Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/94



is pleasant to reflect that the name Australia was selected by the gallant Flinders; though, with his customary modesty, he suggested rather than adopted it. "Had I," he says in his "Voyage to Terra Australis," "permitted myself any innovation upon the original term Terra Australis, it would have been to convert it into Australia, as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."

Though insulated, Australia is so large that many writers speak of it as a continent. It contains about three millions of square miles, and the whole of Europe contains only about one million more. But for its conditions of climate and soil, and the consequent limitations of its capacity to produce food for man and to supply his various wants, it might give scope for many powerful nations. Usually in a large territory high lands exist, and from them flow perennial streams, upon which navigation from the sea is possible; cultivation follows them as naturally