34 CONTRADICTORY REPORTS BY EARLY EXPLORERS. 



of explorers describing it as a series of lagoons and 

 swamps, and the next, as a waterless waste, where the 

 traveller incurred the risk of perishing by thirst or 

 starvation ; and yet both reports were probably honest, 

 and given in accordance with what was actually the 

 then state of the locality, as seen by the explorers. 



Nor will these discrepancies surprise any experienced 

 plainsman, for he knows that these apparently opposite 

 conditions depend upon the seasons, and that heavy and 

 continuous rains, on these plains, will of course produce 

 floods; while during the dry season the waters will 

 often either wholly disappear, or else will sometimes 

 turn salt, and become undrinkable. Much loss and 

 suffering, and many sad casualties, have occurred both 

 to unwary travellers, stock farmers, and others, either 

 through ignorance or forgetfulness of these phenomena, 

 which may be regarded as characteristic of the climate 

 throughout the greater portion of the Region of the 

 Great Plains. Everywhere in the interior of great 

 continents where these great plains exist, as a rule we 

 may expect that periods of flood will occasionally be 

 found to alternate with prolonged droughts. 



Australia seems to be peculiarly subject to be affected 

 by these troubles. We cannot doubt that this is due 

 to the peculiar set of the winds, to which we have 

 already referred elsewhere ; * and the losses of stock, 

 etc., which have been sustained on these occasions, 

 have frequently proved of the most serious nature. 

 The floods, though sometimes exceedingly destructive, 

 do not, however, seem to create the same wide-spread 

 disastrous consequences as the droughts. These pro- 

 longed droughts seem to recur periodically at inter- 



* See the Chapter on Climates and Temperatures. (Chapt. iv, Vol. i.) 



