144 



• KNOWLEDGE <> 



[July 28, 



horses, 283,3i:> lionied cattle, and G.oOO.OOO of sheep, but 

 the population at the period in question was only 270,80") 

 all tjld, whence it will be at once seen that the surplus in 

 the way of productions was verj- great indeed. Many 

 well organised railways are rapidly opening up the interior 

 to the cultivator, and let it be borne in mind that the 

 interior of South Australia is not the desert waste some 

 have iuiagineil. On the contrary, we have here splen- 

 did plains, including good soil, and while there arc 

 mountainous lands stretching ofl' for hundreds of miles, 

 tliickly wooded with the famous eucalyptus, and often 

 enclosing valleys which compare even with those of our 

 own land in its most picturesque recesses. Very much 

 of the scenery is, indeed, of a park-like character, and 

 although intervals of stern sterile tracts intervene, these 

 are seldom the rule, and many of these might yield to 

 artificial irrigation, which, by-the-way, is now being ex- 

 tensively developed in Australia, to neutralise the serious 

 effects of that principal enemy of the Austral husband- 

 man — drought. During the year 1881 the colony e.Kported 

 flour to the value of £837,580, while the brcadstuffs sent 

 out were estimated at £2,409,720. When we reflect that 

 the number of male inhabitants of this magnificent 

 region was only 149,.')30, including those under ago, it 

 will l>e readily admitted that here again production has 

 altogether outstripped population in a mar\ ellous manner, 

 and that in settling these grateful soils we have a very- 

 real and practical supplementary addition to our now 

 comparatively insignificant wheat-fields at home. 



Bat we liave not yet by any means exhausted the 

 potential food-raising capacity of the continent. Western 

 Australia is a colony but little known or regarded in 

 England, and as at present its very small population is less 

 than 30,000 all told, it does not immediately enter into the 

 calculations of our food importers. Yet it is a region 

 well worth considering, since it includes some truly mag- 

 nificent expanses — country especially adapted for cereal 

 culture, while settlers only are needed to develope its 

 flocks and herds into proportions that would even exceed 

 the vast pastoral riches of South Australia, Victoria, and 

 New South Wales. The total area is truly enormous, 

 being l,0r)7,2.')0 square miles, or eight times the size of the 

 l'iiit<»d Kingdom, to which, by the way, it lies nearest of 

 all the members of the great Austral group. In 1880 

 there were neariy 04,000 acres under tillage, and about 

 a third was under wheat, the average yield being 1 .5 bushels 

 to the acre. The live stock included 34,508 horses, 03,719 

 homed cattle, and 1,231,717 sheep. All the principal 

 flowers and fruits of the world grow, or may be grown, in 

 these fertile lands. The whole range of fruits peculiar to 

 Europe can be reared in full perfection, while the olive and 

 vine flourish exceedingly. The abundance of flowers has 

 resultf^d in a vast increase of bees ; and honey is produced 

 in such quantities as to be locally of little or no value. 

 Very much of the soil is naturally well adapted for 

 farming purjioses, and in some quarters there are downs of 

 an ext<^;nt wiual to some European kingdoms, capable of 

 supporting almost countless flocks and herds. The fertility 

 of much of the soil in the vicinity of tlie watersheds is 

 astounding. Thus, on the Greenhough River, there is a single 

 flat containing some 10,000 acres, which raises 30 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre, and that with culture of a superfi- 

 cial charact';r. In other quarters there are vast forests 

 of the famous jarrah wood. Until of comparatively late 

 years, an idea prevailed that tlie interior was one awful, abso- 

 lutely sterile desert, dcstituteal ike of waterand of land marks. 

 Happily, Colonel Warburton, and sulwequently, Mr. John 

 Forrest, have, by their careful explorations, dispelled to a 

 great extent the fallacy. There are certainly extensive 



deserts, but these are more like the rind ordinarily is to 

 the pulp of the fruit, than the reverse, as once popularly 

 imagined, and huiulrcds of miles in the far interior, beau- 

 tifully undulating i,'r;iss-grown plains have been discovered 

 analogous to the well-known prairie soil of the far west of 

 North America, where great harvests will some day be 

 reaped by the aid of machinery, when once the civilizing 

 railway has penetrated into these uncropped virgin soils. 

 In effect, the rapid development of the great trans-con- 

 tinental railway is bringing us approximately near to the 

 beginning of what must pro\e the true golden ago of the 

 antipodean agriculturist. 



(To be continxed.) 



NIGHTS WITFI A THREE-INCH 

 TELESCOPE. 



By "A Fellow of the IIoval Astronomical Society." 



AND now we come to tlie lo\ely object, of whicli Fig. 39 

 is nothing but a diagram, u Ilerculis ; the contrast 

 between the pronounced orange hue of the large star and 

 the emerald gi-een of the smaller one being perfectly 

 charming, c Ilerculis is a somewhat wide and very un- 

 equal pair. We insert it here on account of the extraordi- 

 nary discrepancies which appear in the descriptions of the 

 colour of the companion by various observers at diflerent 

 dates. This is a star which the observer will do well to 

 watch. 



p Herculis is a close and beautiful double, the colour of 

 the companion being very fine. It is shown in fig. 40. 

 \ Herculis (between c and fi, map, p. 020, Vol. I.) is only a 

 single star, with nothing but its deep yellow colour to render 

 it at all remarkable. It is inserted here, though, since it may 

 interest the student to look at, or very near, the point in 

 the heavens towards which our entire solar system is 

 moving at the rate of some 422,000 miles per diem. One- 

 third of the way from « Herculis towards Vega (the 

 brilliant star « in Lyra) will bo found a widish pair, 200 

 of Piazzi's XVIIth hour of R. A. It is noticeable for the 

 beautifully-contrasted colours of its unequal components. 

 If we draw an imaginary line in the sky from « Ophiuchi 

 to I) Lyne, and travel 10° along it, wo shall arrive at 

 95 Herculis, a tolerably close star, whose componoits difier 

 but little in magnitude, though they have been alleged to 

 do .so notably in colour. Smyth called them "apple 

 green " and " cherry red." Another observer described them 

 as both golden yellow. At present they appear to us as of a 

 palish yellow, fjoth _ nearly of the same hue. 95 is repre- 

 sented in fig. 41. /( Herculis, a wide and very unequal 

 pair, presents, as do so many other stars in this constella- 

 tion, very finely-contrasted colours. 11° from /5 Lyra?, on 

 line joining this star with « Herculis, lies 100 Herculis, a 

 pretty and easy little pair of equal magnitude. It is 

 shown in fig. 42. Such are a few typical objects among 



