222 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



cloudless blue, and the heavens are brass, while the 

 earth is as hard as iron. Human beings are conscious 

 of the oppression, and cry in despair : will the rain 

 never come ? Now and then such clouds as would fore- 

 token rain in any country temperate gather in the sky 

 and raise vain hopes. So it goes on through weary 

 weeks and months, and even, in a mitigated form, 

 through years and years. The protracted drought 

 of Queensland lasted from 1900 to 1903, but the terrific 

 drought that began in New South Wales in 1895 endured 

 still longer. Even this is slight to the droughts of 

 Argentina, which sometimes are prolonged through as 

 many as fifteen years. 



The havoc such scourges work is terrible. The mere 

 figures are impressive. In Queensland, by 1890, the 

 number of sheep approached 22 millions. _ After the 

 three-years' drought that ended in 1903, it had de- 

 creased to 7,213,895— a reduction of more than two- 

 thirds. The losses in cattle were no less appalling. 

 Their number had risen from 432,890 in 1859, in spite 

 of recurrent shorter droughts, to 7,012,997. Then 

 came the big drought, and the number fell to 2,481,717 

 —another decrease of about two-thirds. As the result 

 of a drought of equal severity in 1900-2 in the other 

 Colony that is most exposed to such calamities, New 

 South Wales, the number of sheep fell from over 42 

 milhons to less than 20 millions. 



In the train of drought, or sometimes after a short 

 rainless spell, follows the yet more destructive confla- 

 gration. The smallest accident— a dropt lucifer-match, 

 an unextinguished picnic-fire, the dregs of a broken 

 whisky-bottle inflamed by a burning sun — may give it 

 a start, and all the resources and exertions of the " Httle 

 god of earth " will be powerless to arrest it. The most 

 memorable of all such bush-fires gave its name to Black 

 Thursday, on February 6th, 1851, when a wall of fire 

 100 miles in breadth swept Victoria from far inland to 

 the sea, licking up grass, corn, bush, and trees, sheep, 

 cattle, and horses, farm-steadings and station-home- 



