Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/99

 spread in flood time over many miles of land on each side of their ordinary channel.

But a flood is a "sweet restorer" of parched Nature. In an inconceivably short space of time the plains which appeared a mass of dust are sprinkled with emerging green, and grass and herbs leap into redundant life. In a few weeks the formerly perishing cattle lose the clammy disorder of their hair and their dull sad look. Their coats become sleek, their colours bright, and they gambol on the green. It is well when the owner, deriving such direct blessing from heaven, does not, Jeshurun-like, forget to whom he is beholden.

Not by laborious cultivation of sown grasses, but by consuming what nature offered, has the Australian flock-owner been enriched. One characteristic of Australian grasses deserves particular comment. They are not so succulent as many European kinds; but whether in consequence of their inherent qualities, or of the climate, or of both these causes, they support strength in a manner unknown elsewhere. A horse obtaining no food but the grass that he browses upon can without distress carry his rider more than fifty miles without check, and repeat the performance for many days. A high-spirited horse, fairly treated, wants no artificial food to keep up his courage, and maintains his condition although he has several long journeys in the week. It would, of course, be impossible that the fast work of racing or hunting could be performed by a grass-fed horse or an untrained one.

It has become an article of belief that the hot winds themselves, though unpleasant, are wholesome; that, like actual cantery, they exorcise evil effects; that by their force malaria and unhealthy exhalations are destroyed. If it be so, Australia should have a healthy future before her; but the carelessness of man may defeat the bounty of Providence. Neglect of precautions proved necessary elsewhere may neutralize even the natural advantages of the south. It is hard to imagine that if the air were not purified, as by fire, by means of its dryness, its cities and villages could have been exempt from the scourge of Indian cholera, as yet unknown in Australia. The influx of Chinese and others can scarcely fail in time to