356 AUSTEALASIA. 



Our knowledge of the interior was doubtless greatly enlarged by the search for 

 grassy lands, and after the discovery of gold in 1851, by the sudden rush of 

 miners to the still unknown alluvial plains and rocky valleys of the eastern regions. 

 But far more was accomplished by the disinterested expeditions of travellers who 

 never hesitated to risk their lives in the cavise of science and geographical dis- 

 covery. And, in truth, the work of Australian exploration has cost the lives of 

 many daring pioneers and distinguished naturalists, such as the botanist Cunning- 

 ham, the learned Leichhardt, Gray, Burke, Wills, who, with numerous comrades, 

 fell victims, either to the spears of the natives or to the hardships, hunger, and 

 thirst of toilsome journeys across inhospitable lands and the trackless wilder- 

 ness. 



A.nd of those more fortunate pioneers, who brought their expeditious to a 

 successful issue, how many proved themselves true heroc'^, displaying all the 

 energy, resolution, and endurance of which man is capable ! For days and weeks 

 together they had to study the soil and scan the horizon in search of some stream- 

 let, mere, or " water-hole." Fellow-travellers had to disperse in the midst of the 

 desert in quest of a little moisture to quench their burning thirst, indicating as 

 their rally in g-point some distant rock, from which they might easily be beguiled 

 by a treacherous mirage. Then the weary ploddings across sandhills, over shingly 

 plains, through salt marshes, and thorny scrub ; the deviations in search of stray 

 horses ; the intolerable heats beneath brazen skies, followed by the dangerous 

 chills of night ! Altogether the history of Australian exploration forms a chapter 

 in the records of heroism, which gives the most exalted idea of the greatness of 

 man. 



In the series of essays which followed year after year, the decisive journey was 

 that made in 1862, after two failures, by MacDouall Stuart, whose itineraries to 

 the right and the left resemble the movements of the antennae of puzzled ants. 

 He first succeeded in crossing the Australian continent at its broadest part, from 

 Saint Vincent Gulf to the north coast, opposite Melville Island. Australia was 

 thus severed, as it were, in two by a transverse route^ along which stations sprang 

 up at intervals, as so many places of refuge, or starting-points for future explorers. 

 From these headquarters, which reduced by one-half the distance to be traversed, 

 it became possible to penetrate far into the surrounding wilderness, and in 1873 

 Warburton at last reached the west coast. The network of itineraries was now 

 rapidly extended in all directions, east and west, as well as north and south, and 

 the preliminary rough survey of the continent may be regarded as already accom- 

 plished. The inland regions are known in their main features, while the details 

 are being gradually filled up by the partial explorations undertaken in connection 

 with the telegraph service, or in quest of springs and grazing grounds. Never- 

 theless there still remain vast spaces, especially in the west, where no European 

 has yet succeeded in penetrating, and the blank spaces, even on the latest maps, 

 between the routes of Giles, Forrest, and Warburton represent altogether an area 

 of some 300,000 square miles, or considerably more than double the whole extent 

 of the British Isles. 



