1915] on the Visit of the British Association to Australia 841 



the coast, near to Albany, though we were several miles from the 

 shore, we could see giant trees growing at the edge of the high 

 cliffs — part of the great Jarrah and Karri forest from which the 

 material for paving our London streets is obtained. Wood to the 

 value of about a million sterling was exported from this region in 

 1910. The forest covers a wide belt — the timber-belt — at the south- 

 west corner of the continent, where the rainfall is considerable ; as 

 this timber-belt is cleared it becomes available for settlement and is 

 a land of rich promise, well suited for growing oats, potatoes, root 

 crops and especially apples of high quality, of which a large quantity 



Fig. 3. — South-West Australia. 



is now exported to Europe. The conditions to be faced by the first 

 settlers are not easy. The cleared forest-land is said to be five or 

 six times the value of that within the wheat-belt, which lies behind 

 the timber-belt, within the region in which there is a rainfall of only 

 10 to 18 inches ; this is already well served with railway facilities 

 and with another necessity peculiar to Australia — the rabbit fence. 

 Beyond the wheat-belt comes the pasture-belt, which extends well 

 outside the 10-inch rainfall limit into the desert area. The term 

 desert, however, must not be taken too literally. One of our party, 

 a German, the authority on deserts, who visited the region as well as 



