MOUNT FEATHER TOP, VICTORIA, IN EARLY SPRING 



Snow-capped peaks are rare in Australia, and this view of the high Alps was first seen 

 by the young explorer, Hamilton Hume, who in the early years of the nineteenth century 

 won his way from Sydney across country to Port Philip, where Melbourne now stands. 

 "There was Kosciusko to the southeast, and Bogong, Feather Top, and the Cobbler raising 

 their giant hoary heads in front, and you may be sure the explorers could scarce prepare 

 their breakfast for gazing at the strange scene." 



the Mississippi. One station reports 

 eight inches in seven years ; another six 

 inches in ten years. In the center of the 

 desert the annual precipitation is less 

 than five inches, and over large areas rain 

 may not fall for a period of several years 

 (see map, page 588). 



Large areas are so flat that no feature 

 in sight rises above the level of the eye 

 except the ghost-like ridges suggested by 

 the ever-present mirage, and the portion 

 known as the Nullarbor plain, having di- 

 mensions, roughly, 450 miles by 200 miles, 

 is one of the most even land surfaces in 

 the world. Railroad levels across this 

 plain reveal a gradual slope from 329 feet 

 to 605 feet in a distance of 450 rriles — 

 an imperceptible rise of about seven 

 inches to a mile and a difference in eleva- 

 tion of any two points 20 miles apart of 

 less than 40 feet (see map, pp. 480-481). 



In constructing the Commonwealth 

 railway (from Perth, Western Australia, 

 to Port Augusta, South Australia) there 

 are no obstructions to avoid, no bridges 

 to build, and practically no grading to be 

 done, and for 430 miles in a single stretch 

 the line will be without curves. 



A DESOLATE REGION 



The Australian desert is not a mythical 

 affair like the "Great American Desert," 

 but is a singularly inhospitable waste, 

 which may be entered only in favorable 

 seasons and by special means of trans- 

 port. Excluding the miners of the Kal- 

 goorlie region, the population on 800,000 

 square miles of this area, including 

 ranches and villages along the railways, 

 is estimated by the Meteorological Bu- 

 reau at "probably not a thousand white 

 folk." 



