THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA. 247 



coveries have been brought to our knowledge through the enlightened 

 and patriotic enterprise of two South Australian gentlemen, Sir Thomas 

 Elder and Mr. Home, of Adelaide, who with praiseworthy liberality 

 defrayed the cost of two separate and well-appointed scientific expedi- 

 tions to Central Australia. The absence or scarcity of reliable infor- 

 mation concerning the more remote parts of the continent may no doubt 

 account to some extent for the little attention hitherto bestowed upon 

 its physical geography as a whole. As an example of how insignifi- 

 cantly Australia has, until very recent years, been regarded by intel- 

 ligent and well-informed Europeans, I will just quote the concluding 

 sentence of the introductory paragraph of an article in a standard 

 work on geography, published in 1885, by Longmans & Co., of London: 

 "But recent events have conferred upon Australia an importance 

 which justifies our making it the subject of a distinct chapter." 



A backward glance at what we assume to be the earliest stages of 

 evolution of our continent, through successive geological ages, will 

 enable us to realize more fully the distinct peculiarities of its physical 

 aspect as well as of its past and present climatic conditions, as influ- 

 enced by the various progressive steps of development. Let us com- 

 mence with the Paleozoic period, during which we find a few raised 

 disintegrated fragments of a submerged plateau projecting above the 

 surface of the ocean. In Western Australia the dry laud at this stage is 

 represented by an elongated area extending from the twentieth parallel 

 to the neighborhood of Swan Eiver. The western or extreme outer 

 fringe of this fragment now lies submerged outside of the present coast 

 line, and consequently it forms a section of the ocean bed within the 

 limits of the 1,200 to 0,000 foot contour line. A somewhat similar 

 upheaved tongue-shaped area extended from Melville and Bathurst 

 islands southward into Central Australia, and, like the former frag- 

 ment, its northwest edge or shoulder is now submerged in the neighbor- 

 hood of Anson's Bay within the 1,200-foot contour line. The remaining 

 continental patches above water were represented by a few superficially 

 small and isolated narrow elevations along the eastern seaboard of the 

 continent, distributed over au extensive northerly and southerly range 

 from Cape York Peninsula to the Australian Alps. These insulated 

 fragments were, according to Prof. James Geikie, the Hon. A. C. Greg- 

 ory, and other well-known authorities, the earliest representatives of 

 this continent. The climate of this and other continental divisions of 

 the globe must have possessed a remarkable uniformity of character 

 throughout the whole area to which reference has been made. The 

 areas of dry land being comparatively small, offered little impediment 

 to the free circulation of ocean currents, and thus by the commingling 

 of polar and equatorial waters an exceedingly mild and equable tem- 

 perature was maintained. The succeeding stage of evolution was 

 marked by the somewhat rapid and wide extension and unity of land 

 areas. Insulated fragments increased in magnitude, assuming more 



