LONELY AUSTRALIA: THE UNIQUE CONTINENT 



495 



measure 329, 333, and 342 feet, and states 

 that there are '"scores of trees about 300 

 feet in height." The surveyor of the 

 Dandenong ranges made notes of the tall- 

 est trees felled during an eight-year pe- 

 riod and reports that "all those measured 

 were over 300 feet in length." 



Eucalyptus trees reproduce themselves 

 readily and grow about seven times more 

 rapidly than oak or hickory. From a ton 

 of bark of the gimlet tree was obtained 

 by analysis 416 pounds of tannin extract 

 and 308 pounds of oxalic acid. From 

 the gum and leaves of these trees come 

 also the highly valuable eucalyptus oils, 

 from which no less than twenty-seven 

 ■constituents have been distilled for phar- 

 maceutical purposes and for the separa- 

 tion of metals by the flotation process. 



The eucalyptus is the great timber tree 

 of the continent. Of sixty varieties in 

 Victoria, twenty have high commercial 

 value and are finding an ever-increasing 

 market. The Tasmanian blue gum is one 

 of the strongest, densest, and most dura- 

 ble woods in the world. Timbers 2 feet 

 •square, exceeding 100 feet in length, are 

 readily obtained, and, when used for pil- 

 ing, need not be weighted, for the density 

 of the wood is such that it sinks in water. 



THEIR STRENGTH REMARKABLE 



Their strength is twice that of English 

 oak, and they are practically immune 

 from attack by the Teredo, which plays 

 such havoc with ordinary timbers. In 

 Tasmania railroad ties or paving blocks 

 of blue gum and stringy bark have a life 

 of fifteen to twenty years — three times 

 that of ordinary woods. In the dryer cli- 

 mate of Victoria blue-gum sleepers have 

 heen in service for nearly forty years. 

 Shingles from peppermint gum have a 

 life of thirty to forty years. 



The jarrah, a eucalyptus of West Aus- 

 tralia, is another famous tree. It is one 

 of the few woods of the world which 

 successfully resist the ravages of white 

 ants ; it is practically immune from the 

 attacks of marine borers, and, like the 

 iron bark of Victoria and New South 

 Wales, has been known to withstand fire 

 better than iron girders. Piles of sawn 

 jarrah driven at Port Adelaide in 1868 

 ""showed no signs of decay in 1910." 



The forests of West Australia also sup- 



ply the karri, one of the world's big trees. 

 It is straight and tall, reaching heights of 

 300 feet and 120 to 180 feet to the first 

 branch. Like the jarrah, its timber is 

 widely used where strength and durability 

 are requisites. The karri planking of a 

 dismantled ship, which had plowed the 

 seas for thirty years, was sawed into 

 blocks and used for paving. A log of 

 karri which had lain forty-six years in 

 mud below high-water mark was found 

 by a Royal Commission to be "perfectly 

 sound." Their life as railroad ties is 

 twenty-five to thirty-five years. 



AUSTRALIA DESTROYING HER TREES 



In view of the present and prospective 

 value of Australia's national tree, it is a 

 little surprising to find that cutting and 

 burning is proceeding with scant scientific 

 supervision. California and South Amer- 

 ica are planting eucalypts ; Australia is 

 cutting them down. 



Australian hardwoods rival mahogany 

 in beauty and susceptibility of polish, and 

 are unsurpassed among the world's tim- 

 bers in strength, durability, and resist- 

 ance to fungous and insect attacks. 



But soft woods for ordinary construc- 

 tion purposes are not abundant, and the 

 imports of lumber are correspondingly 

 large. During 191 3 timber to the value 

 of $10,000,000 reached the common- 

 wealth from foreign parts, 70 per cent of 

 it from the United States ; in return, 

 Australia exported undressed hardwoods 

 of about half that value chiefly to New 

 Zealand, South Africa, India, and Eng- 

 land. 



One effect of the scarcity of suitable 

 lumber is shown in the extensive use of 

 galvanized iron in building. Iron re- 

 places shingles for roofing, and in parts 

 of the country practically no other build- 

 ing material is used. 



THE ANIMALS OF OTHER CONTINENTS — 



HORSES, CATTLE, PIGS, TIGERS, LIONS — 



UNKNOWN IN AUSTRALIA 



The animals of Australia are so distinct 

 from the rest of the world that some have 

 proposed two great zoological realms : 

 Australian and non-Australian. The pe- 

 culiarity lies not only in the fact that 

 Australian types are not found elsewhere, 

 but also that families like the cats and 



