Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/94

 Ixxxiv AN INTRODUCTORY one who had no personal knowledge of the country — ^is not based on the evidence of recent explorers, but is a scientific deduction from the climatic peculiarities of the country, and the resem- blance which they are supposed to bear to those of South Africa. Such a line of argument can not be safely applied to this country. Experience has shown that even actual observation is not always a reliable guide to theoretic conclusions. Oxley and Sturt, for instance, were both scientific observers, but each of them pro- pounded a theory about ''vast tracts in the interior," which subsequent exploration proved to be a mere nightmare. They overlooked two important considerations in estimating the character and probable value of the country they criticised ; one being the effect of settlement on it« physical features, and the other, the existence of accumulated stores of water beneath the surface. The nature and extent of the change brought about by occupation of new country can be accurately measured by those only who have witnessed it ; and perhaps more remarkable proofs of such changes could hardly be found than have fre- quently been seen here. In the days when Oxley and Sturt rode through the interior, like two Arab sheiks on the road to Mecca, men were only beginning to learn the lessons which Nature had to teach them. The sudden termination of large rivers in extensive marshes led Oxley to conclude that they discharged their waters into a great inland sea — a theory which he supported with as much confidence as if he had actually stood upon its shores. The buried waters which he and many others sought to trace in vain are now, after the lapse of seventy years, being brought to light for the first time by the Artesian bore j and the experience of a few years will probably serve to settle the vexed question of physical geography which puzzled not only the explorer, but all the philosophers of his time.* could possibly obtain any food in the bush. If the white men with their guns could not get enough to keep them alive, how could the blacks with their spears do it ? The argument seemed conclusiye ; and yet we know now that the interior carried a large population of natives, and that, as a rule, they were better fed than those on the sea-coast — (p. 562). But that knowledge was gained by slow degrees and by actual observation, which in Phillip's time was beyond reach. • TTbe inland sea theoiy is of much older date than Oxley. Its origin is explained in Flinders, vol. i, p. Ixxiii. Digitized by Google