50 RosENUAiN, /I Thousand Miles on Rivey Murray. [vj."^xxxiv. 



set about in a rutliless fasliion ringing trees, without let or 

 hindrance — to do this work must have cost many thousands 

 ot pounds ; and now you see these dead monarchs of the forest 

 for hundreds of miles on the river, front, and extending back 

 as far as the eye can reach, one mass of white, dead timber. 

 In places the fallen timber is so thick that cattle cannot pene- 

 trate. The waste of money in this destruction, estimating the 

 value of a tree at only is., must run into several millions of 

 pounds sterling. When the eucalypt has been rung it seems 

 to effectively kill every sap, fibre, and particle of life in the 

 tree, so that you seldom see a young eucalypt spring up in a 

 forest whose trees have been rung. 



There is a charm in a holiday trip on the Murray which is 

 peculiarly all its own. For a restful, health-giving change, a 

 lazy, luxurious lounge, there is no resort in Australia to com- 

 pare with the voyage along this zigzag track. The Murray is 

 a slow-flowing river, and, although at the time of my trip it 

 was in flood, and in many places had overflowed its banks and 

 caused large inland seas, yet the flow of the stream was at the 

 rate of from one to one and a half miles per hour. The fall 

 in the Murray from Echuca to Wentworth (distance about 

 540 miles), where the Darling junctions with the Murray, has 

 an average of about 5 inches per mile ; from Wentworth to the 

 Murray mouth at Goolwa (distance about 518 miles), about 

 3 inches per mile. The width of the Murray at Echuca is, 

 I should estimate, al)out 300 to 400 feet, and it gradually 

 widens until below Wentworth, where it varies from about 

 500 to 800 feet ; beyond that towards the South Australian 

 border it becomes somewhat wider — perhaps to 1,000 feet. 

 There are several streams that flow into the Murray. The 

 first one which is met with after leaving Echuca is the Edward ; 

 this is some distance beyond Swan Hill. A little iurther on 

 is the Murrumbidgee, and about 200 miles further on the 

 Darling (about 540 miles from Echuca). The waters of the 

 Edward and the Murrumbidgee are very clean, but that of 

 the Darling is of a thick, muddy character, and for at least 

 200 miles the waters of the Murray are still turbid as the result 

 of contact with the Darhng. There is very little evidence of 

 native life to be seen on the Murray flats, although in the early 

 history of Australia these places must have been teeming with 

 native i)()pulation, as evidence is not lacking, which can be 

 seen from some of the remaining large eucalypt trees, where 

 the bark has been stripped for canoes. I also found traces 

 of kitchen middens. The murder of natives in the early 

 history in some parts along the Murray has been api^alling. 

 Simpson Newland, in liis popular novel, " Paving the Way," 

 describes how, near Rufus Creek (the waters of wliich flow 



