SOURCE OF THE DARLING 43 



Whichever of the many streams is the source of the 

 Darling, it starts in life as a mountain-torrent, rushing 

 down through rocky gullies which are overhung with giant 

 gum-trees and often choked with fern and brush growths, 

 and presents a beautiful and picturesque sight to the eye 

 of the rambler. Soon, however, these billabungs reach 

 almost level ground, lose their impetuosity, become actually 

 currentless, and, in summer, degenerate to "a chain of 

 water-holes," a description that has been applied to almost 

 every river in Australia. The bed of the river here, as in 

 most other places, is sandy and very absorbent ; but it has 

 been discovered that the water often runs underground, as 

 in other deserts of the world, and reappears where there is 

 a fall in the level of the land or the soil is hard and firm. 



Except where it rushes through deep gullies in its first 

 reaches, the Darling has not high or rocky banks, and does 

 not generally run through forests, but has a fringe of 

 timber two or three miles wide on either bank. Taking a 

 general view of its entire course, it may be safely asserted 

 that no other river of the same length on the earth's 

 surface has so little change of scenery, or is so lacking in 

 the picturesque element. Sometimes its course is over 

 arid and most desolate-looking plains which do not seem 

 to rise two feet above the general level ; sometimes the 

 banks are quite bare of trees, and sometimes there is a 

 thin fringe of timber. 



In the winter, especially after those sudden bursts of 

 rainfall, which is one of the characteristics of this region, 

 the country is flooded for a distance of several miles on 

 either bank, and billabungs and temporary lakes galore are 

 formed. But the floods do not last long. The thirsty soil 

 will in many places drink in an eight- or nine-inch rainfall 

 in a few hours, leaving only a mud-hole or two to show that 

 the earth has been wetted. A detailed description of the 

 whole course of the Darling would be as monotonous as 

 the country through which it flows. At one part there is 

 no perceptible fall, and consequently no perceptible current, 

 for a distance of three hundred miles. Everywhere on the 

 central plains the river is as quiet, and smooth as a mill- 



