CONFIGURATION AND CLIMATE. 23 



ours is a dry, not a moist heat.' In Melbourne the tale is reversed: 'Sydney- 

 is muggy,' it is averred ; ' you cannot stand that. A dry heat is the thing, 

 but those poor beggars at Adelaide have it too hot altogether.' 



No doubt many mistakes occurred in the descriptions of Australia given 

 by the early explorers. Brave and intelligent as they were, they were ' new 

 chums,' and certainly not born bushmen. Transplanted from a small island, 

 continental features overpowered them. Forests which took weeks to traverse ; 

 plains, like the ocean, horizon-bounded ; the vast length of our rivers when 

 compared to those of England, often flowing immense distances without 

 change or tributary — now all but dry for hundreds of miles, at other times 

 flooding the countries on their banks to the extent of inland seas — wearied 

 them. Then we know that our cloudless skies, the mirage, the long- 

 sustained high range of the thermometer in the central portion of the con- 

 tinent, troubled them a good deal more than they do us, and helped to make 

 them look on the dark side of things. Hence, as a rule, their reports were 

 unfavourable. 



Sturt's account of his detention at Depot Glen is enough to frighten 

 anybody, and cannot be read to this day without emotion. Here, 'stuck up' 

 by want of water, he dug an underground room, and he and his men passed 

 a terrible summer. The heat was sometimes as high as 130 degrees in the 

 shade, and in the sun it was altogether intolerable. They were unable to 

 write, as the ink dried at once on their pens ; their combs split ; their nails 

 became brittle and readily broke ; and if they touched a piece of metal it 

 blistered their fingers. Month after month passed without a shower of rain. 

 Sometimes they watched the clouds gather, and they could hear the distant 

 roll of thunder, but there fell not a drop to refresh the dry and dusty desert. 

 The party began to grow thin and weak ; Mr. Poole, the second in command, 

 became ill with scurvy. At length, when the winter was approaching, a 

 gentle shower moistened the plain ; and preparations were being made to 

 send the sick man quickly to the Darling, when Poole died, and the mourn- 

 ful cavalcade returned, leaving a grave in the wilderness. Yet this locality 

 proved in time to be a very good sheep-run, differing in nothing from others 

 around it ; and eventually was found to be a gold-field, and was extensively 

 worked. Runs about the spot are commonly advertised in the Melbourne or 

 Sydney papers as carrying immense flocks, and as valued with the stock at 

 from ^50,000 to ^100,000. The explorer was, in fact, within a few miles of 

 Cooper's Creek. 



This process of conquering the interior is still going on. Man modifies 

 all countries, and Australia is no exception to the rule. Even the blacks 

 played their part, and it was a mischievous one. They had an instrument 

 in their hands by which they influenced the whole course of nature. This 

 was the fire-stick. With this implement the aborigines were constantly 

 setting fire to the grass and trees, both accidentally and systematically, for 



