40 NEW ZEALAND AS A STOCK RAISING COLONY. 



stock raising" country, and we have every reason to 

 hope that New Zealand will in due course reap the 

 golden harvests which a beneficent nature seems to 

 have destined to be produced there : not only in quantity 

 and quality, but also in remunerative financial returns. 



These results, we feel confident, will D.V., unques- 

 tionably accrue to all our great colonies of the southern 

 hemisphere, as time and progress move on together. 



We have already alluded to the fact that during the 

 dry season many of the waters throughout " The Region 

 of the Great Plains" are apt to become saline. This 

 peculiarity is of course confined to certain districts, but 

 in almost every part of the world, within this zone, it 

 would be possible to cite notable instances of it. In 

 Algeria for instance, the salt water lagoons are termed 

 " Shotts, " and in the French guide book it is stated 

 that in the three provinces, " it is reckoned that there 

 are 26 large saline lakes, 21 saline rivers, and 7 

 deposits of rock salt. " * In many parts of Egypt even 

 wells sunk in the valley of the Nile, not far from the 

 river, produce brackish, and even salt water. Then 

 in South Africa, Australia, North and South America, 

 Siberia, etc., these saline waters are found extending 

 over large areas of country. 



In these places after heavy and continuous rains, 

 when the rivers and lakes are filled to overflowing, 

 of course the water will very likely be found fresh, 

 but after the dry weather has set in, when they begin 

 to fall rapidly, it gradually becomes brackish, and 

 finally, should there be a long dry season, often so 

 highly saline as to be quite undrinkable; and sometimes 



* See introduction to Algeria et Tunisie, par Louis Piesse, 1891, 

 p. xlviii. 



