Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/93

 SKETCH. Ixxxiii see that Gregory's observations did not even touch the question as to the character of '' the whole block of land/' That could not be answered even by a careful examination of all the explorations made since the Blue Mountains were passed. We have only to follow the track of each explorer upon the map in order to see how very limited the range of observation was in each case; and then, recollecting how much the result would necessarily depend on the seasons, the equipment of the party, and the skill, judgment, and experience of the leader, we can see how absurd it is to suppose that any one expedition could be held to determine the character of the unknown interior. It is not known even now, although the light of thirty years* additional experience has been thrown upon the subject ; and it will not be known until the pressure of population is felt here as it is felt in older countries. Although he made no mention of them in his letter, the actual facts of Gregory's expedition could not have been unknown to Denison. At the time he wrote he was Governor of New South Wales, and the report of an exploring expedition at that period — sent out by his own Government — ^would necessarily attract his attention. The peculiar representation of the matter which he thought fit to circulate in England can not be easily accounted for, unless we suppose that he was so much influenced by pre- conceived opinions as to be unable to state the case fairly. The letter he wrote in 1857 was published by him in 1870.* School children in England and the colonies are still taught that '^ there are vast tracts in the interior of Australia which are abso- lutely desert, and for ever doomed to remain without inhabitants, these lying more to the west than to the east ; and there are other large tracts that can produce only a scanty herbage fit for nothing but sheep-rearing, and in many cases not to be depended on in all years for that."t This statement — evidently written by • Varieties of Vice-regal Life, toI. i, p. 381. Gregory's expedition loft Sydney in July, 1855 ; Denison arriyed in the January preceding. t Longman's School Geography for Australasia (1888), p. 70. Compare these notions about the interior with the accounts given by Phillip of the natiye popu- lation, particularly with respect to its distribution— (pp. 140, 289). He supposed that the natives were confined to the coast, because lie could not see how they Digitized by Google