AUSTRALIA 49 
border of the continent, and often called in whole or in part 
the great dividing range, from forming the great water shed 
of Australia. A part of it called the Australian Alps in 
the south-east, contains the highest summits on the conti- 
nent. Mouut Kosciusko (7,175 feet high), Mount Clark 
(7,256 feet high), and Mount :Townshend (7,253 feet 
high). West of the dividing range are extensive plains or 
downs admirably adapted for pastoral purposes. The 
deserts and scrubs, which occupy large areas of. the 
interior, are a characteristic feature of Australia. ‘The 
former are destitute of vegetation or are clothed only with 
a coarse spiny grass, which affords no sustenance to 
cattle or horses, the latter consist of a dense growth of 
shrubs and Jow trees, often unpenetrable till the traveller 
has cleared a track with his axe. 
The rivers of Australia are nearly all subject to great 
irregularities in volume, many of them at certain seasons 
showing a channel in which there is merely a series of 
pools, whilst at other seasons they inundate the whole 
adjacent country. The chief river is the Murray, which, 
with its affluents, the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, and 
Darling, drains a great part of the interior west of the 
dividing range, and falls into the sea on the south coast, 
after entering Lake Alexandrina. Its greatest tributary 
is the Darling. On the east coast are the Hunter, Clarence, 
Brisbane, Fitzroy and Bardekin; on the west the Swan, 
Murchison, Gascoyne, Ashbnrton and DeGrey; on the 
‘ north the Victoria, Flanders and Mitchell rivers. The 
Australian rivers are ail of little service in facilitating inter- 
nal communication. Many of them lose themselves in the 
swamps or sandy wasies of the interior. A considerable 
river of the interior is Cooper’s Creek, or the Barcos, which 
falls into Lake Eyre, one of a group of lakes on the south 
part of the continent having no outlet, and therefore salt. 
The principal of these lakes are Eyre, Torrens and 
Gairdner, all of which vary in size and saltiness according 
