Page:Maury's New Elements of Geography, 1907.djvu/135

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1. Australia.—Let us sail from Madagascar across the Indian ocean and visit Australia. This is so large a body of land that we call it a continent. It is nearly the size of the United States.



If we look at a globe, we shall see that Australia is on the other side of the world from us. For this reason, when it is night here it is day there.



Australia is different from our continent in another way. We are north of the equator. It is south. Because of this, when it is winter here it is summer there. Christmas day there comes in midsummer.

2. The Climate of Australia is generally hot. The eastern portion of the continent is the best watered and the most fertile. The interior is almost rainless, and much of it is an arid waste.

3. The Plants and Animals are very remarkable. Most of the plants are evergreens. Some of them shed bark instead of leaves.

The ferns grow to the size of trees, and nettles are sometimes forty feet in height.

4. The Natives of Australia are black-skinned, degraded savages. They are fast dying out.

5. The Commonwealth of Australia, a part of the British Empire, consists of five states and the island of Tasmania.

Australia is famous for its sheep, and produces more wool than any other part of the world.

Gold, copper, and tin are found in great abundance, and many of the settlers are miners.

The chief exports are wool, hides and gold.

The largest cities are Melbourne, the temporary capital of the Commonwealth; and Sydney.





6. New Zealand also belongs to England. It is famed for its sheep, its forests, its flax and kauri (kow'-re) gum. The flax grows nearly twenty feet