66 Australian Life 



these great sand basins, the whiteness of the salt 

 turns to a shimmering silver, and from a distance 

 it seems as though the sea were still there silent, 

 misty, and boundless. The explorers tell tales 

 of strange mirages of ships under full sail, but in- 

 verted so that the tip of the masts met the mast 

 tips of a lower ship, apparently the reflection in 

 the water of the topmost one. Between these salt 

 lakes are sand hummocks, where the stiff spinifex 

 grass grows, in spite of the aridity and saltness of 

 the soil. 



The past twelve years have seen the Australian 

 losing ground in the Never- Never Land. Runs 

 have been abandoned, and the discomfited or 

 ruined run-holder has retreated nearer the coast. 

 "There is now less of settled Australia than there 

 was twenty years ago, ' ' wrote a mournful Aus- 

 tralian, "for the drought has driven in many of 

 the men who had gone out back." But at the 

 end of the year 1902 came the break-up of the 

 drought. Lakes that have been dry for ten years 

 now hold ten feet of water, and creeks are running 

 that have season after season been choked with 

 dust. The past of Australia points to the fact 

 that a cycle of good seasons is at hand, when 

 flocks and herds will double themselves in one 

 year and repeat the process the next, while there 

 is abundance of rich pasture for all. Then, gain- 

 ing confidence, the adventurers will return one by 

 one to the alluring back country, richer for the 

 experience of the past. Already the enterprising 



