Pe ee 
ow 
Results of Explorations in Australia. 91 
Besides the plateaus, which extend in a northerly direction 
between the Torrens Basin and that row of lakes situated west, 
and also between these and Lake Gairdner, elevated perhaps 
only a few hundred feet above the lakes and their low shores, 
we find frequently series of heights and isolated elevations. 
With the exception of the Gawler Mountains, 3000 Engl. feet 
high, iy do not seem to be of any consequence, for Stuart as- 
serts in his description of Mount Finke, that this mountain, 
though only equal to Mount Arden, was the highest he had seen 
in his travels, 
- Concerning the other physical conditions of the country, its 
vegetation, fauna, etc., we shall speak when giving a more de- 
tailed report of Stuart’s voyage and the further explorations of 
Babbage and Warburton. We shall only add in this connec- 
tion a few words on the practical results of the surveys. 2. 
best impressions are undoubtedly made by Hack’s descriptions 
of the Gawler Mountains and the region bordering them on 
the north and east. There, without doubt, extensive tracts 
of land are found with a sufficient quantity of fresh water 
and fertile soil well adapted to stations for cattle and perhaps 
even agricultural purposes, having the advantage of being easily 
accessible from the coast, to which they lie near. uth an 
west we find those fearful deserts which Eyre passed through, 
and where Stuart and Foster suffered from hunger. Farther east 
in the direction of Lake Torrens, the absence of permanent sweet 
water springs is the greatest impediment to colonization, for 
good pastures are neither cans the low lands along the 
lakes, nor even on the plateaus, though we find them here in 
more isolated tracts. the number of springs, however, and 
fresh water basins seems to increase considerably the nearer you 
approach the interior, as Stuart’s and Babbage’s accounts plainly 
show. Even Major Warburton, one of the Australian pessimists, 
could not but express his surprise at the great number of springs 
on the pastures discovered by him north of Stuart’s Creek, 
although he sees almost everything in a more unfavorable light 
than the rest, and thinks a permanent settlement between ee 
cer’s Gulf and Lake Campbell an impossibility. Several thou- 
sand square miles of pasture in such a seclusion and separated 
by wirdies of shrubs and ee might really seem to be 
unworthy of notice, if the peculiar character of Australia were 
not to be taken into consideration. With an increase of 100,000 
souls in its population, with its rapid development in raising cat- 
tle, the want of new land is felt more severely than almost 
pe fad else upon the earth. d : 
e shall but add in reference to this subject, that a week 
after Stephen Hack’s return from the Gawler Mountains a price 
was offered for some 2000 miles of the 4500 English sq. miles 
_ of the new discovered pastures. Several cattle owners followed 
