SOUTH AUSTRALIA 



589 



sea. Macarthur, Roper, Victoria, and Liverpool 

 enter the Indian Ocean. Salt lakes, as Torrens, 

 Gairdner, and Eyre, are inland ; Victoria, Albert, 

 and the Coorong are near the Murray outlet. 

 Adelaide, the capital, is in 34 S. lat. The ports are 

 Glenelg, Adelaide, Wakefield of St Vincent's Gulf, 

 Lincoln, Pirie, Augusta of Spencer's Gulf, Mac- 

 donnell in the south-east. The area of settlement 

 is mainly in the south-east corner of the colony. 



History. The north coast was clearly laid down 

 in charts of the 16th century even as soon as 1542, 

 the primary discovery being due to the Spaniards or 

 Portuguese. The Dutch ship Guide Zeepard, 1627, 

 sailed along the south coast, eastward of Cape 

 Leeuwin, as far as the western border of South 

 Australia. Flinders made known in 1802 the 

 two great gulfs and Kangaroo Island, meeting 

 the trench explorer Baudin in Encounter Bay. 

 Grant, in the Lady Nelson, 1800, sighted land to 

 the south-east. The settlement of the region was 

 proposed by a private company in 1831, and in 

 1835 a grant of land was made to the South 

 Australian Association. The first party landed on 

 Kangaroo Island, July 1836, and possession of the 

 country was taken on the Adelaide Plains, Decem- 

 ber 28th. In 1841 South Australia became a Crown 

 colony. After the usual colonial fluctuations of 

 fortune, progress was established by the Burra Burra 

 copper- mine (see Vol. I. p. 588), and the cultivation 

 of large areas of corn. 



Geology. South Australia is undeniably of more 

 recent formation, as a whole, than eastern or 

 Western Australia. It is comparatively deficient 

 in both flora and fauna, and has a larger surface of 

 later formed rocks. Several ancient formations 

 have few or no fossils to indicate their age, though 

 Lower Silurian beds are recognised as decidedly 

 fossiliferous. Mountain-ranges illustrate the prim- 

 ary rocks, and show traces of a Cambrian period. 

 The rise from Cape Jervis to the Lake District 

 appears older than that more northward, which 

 may be Devonian. Metamorphisms are abundantly 

 exhibited, and both granite and basalt occur fre- 

 quently as intruding veins, as well as in mountain 

 masses. Silurian beds are declared 30,000 feet 

 thick ; granite over extensive areas is detected 

 westward and northward ; Palseozoic slates of 

 8U]>erior quality are of commercial value. Mining 

 for metals is conducted in these older rocks. The 

 Secondary or Mesozoic beds are not so common, 

 though Jurassic ones are crossed in the interior. 

 The Cretaceous development rests on the upturned 

 edges of earlier and disturbed strata. The Tertiary 

 rocks are of great extent and considerable variety. 

 The upper reaches of the Murray River are marked 

 by Mjocene, a formation conspicuous in other 

 localities under the appellation of Desert Sand- 

 stone, the disintegration of which furnishes the 

 material for far-sweeping sands. In parallel 

 and yet shifting sand-Junes they proved a trial 

 to early explorers. Sand drifts, the debris of 

 Pliocene beds, have swept over what had been 

 fertile tracts and increased the aridity. The Lower 

 Murray has dug its way through hundreds of 

 miles of limestone bearing marine fossils. The 

 land is poor where the arenaceous quality pre- 

 dominates, but fertile where the calcareous is 

 near the surface. As coralline limestone one 

 observes the banks of the great sea-lake Coorong. 

 Farther to the south-east, near the Victorian 

 border, lies the charming and productive Mount 

 Gambier district, with its extinct craters, subter- 

 ranean rivers, native wells, stalactitic caverns, 

 and luxuriant vegetation. Lava and volcanic ash 

 walls rise through the Tertiary limestone to form 

 the Devil's Punchbowl or the Devil's Inkstand. 

 Around the hollowed cone of Mount Schank are 

 bands of flint in the limestone. Singular soda- 



springs occur in the recent beds of the interior, 

 with silt around the basins. Pleistocene strata 

 cover a large area, but are not of great depth. 

 The Mount Gambier discharges of lava and ash 

 belong to that period. Extensive remains of the 

 gigantic herbivorous Diprotodon bear witness to 

 different meteorological conditions ; the drying up 

 of inland waters must have caused its destruction. 

 Evidences exist of glacial action at another age. 

 During this century a decided rise of part of the 

 southern coast-line has been observed. 



The climate over so extensive an area as that of 

 a third of Europe cannot but be varied, though no 

 other Australian colony has so much uniformity 

 of weather. Generally speaking, it is both dry and 

 warm. The great mass of land is so compact, and 

 so little relieved by lofty hills or dense forests, that 

 climatic conditions are pretty similar. Travellers 

 in the central desert complain of piercing cold, 

 even to ice formation, in the early hours, though 

 followed after sunrise by a temperature of from 80" 

 to 100 in the shade. Contiguity to the coast gives 

 a night sea-breeze. A thermometer of 175 in the 

 sun and 135 in the shade can hardly be exceeded 

 elsewhere. Adelaide itself, in 34 S., has known 

 120 in the shade ; its winter is superior to 

 the Riviera or Algiers in uniform mildness and 

 absence of frost. The north hot wind, so trying to 

 the weak, seems to come from about lat. 26. On 

 Black Thursday, of 1850, the scorching winds caused 

 terrible destruction. Dust storms accompany the 

 blast, and add to the discomfort ; but they intro- 

 duce grateful showers. On the northern coast the 

 deposition is effected by the monsoon, whose influ- 

 ence more or less extends even to lat. 28 S. Thus 

 during the short rainy season the northern shore 

 may have three to four times the fall experienced in 

 Adelaide. The Great Austral Plains know but few 

 and slight showers, with excessive evaporation. 

 Yet, though the grass fails under the dryness, 

 abundant shrubs give sustenance to live-stock. 

 North of Goyder's Line it is of little use to attempt 

 farming ; still artesian wells can draw a con- 

 stant supply from subterranean flowing streams. 

 Droughts are often produced by the failure of the 

 monsoon to come southerly enough, and they lower 

 the bushels of corn per acre even to five only. 

 While the north coast at Port Darwin received 60 

 to 70 inches of rain in the year, Mount Lofty had 

 40, Gambier 30, Mount Barker 29, Port Lincoln 19, 

 Adelaide 20, Blanchetown 12, Port Augusta 9 (but 

 2 in 1859). Cyclones are very rave. The Adelaide 

 climate is thus averaged : temperature from 34 to 

 113; barometer, 30'53 to 29-09; wet-bulb, 55. 

 Barometer rises when the wind is from NW. by S. 

 to SE., the highest ; falling by N. to NW., lowest. 

 The effect of climate on health is generally most 

 favourable ; though the summers are trying to 

 infants, they do not hinder field labour for Euro- 

 peans. Many consumptives have gained strength 

 in South Australia. 



Fauna. Marsupial animals predominate the 

 kangaroo, jerboa, wallaby, native cat or Dasyu- 

 rus, Phascogale or brush-tails, Myrmecobius or 

 ant-eater, Perameles or bandicoot, Hapalotis or 

 marsupial rat, Hydromys or beaver rat, Hypsi- 

 prymorus or kangaroo rat, Phalanger or rlying- 

 opossum, Phascolarctos or koala, Echidna or por- 

 cupine, Ornithorhynchus, bats, &c. Among 700 

 birds are the eagle, hawk, owl, king-fisher, swal- 

 low, finch, thrush, robin, diamond-bird, honey-bird, 

 crow, cuckoo, parrot, cockatoo, quail, ibis, heron, 

 black swan, and penguin. Insects are not want- 

 ing. Of fish there are 42 peculiar genera. Whales 

 and seals were once numerous around the southern 

 :oast. 



Flora. The colony is not so rich in vegetable 

 Forms as either of its neighbours. It has but 5 of 



