INTRODUCTION. 7 



under tlic influence of monsoons, and rains more or less regular 

 occur in their proj)er seasons. Speaking generally, however, Aus- 

 tralia may be characterized as one of the driest and most heated 

 countries of our globe ; for, although an island in the strictest 

 sense of the word, it is so extensive that the surrounding seas 

 have little influence upon the distant interior, which must still 

 be regarded as a great sterile waste, destitute of mountains suffi- 

 cient to attract the moisture requisite to form navigable or other 

 rivers. Tn writing this in 1803, when travc-llers have crossed 

 the country and so many vahudjle discoveries hav(^ hitely been 

 made, I am willing to admit that this great desert is here and 

 there relieved by higher lands which will ultimately become use- 

 ful to the enterprising settler, and that, in all ))robability, many 

 fine and extensive oases have yet to be brought to light ; but, at the 

 same time, I believe there will always be considerable uncertainty 

 in the seasons of the interior of this great land. In southern 

 latitudes w^e know that this is the case, while in the north a wet 

 or a dry monsoon greatly alters the face of the country, and 

 exerts a powerful influence on animal and vegetable life. Hence 

 it is that the scanty fauna of this part of Australia is so organized 

 that it is able to exist without water : the various sj)ccies of 

 Rodents, such as the members of the genera Mus and Hapalofis, 

 and the Wombats, Lagorchestes, and Bettongias, and other 

 Kangaroos, are thus constituted ; and it will be recollected that, 

 when speaking of the Halcyons and other large Kingfishers in 

 the 'Birds of Australia,' I stated that I believed they never 

 partook of this element, their food consisting of lizards and 

 insects, to which, in like manner, it was not essential. The 

 Australian mammals must, however, be put to severe straits 

 occasionally, not from the want, but from the superabundance of 

 water, — a wet monsoon in the north, and the heavy rains which 

 occasionally occur in the south, deluging the basin-like surface 

 of the interior and rendering it untenable, and obliging them to 

 retire to the higher ridges until the drought, which generally 

 ensues, has restored it to its normal condition. The districts. 



