Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/210

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The Library.

voyage of the " Lady Nelson," Captain Philip King's survey in 1818, the expeditions to Botany Bay of Tench and Governor Phillip, John White's voyage to New South Wales, Hunter's Historical Journal of the transactions at Port Jackson in 1793, and Collin's account of the English colony in New South Wales. These works lead us to the period of the exploration of the interior of Australia, in which section are the travels inland and across the continent of Allan Cunningham, Oxley, Sturt, Mitchell, Grey, Eyre, Stokes, Leichhardt, Burke and Wills, Jardine, McKinlay, McDouall Stuart, who fixed the centre of Australia and crossed the country from sea to sea, during 1858-62, and more recently of Giles, Warburton, Gregory and Tietkens, all of them household words in connection with Australian exploration. As regards general works upon the Australian Colonies, the collection is very complete, and comprises several rare works, in many instances unobtainable by the collector of the present day concerning the history, trade, resources and physical features of those Colonies. Amongst them are Wallis's Historical Account of New South Wales which is a curious work, containing twelve plates engraved on the common sheet copper employed in coppering the bottoms of ships, by Preston, a convict, and were the first specimens produced in the Australian Colonies. Lycett's Views of Australia, with descriptive letterpress, as well as a general account of the Australian Colonies, published in 1824; and the historical works of Wentworth, O'Hara, Braim, Therry, Lang, Coote, Sutherland, Rusden, Stephens Harcus, Moore, Labilliere and others, as well as Barren Field's Geographical Memoirs, Barton's Literature and Prose Writers, and the complete and voluminous Picturesque Atlas of Australia, consisting of three volumes and containing a history of those Colonies from their discovery to the year 1889, together with over 800 illustrations. I cannot quit the Australian section without referring to the many works of that veteran author, Mr. James Bonwick, most of which are in the library, and who is credited with the first important attempt to found a literary reputation in Victoria. His first work on Australia was published in 1848, and at the present time he is actively engaged on behalf of the Government of New South Wales in assisting, and in fact, performing the chief work in connection with the publication of the historical records of that Colony, and of Australia generally. In the department of ethnology Australia is strongly represented, the library containing all the principal