CONFIGURATION AND CLIMATE. 25 



Mr. Russell complains that pictures of the drought are usually exaggerated, 

 and it may be well therefore to quote official figures. In two years, according 

 to Mr. Dibbs, Treasurer and Premier of New South Wales (November 

 1885), the drought in New South Wales has killed 200,000 horses, 

 1,500,000 head of cattle, and 13,500,000 sheep. A loss which is estimated 

 at from ^10,000,000 to ^15,000,000 has fallen upon a single colony, 

 and a single industry in that colony ! But this drought was felt with 

 equal severity in parts of South Australia and of Queensland, and it would 

 be no exaggeration therefore to double the figures communicated to Parlia- 

 ment by Mr. Dibbs. And when 400,000 horses, 3,000,000 cattle, and 

 27,000,000 sheep die miserably of hunger and thirst, it is certain that scenes 

 must occur the gloom and wretchedness of which can hardly be over- 

 painted. One squatting company in the north lost 150,000 sheep out of 

 250,000 in the drought in question, and the survivors were kept alive with 

 difficulty. Scrub was cut down for them. The living gnawed the bones of 

 the dead. The company's shares went down to two shillings in the pound, 

 and other squatting property similarly situated was equally depreciated, 

 when one January morning, 1886, the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and 

 Adelaide papers gave prominence to the welcome news of the break-up of 

 the drought. From this place, that place, and the other, all down the line, 

 came telegrams of the fall of three inches, four inches, five inches, and six 

 inches of rain, the water saturating the ground, filling the dams, and sending 

 the price of pastoral property up as though by magic. 



The drought disaster, of course, is most felt in the newly taken-up country. 

 Here a state of nature obtains, while, as time rolls on, and profits are made, 

 water is conserved, and the run is practically made drought-proof. A mini- 

 mum quantity of stock can be kept, and the remainder can be travelled to 

 a district which is not smitten. The recuperative powers of the country are 

 enormous ; and if the squatter is afflicted one year he holds on, with 

 the consciousness that with three or four good seasons in succession he is a 

 made man. 



How little we yet know of Australia as a whole has been brought under 

 the popular notice by an address delivered by Mr. Ernest Favenc at a 

 meeting of the Australian Geographical Society, held at Sydney in January 

 1886. South Australia alone has an area of 250,000 square miles unex- 

 plored, and Western Australia has an enormous tract of 500,000 square 

 miles, which has been just rushed through, and no more, by three explorers, 

 Messrs. Forrest, Giles, and Warburton. Here is a total of unknown area 

 equivalent to the heart of Europe — say to Germany, France, Switzerland, 

 Austria, and Hungary, with Italy thrown in. Of course the country to the 

 west of the Overland Telegraph Line, being for the most part unknown, is all 

 described as hopeless desert, but Mr. Favenc doubts the story, and no one 

 is better qualified to express an opinion upon the subject than this gentle- 



