Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/96

 district of Gippsland before iiieandermg through a series of lakes to the Bea. The Snowy River, still more to the east, ploiiges from moiuitains in New South Wales across the border between that colony and Victoria, within whose territory it findB its way to the Southern Ocean lesB than a hundred miles from Cape Howe.

A general glance at the physical aspect of Australia, shows (hefcween the one hundred and twentieth and one hundred and thirty- fourth parallels of longitude) hundreds of thousands of miles of land which are almost waterless, and for long years defied the efforts of explorers. The rarity or absence of surface water was as effectual a barrier as the icy regions of the North Pole. The rainfall, which on the points abutting on the sea near Adelaide, and the higher circumjaeent hills, averages about twenty inches annually, becomes gradually less in a northerly direction, and amounts only to about live inches and a-half between the twenty-eight and thirtieth parallels of latitude in South Australia, and is perhaps still less over a large portion of Western Australia. Passing northwards, the rainfall increaaes as tropical influences prevail, and at Port Darwin exceeds that near Adelaide.

But even the most sterile tracts, unlike the brown African desert, are seldom devoid of grass, herbs, or shrubs. The dreaded spinifex (Triodia irritans), useless for food, and harassing by its prickliness, may perhaps contribute to ameliorate the dryness of the waste. For the most part the country is level, or gently undulating, but there are occasional elevations. The atmosphere is pure as that of the desert. The interior of Australia might, in the winter months, be the sanatorium of the world. Crisp, clear, and exhilaratiog, the very air exalts the spirits. The sun is a present joy. But in the long days of summer his heat is excessive. The earth receives and reflects his parching ardours; animals gasp, and the dryness is oppressive to man, though more easily borne, and far less injurious, than the damp, sweltering heat of equatorial zones.

The thousands who resort to Egypt from Europe would wonder at the assertion that in Australia there is a climate as enjoyable as that of the desert, and without many of its disadvantages, Cliniatologists differ as to the