18 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



its rivers could never become tlie vomitories of pro- 

 duction or the highways of commerce. Next, hke the 

 Rhine, they expire into swamps, or (as Dr. Fitchett has 

 wittily said) into " a landscape of swamps." Lastly, 

 in summer and autumn at least, most of them are of 

 feeble dimensions ; the third-class rivers, as the Lachlan 

 and the Macquarie, are then waterless beds, the hollow 

 mockeries of rivers ; even " the mighty Darling," for 

 many a month of every year, is but a chain of water- 

 holes. Yet it is on these disappointing streams that the 

 pastoralist depends, and along their banks — at first, 

 along them alone — that he settles. 



Ill served by the rivers, the pastoral industry is 

 scarce more bounteously enriched by the rainfall. All 

 over the Continent, save on the fertile coastal belts, the 

 temperate water-supply is insufficient. Heavy enough 

 on these, it fades away as soon as the pastoral plateaus 

 are reached, and sinks to as small a quantity as six 

 inches annually in the central desert. Here the situation 

 of the Continent comes to the rescue. Raising both its 

 shoulders high into the tropics, it allures the tropical 

 rains that make the pastoral industry possible. Twice 

 a year, in February and August, or at other adjoining 

 months, the monsoonal rains pour douTi their golden 

 drops, like Zeus into the lap of Danae — often too late 

 for the farmer, whose crops were long before ripe, but 

 perenially useful to the pastoralist. The very scantiness 

 of the rainfall is his salvation. Finding it impossible 

 successfully to rear the cross-bred sheep that thrives 

 in well- watered New Zealand, he has devoted his efforts 

 to acclimatizing and perfecting the merino, which can 

 live, as it was bred, under comparatively rainless skies. 

 Playing a part equal to the situation and structure of 

 the Continent, as a factor in its economic history, the 

 climate is governed by these. They bestow a sufficient 

 rainfall on the plains and plateaus of the eastern and 

 southern coasts, where vast flocks of sheep are reared ; 

 while the western coasts (save from a jioint above 

 Fremantle south to Albany) have a light rainfall, with 



