19073 ''Dread King Drought" 



so vividly illustrates this last aspect of Australian ex- 

 perience that I venture to quote five of its ten stanzas; 



My road is fenced with the bleached, white bones, 

 And strewn with the blind, white sand. 



Beside me a suffering, dumb world moans 

 On the breast of a lonely land. 



On the rim of the world the lightnings play, 



The heat-waves quiver and dance, 

 And the breath of the wind is a sword to slay 



And the sunbeams each a lance. 



My hurrying hoofs in the night go by, 



And the great flocks bleat their fear 

 And follow the curve of the creeks burnt dry 



And the plains scorched brown and sere. 



The worn men start from their sleepless rest 



With faces haggard and drawn; 

 They cursed the red Sun into the west 



And they curse him out of the dawn. 



They have carried their outposts far, far out. 



But — blade of my sword for a sign — 

 I am the Master, the dread King Drought, 



And the great West Land is mine! 



In its physical aspects Australia is a monotonous Lack of 

 country; without high mountains and with few large '^"^"^'^ 

 streams there is little room for variety. The forests Australia 

 of its temperate zone are all of one pattern, eucalyp- 

 tus, eucalyptus — the gray trunks of many species — 

 as far as one can see. Its industries also are practically 

 of one kind, the raising of cattle, sheep, and horses. 

 The smaller towns are marked by dull uniformity, nine 

 out of every ten houses being light brown and of one 



