INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 35 



now covered with a growth, of the tall plants, looking like great white 

 hollyhocks in flower. Everywhere there was an extraordinary growth 

 of fine herbage, in which our horses revelled. We spoke with some 

 of the blacks, but learned nothing of the movements of McKinlay, 

 whose camps we sought in vain. But we found what were evidently 

 bis tracks, when on his way northwards, and also two working bullocks, 

 which we assumed must have been his. But what was more interesting 

 to us was finding the tracks of a number of camels and of one horse, 

 much older than his could have been, and probably made by Burke 

 and his companions on their outward journey. 



We turned homewards with great reluctance, when our time and 

 our provisions were becoming short, and it was somewhere about 

 where Sturt also turned back on his desperate journey to Fort Grey. 

 He relates how, before leaving, he ascended a hill about 150ft. above 

 the level of the plain, and says — " From it the eye wandered hopelessly 

 for some bright object on which to rest. Behind us to the south-east 

 lay the sandhills we had crossed, with the stony plain sweeping right 

 round them, but in every direction the dark-brown desert extended. 

 The line of the horizon was broken to the north-west and north by 

 hills similar to the one we had ascended ; but in those directions not 

 a blade of grass, not a glittering spot, was to be seen." (p) 



He was then 50 miles from water, and he sat there undecided for 

 more than half an hour before he retraced his steps to his camp and 

 commenced his retreat, the necessity of which was proved by one of 

 his horses falling dead of thirst before noon. 



I remember well how I ascended just such a hill as Sturt speaks 

 of, and thought of his remarks as I looked round over the country in 

 the full luxuriance of vegetation after the occurrence of a great inunda- 

 tion. I could see the stony hills and the distant sandhills, but the 

 " brown desert " was covered with the rich vegetation which covers 

 it in times of plenty. For miles I could trace the rank growth of the 

 tall mallow-like plants, higher than a man on horseback, looking like 

 vast beds of tall hollyhock plants in full bloom. I thought how great 

 the consequences might have been had Sturt been so fortunate as to 

 have had such a season as that when I followed his footsteps to this 

 Classic spot. Even the Stony Desert would have been deprived of its 

 terrors in such a season, and have been no more exceptional than any 

 other of the bigger plains which are now merely the commonplace 

 occurrences of a great part of Central Australia. 



Among the many reminiscences of Central Australia there is one 

 which I may select to round off my tale of the past. When the time 

 (p) Op. cit.. Vol. 2, p. 49. 



