MAP SHOWING THI; ISOLATION OF AUSTRALIA (sLL PAGE} 473) 



while the aborigines of Australia are the 

 lowest in intelligence of all human beings. 



Australia is in no sense inferior to New 

 Zealand in geographic interest, but lofty- 

 peaks, profound canyons, and active vol- 

 canoes are lacking; its rivers are unim- 

 pressive and its permanent lakes small 

 and few in number ; it is a continent com- 

 posed of plains interrupted by ridges and 

 mountain knobs. 



Unique vegetation of remarkable va- 

 riety and beauty (see page 486), animal 

 life of by-gone geological periods (see 

 page 502), and an aboriginal population, 

 the lowest in the scale of beings having 

 human form, stand out as features dis- 

 tinctly Australian — a never-ending source 

 of interest to the geographer. 



Australia is a large country. It is about 

 fourteen times the size of France or Ger- 

 many, twenty-five times the size of Italy, 

 Hungary, or Ecuador, and two and one- 

 half times the size of Argentina ! its 

 chief competitor in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. Its area is equal to three-fourths 

 of Europe, one-third of all North Amer- 



ica, and one-fourth of the British Em- 

 pire. 



SOML COMPARISONS WITH THE; UNITED 



STATES 



The continent is almost exactly the 

 size and is nearly the shape of the United 

 States (see map, page 476). 



Of outlying provinces, Australia has 

 the tropical land of Papua to offset arctic 

 Alaska. The Commonwealth is respon- 

 sible also for the rich little Lord Howe 

 Island and for 800 inhabitants of Nor- 

 folk Island, descendants of Tahitian 

 women and British sailors — mutineers of 

 the famous ship Bounty. 



Australia is the most level in surface 

 and regular in outline of all the conti- 

 nents, and even of most large islands. It 

 is also the lowest continent, with an aver- 

 age elevation about that of Ohio. Its 

 „surface lacks variety. The change from 

 one type of topography is so gradual and 

 significant natural features are so few 

 and so widely spaced that, with the ex- 

 ception of the Murray River, they are 



475 



