24 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



hunting purposes, and probably in their day almost every part of New- 

 Holland was swept over by a fierce fire on an average once in five years. 

 Hence the baked, calcined condition of the ground in many parts of the 

 continent, the character of our vegetation, and the comparative scarcity 

 of animal life. The eucalypts survived the fiery ordeal, because of the 

 hardness of their bark ; and, when every other creature perished, or had 

 to abandon its litter, the marsupials leaped over the flames with their 

 young in their pouches. Strange as the assertion may appear in the first 

 instance, it may be doubted whether any section of the human race has 

 exercised a greater influence on the physical condition of a large portion of 

 the globe than the wandering savages of Australia. The white man is 

 working in an entirely opposite direction. By clearing the forest he limits 

 the area of the bush fire. He constructs reservoirs, dams rivers, sinks wells 

 in order to bring subterranean water to the surface, and irrigates land, so 

 that a spot where even the hardiest scrub failed to grow in its natural state, 

 is covered with luxuriant crops. Province after province has been rescued 

 from the wilderness already, and the grand work is likely to go on. Those 

 who look at what has been done in the way of reclaiming territory in 

 Australia will be in no hurry to set bounds as to what man is likely to 

 perform. 



It is not wonderful that the first inquiry of the practical settler should 

 be as to the rainfall of the country he proposes to occupy. The map most 

 eagerly scanned in Australia is the ' rainfall ' map, prepared by the Govern- 

 ment, and issued by the leading weekly papers. A glance at this production 

 reveals the tale which it tells. The coast-line is shown in a dark blue, to 

 indicate the heavy rainfall of from thirty to seventy inches. A pleasant 

 blue represents a moderate rainfall on the interior belt of plains, averaging 

 from fifteen to twenty-five inches. Then comes a faint tint spread over 

 what is called the ' never, never ' country, where the rainfall is five or ten 

 inches per annum, and where the rain will descend at once, or for two 

 years there will be none, and then the whole average supply will drop from 

 the clouds in one rushing downpour. Under such circumstances it will 

 be readily imagined that the terror of the Australian settler is a drought. 

 Even in the moments of his utmost prosperity he has his anxieties about 

 the next season. A district which has been rainless for a year or two years 

 is a pitiful spectacle of desolation. The grass disappears ; the wind carries 

 with it whirling columns of dust ; the trees of the dreary plain become more 

 sombre and mournful than ever. If there is a little water left in any dam 

 or reservoir, it is rendered putrid by the carcases of sheep and cattle, for 

 the wretched animals become so weak that, once they fall or stick, they are 

 unable to rise or to extricate themselves. The sun rises in heat, sails 

 through a cloudless sky, and sets a ball of fire. The nights are dewless. 

 The moon only renders more ghastly the depressing panorama. 



