Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/437

Rh While Frank was busy with the study of the birds of Australia, Fred contemplated with great care the map of the country. He observed that all the mountain ranges were near the coast, so that the course of the larger rivers was towards the interior. "There is not," said he in his note-book, "a single large river flowing into the ocean from all this great continent, with the exception of the Murray. Every other stream is short and insignificant; and even the Murray and its tributaries do not form a first-class river.

"Here we are," said Fred, "on the head streams of the Darling, one of the rivers that unite with the Murray to pour into the sea through Lake Alexandria, between Melbourne and Adelaide. On looking at the map I thought we should be able to descend in a boat to the ocean, but Mr. Watson tells us we can do nothing of the sort. Some of the rivers on the maps are at this season simply dry beds, though at times they have water enough to float a first-class boat from the Mississippi.

"Steamboats have ascended the Darling to Walgett, 2345 miles from the sea, but they can only do so at certain, or rather uncertain, times, and therefore no dependence can be placed on the navigation of the Murray and its tributaries. The Darling depends on flood-waters; sometimes they will fill the stream to its junction with the Murray, and thence to the sea, and again they fail before going half way. The river can never be navigated throughout the year, and in some years boats are not able to run at all.