rd's have faded already.

Mr.

Bailey said "The ink has been of a glutinous nature, which peels off, from the time of Henry 8th. As to the earlier records a piece of parchment might be put into water, and left for two or three days, and it would not be injured: that has been tried. For several years there have been attempts made to wash them with soap and water; it has not had the least effect, but the ink remains brighter and firmer than it was. There was more iron used in the ink in former times than there is now, which has eaten more firmly into the substance." Mr. Hewlett attributed the fading of the ink in some degree to the bad quality of the parchment now used: "It is," he observed, spongy, oily, greasy, and not sufficiently dressed in my opinion, we do not find that in ancient times; we find the parchment as smooth and as capable of taking writing as it can be. The parchment of ancient times is much thinner than it is now; I have seen it almost as fine as paper, and yet good parchment." He added, that

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he did not think sufficient care was taken to procure good parchment for the records; he thought that good stout paper would be better than the parchment now used.

Mr. Cohen thought that the badness of the parchment was occasioned by there being put on it too much calcareous matter, to give it what was called a face. He had observed in modern books printed on vellum, that some preparation of lime had been put on the skin to make them look handsome. The ink in consequence looks black at first, but after a time it scales off. But bad as the parchment is, Mr. Cohen said he should prefer it to the best paper. There are some paper bills preserved in the parliament office; the earliest are of the date of 1600; the paper is very brown, but the writing is legible. The rapid fading of the ink employed in writing public records is a matter which ought to attract the most serious attention of those whose duty it is to endeavour to obviate the mischief.

The " Report of the Commismissioners of Inquiry on the State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales," was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 13th March, 1823, and is numbered 136 among the parliamentary papers of the present year.

The report is prefaced by Mr. John Thomas Bigge (who some time back reported upon the laws and judicial establishment of this colony), and is addressed to earl Bathurst.

1. "Of the State of Agriculture, and Regulations for Granting Lands in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land." This portion of the report sets out with assigning the limits of the counties named Cumberland, Argyle, and Camden. The first of these includes part of the Cow-pastures, and is watered by the two rivers, the Hawkesbury and the Nepean, of which the former empties itself into Broker-bay. The country lying between Shoal-harbour river

and the Nepean, and extending inland to the river Warragumba, has received the appellation of Camden County, and takes in the larger part of the Cow-pastures, the hills of Nattai, and the Bargo tract. Argyle joins Camden on the southwest, and its other boundaries are defined by rivers which are thus oddly denominated-the Wingee, Caribbee, Shoal Haven, Cockbundon, and Wallondilly. Cumberland, which is about 53 miles in length, and 46 in breadth (measuring the breadth from the sea to the base of the Blue Mountains), has been divided into 31 districts. These comprehend the principal town, Sydney, and the towns of Paramatta, Windsor, and Liverpool, and the townships of Richmond, Castlereagh, and Campbell town. The geological aspect of this county must be singular; for it is described as presenting from the coast inland a succession of ridges of stratified sand-stone, gradually decreasing in height until they are lost at some distance from the shore, under the soil, which is itself nothing more than a thin decomposition of sand-stone, strongly coloured with iron. The external appearance of the coast and the adjacent country is extremely steril and forbidding; and, excepting on the spot memorable for the first landing of captain Cook and sir Joseph Banks, the natural grasses of the country are poor, stunted and meagre. But in the interior of the country, the soil is thin and light, lying on a red, yellow, or blue clay, resting upon a substratum of slate, which, as well as the clay, is aluminous. It is generally called forest land, and is more fertile in proportion to the hilliness of the country. The alluvial land of Cumberland is distinguished by

"its depth and inexhaustible fertility." Land of this kind lies on both sides of the Nepean and Hawkesbury Rivers. West of Paramatta, there is a tract, forming the base of a hill called Prospect-hill, and consisting of a deep red loam, resting upon whinstone, which is most remarkable for its fertility. Limestone, though it has not yet been quarried, is very generally diffused over this county; the great physical defect of which is its want of water. Between the sea-coast and the Nepean, there have been found hardly any natural springs; and from the slight elevation of the country, the tides flow to a very considerable distance up all the rivers, rendering the waters brackish and unserviceable, during the summer season, both at Liverpool and Paramatta. In the same season, the various rivulets are nearly dry; but their beds being very broken, the water lodges in deep hollows, forming chains of natural ponds, the contents of which are much affected by the aluminous nature of the soil. The water found by penetrating the stratified sand-stone is generally free from this taint. Camden contains "the extensive tracts known by the name of the Cow-pastures; to which five of the cattle that were landed from his majesty's ship Sirius, soon after the arrival of governor Phillips, had strayed from their place of confinement. They were discovered in these tracts in the year 1795 by a convict; and appeared to have been attracted to the spot, and to have continued there, from the superior quality of the herbage. Since that period, their numbers have been greatly increased; and they have lately occupied the hilly ranges by which the Cow-pastures are backed on

the south, and have been found in the deeper ravines of the hills of Nattai, and on the banks of the Bargo River. It does not appear, however, that they have ever penetrated beyond the Blue Mountains, or the barren tract called the Bargo Brush. The Cow-pastures extend northwards from the river Bargo, to the junction of the rivers Warragumba and Nepean. To the west they are bounded by some of the branches of the latter river, and the hills of the Nattai. They contain, by computation, about 60,000 acres; the soil, though varying in fertility, but always deepening and improving on the banks and margin of the Nepean, consists of a light sandy loam, resting upon a substratum of clay."

It is impossible to peruse this passage, without being struck by the apparently humble and inadequate origin of those numerous herds of cattle, which are destined to form a principal part of the subsistence of a people, as new to these immense regions as their own race: for New Holland furnishes a striking exception, in the paucity of its quadrupeds, to that general rule which nature seems to have prescribed to herself that where the soil and the climate are favourable to the production of food, the production of animals is in proportion. The report proceeds to describe the general character of the soil of Camden county, in other parts; particularly of Illawarra; where it is said to be rich and alluvial, and tolerably well supplied with water. In 1821, there remained 10,000 acres, only, ungranted in this district. The county of Westmorland designates the tracts that have been discovered and occupied to the west of the Blue Mountains, including the settle

ment at Bathurst: but at the date of the report, no boundaries were settled as to this county. The county of Argyle appears to be, for the most part, favoured "by peculiar fertility and richness. It is a deep red loam, bearing a thick and vigorous vegetation of the natural grasses of the colony, and abundance of the shrub called the Daviesia and the wild indigo." The trees here are of large dimensions, and there are open spaces of forest, on the same rich soil. This tract, called Sutton Forest, contains about 15,000 acres of fertile land. Eden Forest, lying between the Cockbundon and Wallondilly rivers, contains also 15,000 acres, and is said to be not more wooded than is barely sufficient for shelter and ornament to the land. Goulburn Plains, extending from the Cockbundon range of hills, 10 miles south-west, includes a space of 35,000 acres; and still further to the south-west are the Bredalbane Plains, an open tract of flat land. But these plains, though not encumbered with wood, have a poor and swampy soil, saturated with water in the winter season, and bearing a very coarse and tufted grass. Between this tract and Bathurst lake, the country becomes more hilly and woody, and the "The swamps more extensive. circumference of Bathurst lake is about 12 miles; and Mr. Mechan, the Deputy Surveyor-General, who had visited it for the first time in the year 1818, was of opinion that it had much increased in size in the interval. Several trees and shrubs on the margin of the lake appeared to have been very lately surrounded with water." Between lake Bathurst and lake George, the land is covered with stunted trees and rocks of various kinds-granite,

quartz, and slate. Lake George is nearly 18 miles long, and from five to seven broad. Dead trees* were observed in it at a consider able distance from its present shores: and though only discovered in the month of August preceding the report, its waters were thought to have considerably expanded since that time. The waters were very soft, though turbid, which disproved the representation that had been made, that they were salt. No stream or current could be detected in the lake; but the natives had some tradition that an outlet was to be found, which would communicate with the sea. This was not discovered by Mr. Bigge. The lake was bounded by a table chain of rocky hills, elevated from 800 to 1,500 feet above its surface; and lieutenant Johnson, in examining the east coast of New Holland, discovered some time since a river which may be found to communicate with this ridge. The reporter then describes the country which he saw between the Cow pastures and Bathurst. This is clothed with very stunted shrubs, for the most part; and he no longer met with the straight and lofty Eucalyptus (the stringy bark) which he had seen all over the Bargo Brush. The following is a pleasing description enough, and we select it, because it includes a notice of Bathurst plains, certainly the most eligible spot which has been yet "taken up," as the

• These are curious facts, and seem to suggest the cause of that submersion of whole woods, which the beds of lakes in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and in North America, so frequently attest. Trees of enormous bulk are often found also beneath the surfaces of swamps and marshes, more or less covered with water, and for many ages past totally

destitute of even a shrub.

settlers say, for a settlement :"After passing the valleys watered by Cox's river, and the fish river, and a range of dry and steril hills, called 'Clarence's Hilly Range,' the road from the blue mountains leads through Sidmouth valleys, that are well watered and covered with good herbage growing in tufts upon a soil of loose disintegrated granite. The surface of the country slopes gently to the west; and from an eminence that is a little beyond the Sidmouth valleys, a very fine and extensive view is obtained of the open country, in the centre of which are the Bathurst plains, and various broad and rich valleys stretching to the north and south of the plain that is watered by the Macquarrie river. Before it reaches Bathurst, this stream is joined by the Campbell river, on the banks of which there is some rich grazing land, opening into extensive plains, called Mitchell's and O'Connell's plains. The elevation of the country on the west side of the Blue Mountains is strongly marked by the rapidity and fulness of the streams of water; they abound in every direction, and generally terminate in the river Macquarrie; which, even at Bathurst, is deep, clear, and full. The soil on the points and bends of the river is generally alluvial. The hills, which on the north side are gently elevated above the level of the river, are perfectly clear of timber, and are covered with a dry gravelly loam, intermixed with a coarse granite sand. This soil is not naturally fertile, but it is dry and favourable to sheep. The extent of land denominated Bathurst plains, and that is clear of timber, comprises nearly 40,000 acres. The hills on the south side of the river