Geography and Travel. . 443- 
the rivers or in market towns like Kedarif. The character of the 
three rivers Setit, Atbara and Basalam is everywhere the same; 
their flood plains are some 90 metres below the barren soil of 
the plateau, and they are themselves from 120 to 300 metres wide, 
and about 15 metres deep. 
AUSTRALIA.—Dr. K. V. Lendenfeld (Petermann’s Mitt., 1888) 
states that the influence of forests upon the climate of Australia is 
the reverse of that which they are supposed to exercise in Europe. 
While European trees retain much of the water among their roots,. 
the plants of the Australian wastes, including the grasses, Euca- 
lypti and the Spinifex, send their roots to great depths in search 
of water, and appear to open their stomata only at night. 
Dr. Lendenfeld asserts that during his journeys in the interior 
of New South Wales he has many times travelled all day through 
forests without seeing grass, The soil, for the most part consist- 
ing of red loam, is flat and smooth as asphalt, and hard as stone, 
forming a marked contrast to that of European forests. When it 
rains in such a forest the greater part of the water runs off into the 
hollows at once. As many of these water-holes have a subterra- 
nean communication with the sea, no great lakes are formed. A e 
greatest river in Australia, the Murray, is navigable only in winter 
by flat-bottomed steamboats, In many places where squatters have 
destroyed the forests the bare soil becomes clothed with so many 
inds of grass as to afford subsistence for a thousand sheep where: 
a hundred fed previously. 
Mr. S. Brooke (Petermann’s Mitt., 1888) describes the recent 
excursion of himself and his brother in Western Australia, and 
Sives a map of their route. The whole region is lacking in water, 
yet has numerous plants. The soil is calcareous, with a few moun- 
tains and granite rocks rising from the plains. Among these is 
aipa Rugged, which is about 1,980 feet high and three miles. 
ong. 
of the Negro, Limay and Collon-Cura and the Lake Nahuel-Huapi, 
of which the Limay is the outlet. This lake is 583 metres above 
the sea, and its shape is different from that originally reported. 
The Argentine Republic in general may be said to consist of the 
flat Pampas and of the Cordilleras, but there are also subordinate 
