TASMANIA, OR GOOD NEWS FROM A DISTANT LAND. We are sure it will gratify our friends at home to know that the Lord has touched the hearts of both old and young in those regions of the earth which are furthest removed from us, and inclined them to give their support and prayers to the great cause of Missions. In proof of this we will give a little account of what is doing in Tasmania-sometimes called Van Diemen's Land-from the name of its discoverer. This island was long supposed to form the southern termination of New Holland, or as it has long been since termed Australia, and was only discovered to be a distinct island in 1798. It is situated between the parallels of 41° 20′ and 43' 40' S., and the meridians of 144° 40′ and 148' 20' E. It is about the size of Ireland, of an irregular shape, somewhat in the form of a heart, its broadest part being towards the north. It was first occupied by England as a penal settlement, but happily for the island this is no longer the case, and it is now a flourishing colony. It has a fine climate, well adapted to the European constitution, a fruitful soil, and an industrious population. The fine wool it produces is a great commercial staple, which must command its price in the chief manufacturing districts of Europe; and this valuable produce will increase as cultivation extends over the interior deserts. The nature of the country, both in point of climate and soil, presents every inducement to emigrants, who have of late been drawn thither in great numbers, bringing with them their capital, their European skill and their industry. To all these external advantages we are glad to be able to add, that in a spiritual point of view the colony is advancing, and that we have faithful men, belonging to the Church of England, who are labouring to advance the cause of Christ. May the Lord raise up many more; and may our prayers ascend for this far distant land, which is being redeemed from the slavery of Satan to the happy service of our King and Saviour! The last accounts in connexion with our Society are very encouraging. To our active and zealous friend, the Rev. Alfred Stackhouse, at Perth, who originated the Missionary movement in Tasmania, we are much indebted, and we have received liberal contributions from the Tasmanian Auxiliary for some years past. In 1855-56 the amount was 1607. 18s. 9d.; in 1856-57 1801. 14s. 11d.; and this year (1857-58) we have received from the same source 1321. 15s. 7d., exclusive of the collection from Hobart Town, this branch having become sufficiently established to correspond with the Parent Society, and to send its remittances separately. We will give a few passages from Mr. Stackhouse's last communication My population is very scattered; so, to accommodate all, I have four meetings every month, in different parts of the district. I have the children by themselves, and the adults at another time; and usually only six or eight persons attend, sometimes not even so many, unless I have a special meeting, or the magic lantern. However, though so few in number, I do think our juveniles have shown some little zeal in the work. I trust they may derive a blessing therefrom by themselves receiving the influence of divine grace. I look for this in directing their attention to Missionary work. I hope for an increase during this year, for a begin VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES. E 50 TASMANIA, OR GOOD NEWS FROM A DISTANT LAND. [MAY, ning has been made at Launceston, and some children in a country district, not far from Perth, have taken it up with great vigour. I am to meet them once a quarter, and show them views, &c. You would be amused if you could take a bird's-eye view of Perth, which sends so much. It is much smaller than Campbell Town, or Ross, or any of the townships on the road between Hobart Town and Launceston, in fact, not larger than a mere hamlet in England; but we keep the children and the adults also continually in mind of the work by meetings. I have lost some collectors and some subscribers, but found others: the Lord has raised these up in different places where I least expected to see them. For instance: a young person at Fingal, the daughter of the postmaster keeps a Sunday-school, and carries on a Missionary collection by herself, without any aid from the minister." We also gratefully acknowledge the labours of the Rev. Dr. Fry at Hobart Town, who is promoting the Missionary cause with diligence and success. His wife, who seems to be a true helpmeet to him, devotes much time to the young people under her charge, and it is gratifying to hear that they take a deep interest in the Missionary cause. A Juvenile Missionary Association was formed four years ago which is progressing favourably in proof of this we may state that the Church Missionary Society has just received a remittance of 841. 15s. 8d. from the Sunday-school Missionary box and the juvenile collectors in connexion with Dr. Fry's church. Mrs. Fry writes-"The children contribute their Sunday pennies, and even the very little ones feel quite overjoyed to think that they also can do something to help the Missionary. We are sometimes delighted by the earnestness and self-denying spirit shown by some of our little collectors; and we trust the connexion with the Missionary Society has been the means of leading several to receive the love of Jesus in a converted heart. Two or three have died enjoying the fulness of peace, and the presence of the Saviour in their souls. One little girl, in a long sickness, used to sing her Missionary hymns in a sweet weak voice as she lay on her bed of pain; and her father, who often listened with tears, has, I trust, been led to feel the beauty and power of religion through his child's love for her Redeemer. This little girl always kept her Missionary box under her pillow, or at the bedside, and when required to take medicine, she generally begged for a penny for her box. I am sure there is no better way to inspire the children with pure and disinterested feelings of religion, than by leading them to imbibe a Missionary spirit." A working party meets weekly at Mrs. Fry's house, when thirty little girls, of different ages, are generally present, and the ladies who teach in the Sunday-school assist in cutting out and fixing the work, which is sold at Christmas, on the day of the school feast, to the friends and parents of these children. There is also another working party, the proceeds of which are sold for the benefit of the Church Missionary Society. About six months ago an Association was commenced among the boys of the Sunday-school. There are at present sixteen members, who exhibit an amount of persevering labour in the cause which it would be well if older Christians displayed, according to their greater means and opportunities. They meet once a month, for prayer, to receive the last Missionary intelligence, to pay in their monthly collections, &c. Our 1858.] PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA. 51 engraving is taken from a photograph of some of the Boys' Committee of Collectors, bringing in their cards, and paying their monthly collections. The scripture reader stands in one corner, Dr. Fry on the opposite side. The Missionary boxes are opened at these monthly meetings, and this year they averaged about 17. a month, contributed chiefly in pence; one box is the boys', the other the girls'. We have received an interesting account of a Missionary meeting, held a few months ago at Hobart Town, in the Mechanics' Institute. Mr. Huston, the head of the Government, opened the meeting with a forcible and suitable address, after which Dr. Fry exhibited Missionary views through the magic lantern, whilst the children sang appropriate Missionary hymns. The Hall was crowded to overflowing, and many had to go away, unable to gain admittance. Besides the grown up people there were at least 300 children present, whose quiet and orderly behaviour was quite remarkable, when we remember the hall was dark, and their feelings in a high state of excitement. During the closing prayer a solemn stillness pervaded the assembly. "You would have rejoiced," Mr. Fry writes, "to have witnessed such a scene in Tasmania, and I think you will be pleased to hear that the Church Missionary Society has gained a place in the hearts of our people. I pray it may take deep root, grow, and multiply. And it may be refreshing too for the laborious and honoured Missionaries in Africa and India to know, amid their labours, toils, and privations, that many a prayer is wafted to heaven for them from this remote part of the world, and from the mouths, I may say hearts, of even little children." PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA. DURING the fifth day's sitting of the American Association for the advancement of Science, at Montreal, Professor Guyot read a paper on the Physical Structure of the Continent of Africa. This has been reported as follows: "Hitherto Professor Ritter's theory has been accepted, but the researches of Barth, Vogel, Livingstone, and others, have put a new face upon this subject. "Africa may be divided into two grand portions, that huge mass lying north of the parallel of five degrees north, constituting High Africa, and the great triangle from that line south constituting Low Africa. The structure of Low Africa has been considered one vast homogeneous table-land. This idea must now be modified. Russiger, an Austrian savant, has made known two long chains of mountains, one near the eastern coast and the other near the western, with a vast hollow between. We thus have two directions and two upheavals. The eastern reaches northernly to Abyssinia, where it breaks into irregular ranges. No region in Low Africa can properly be considered as low, Russiger giving a general elevation of 1000 feet. Barth and Vogel give us new notions of the north, as Livingstone, Dalston, Andrews and others of the south. "South Africa is, on the whole, a high table-land. The centre of that part of the continent is a depression, which runs northerly, and finally joins the Nile valley. The eastern swell of Low Africa is not exactly a mountain chain, but the vast main swell of the continent, 15,000 to 20,000 feet in elevation. That on the western border is some 8000 feet lower. They both run up to nearly the same latitude north-to Abys 52 MOOSE FACTORY, HUDSON'S BAY. [MAY, sinia on the one side, and Guinea on the other. Where the western swell falls off, Barth found a vast plain with mountains; the eastern swell runs off into the Arabian mountains. The African continent may be considered a hollow continent. "In Northern Africa the grand elevations have an easterly and westerly course, and Sahara is in fact a vast table-land, 1500 feet above the sea level. South of Sahara we find Lake Tchad, elevated but about 800 feet. North of Sahara we have the Atlas chain, south the Kong mountains; and the Desert, though diversified by mountains and hills, is a grand depression across the continent. "The slopes of the Atlas fall off south to a very deep depression, rising again to the level of Sahara. The great northern chain of Africa is, in fact, a continuation of the vast ranges of Himalaya passing to the westward and across Southern Europe. "Africa exhibits the form and configuration arising from the compound of the two great upheaving actions which severally produced North America and the Continent of Europe and Asia-the north and south action in Lower Africa, the east and west in the Northern portion. The great correspondence of Africa with South America and Australia in form and in the position of the grand ranges of upheaval was noticed -showing the three southern continents to be very essentially alike. All have lofty swells on each side, with a great depression between. In one respect Africa and South America present a marked difference the sterility of portions of the former, the fertility of the latter: which difference may doubtless be traced to the fact that Africa has its loftiest swell on the east, cutting off the moist winds of the ocean, while the east swell of South America may be considered a lofty table. Africa is literally a shut-up continent, hence its dryness. Further comparisons were made between the continents, and their analogies exhibited; and, in conclusion, Professor Guyot announced as fixed principles that all the continents are due to two systems of upheaval; the differences in them, climate, productions, &c., to results from those upheavals; their grand general character to some universal plan, their diversities to secondary causes.' MOOSE FACTORY, HUDSON'S BAY. THIS station, about seven hundred miles from the city of Montreal, in Lower Canada, is the principal dépôt of the Hudson's-Bay Company on the southern shores of Hudson's Bay. It is one of the most important of our stations; the Christian Indians when not dispersed abroad at their hunting grounds in search of means of subsistence, forming a considerable and interesting congregation, many of them being really influenced persons, valuing the means of grace, and leading Christian lives. Around are numerous stations, which the Missionary visits as he has opportunity. The intensity of the winter's cold on the shores of Hudson's Bay *Dr. Livingstone crossed both these ranges, the western one at about the latitude of 10' south in his journey to Loando, and the eastern one at a lower latitude, some months afterwards on his way home to Europe. In his book will be found a plan of the section of the South-African continent, showing the elevation of the two great ridges and their geological construction. He considers the high lands of the eastern range to be healthy. 1858.] MOOSE FACTORY, HUDSON'S BAY. 53 is scarcely conceivable by our readers. We think our own climate sufficiently rigorous. But let them read the following letter from our Missionary, the Rev. J. Horden, and they will feel thankful for the comparative mildness of their English home. It will be needful to say that his letter was written in June, when our English winter had yielded to the warm influence of summer: "I cannot allow the packet to take its departure without writing a few lines to acquaint you with the manner in which the last few months have been passed, and of my Missionary prospects for the present season. There are now not more than four or five Indians at Moose, all the rest having gone off in the Company's boats on Monday last. They had been with me an unusually short time, for the season has been such that they could not come in from their hunting grounds; the river having broken up later than it had done for forty years previously, while the weather has been so severe as almost to induce one to believe that the personification of winter resides within the Arctic Circle. During the whole winter very few opportunities were afforded me of instructing the Indians, as scarcely any came to the house; such as did make their appearance heard the Word with their accustomed readiness. In the present condition of the Indians their absence from the posts during the winter is an indication of their being in tolerably good circumstances; were many to come in, it would be to relate their sufferings, and to expose to our view their emaciated and famished bodies. Sights of this kind I have beheld; to the relation of tales of woe I have listened; but happy indeed I am to state that of late I have been saved from the powerful feelings to which such incidents give rise, as God has been merciful, and for the last few years no death from starvation has taken place in the district under my care. It would indeed be a happy sight to behold them assembled in a large village, scarcely ever hav ing occasion to leave their pastor, but here I do not think it practicable, and we must be content to find them growing in grace, although living in their nomadic state. As the spring came on, a few came in expecting to find a sufficiency of food from the flocks of wild geese and ducks which feed in our marshes; but although the time of spring arrived, the spring weather delayed its coming, and the poor natives were in a very bad condition, but happily the factory was near where their necessities were relieved. Immense quantities of snow fell dur ing the winter, which led us to apprehend an early break up of the river, accompanied by a flood. Respecting the former, our expectations were disappointed, but the latter fully realized. Until about the 18th of May the weather continued very cold and winterish, then a few warm days succeeded; and on the night of May 21st, the noise as of many distant thunders told of the conflict going on between the rushing waters and the still compact ice, great masses of which were being occasionally thrown up in heaps. During the evening I went to the bottom of the island to see that Mrs. Gladman and Mrs. Vincent, two bedridden old widows, were provided with the means of safety should the water get into their house. While returning I heard noises similar to those of the preceding night; on returning home I found Mrs. Horden with the baby in bed, sound asleep, for she was much fatigued, having sat up the whole |