Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/74

 precarious climate, is yet not to be accounted the mere desert that Sturt has impressed upon our minds; but neither is it to be depended on as the blooming, well-watered surface of later explorers. It may be urged, indeed, to its disadvantage that, as the country is liable to such extremes of condition, the bloom of one favourable season will hardly compensate to life and property for the uninhabitable waste that may be caused by its unfavourable successor. We are reminded of the saying that the strength of a whole cable is just that of its weakest link; and so a practical Australian squatter who ventures himself and his live stock into the far interior, may prudently interpret the country by its worst seasons. Mitchell in the year 1846 describes the district of the Upper Barcoo, or Victoria, as a grassy scene, similar to that which had captivated Landsborough in his course somewhat further westward and northward; but Kennedy in the very next year, as well as Gregory in 1858, found these verdant lawns of the Victoria only a dessicated waste; and now again in 1862 we learn that the country thereabouts is once more luxuriantly clothed, and beautiful as the "plains of promise." From this chequered scene, however, we can turn with re-assurance to the results of Stuart's expeditions. Having accomplished three successful journeys across Australia during three successive years, we have