THE AUSTRALIAN PASTORALIST REGIME 19 



a poor soil and a stunted vegetation. As the westerly 

 winds are robbed of their moisture by the heated 

 surface before they reach the interior, the centre of 

 Australia and tracts like the boundary between Victoria 

 and South Austraha are deserts. The northern portions, 

 on the other hand, embedded in the tropics, are drenched 

 by the monsoonal rains, and are eminently suited for 

 the rearing of cattle. The southern highlands of New 

 South Wales, paradoxically, have the same adaptation ; 

 while its northern highlands, with a milder climate, are 

 better suited for sheep. The arid extreme West of 

 the State is a sheep-breeding country, though, so light 

 is its rainfall, it carries only one sheep to eight or ten 

 acres. The reverse holds in Queensland. There the 

 hot north, with its strong grasses, is best for cattle 

 and horses ; while the pastoral downs in the south are 

 for sheep ; the west, again extremely arid, though with 

 soil rich enough for agriculture, is doomed to remain 

 pastoral by the inopportuneness of its rainfall. The 

 temperate climate, rich soil, and uniform rainfall of 

 Western Victoria give it an ascendancy in the rearing of 

 sheep. The wool grown there is one-fifth more valuable 

 than any grown elsewhere in Australia. Crowning all, 

 the elastic, buoyant atmosphere makes labour easy and 

 living a delight, while it facihtates all pastoral occupa- 

 tions and enables the skilled breeding of stock to be 

 rapidly perfected. 



