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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC .MAGAZINE 



PORPOISES AT PLAY OPP THE COAST OP ARABIA, 



Photograph by M. L. Patterson 

 NEAR SOCOTRA 



(For an account of Socotra, the unique island from which the world gets its frankincense, see 



The Geographic for March, 1918.) 



were taken to the surveyor general for 

 the information of the court. The great- 

 est annual change in the compass pointing 

 was found in the South Indian Ocean, 

 where it amounted to as much as 21 min- 

 utes per year. 



WESTERN AUSTRALIA RESEMBLES WESTERN 

 UNITED STATES IN PIONEER DAYS 



Our visit to Western Australia re- 

 minded us of our own western United 

 States in the early days. This is a new 

 country, the active settlement dating back 

 to the discovery of gold in 1885, but agri- 

 culture was not begun to any extent until 

 1903 and 1904. 



The history of Australia thus resem- 

 bles that of the United States. Settled 

 first in the east, the west, reached only by 

 water routes, was little known until the 

 discovery of gold caused a rush of set- 

 tlers and prompted the building of a 

 transcontinental railroad. 



We were impressed with the beauty 

 and profusion of the wild flowers, all of 

 which were unknown to us in the United 

 States. These included the wattle, which 



blooms in many varieties ; the fragrant 

 baronia, the red and green kangaroo paw, 

 the many different kinds of orchids, the 

 wax flower, and the everlastings, which 

 mantle the country for miles at a stretch. 



The interior of Australia contains no 

 mountain ranges of any size, has no water- 

 shed, and until the water supply problem 

 is solved, this part of the country will re- 

 main practically nonproductive. Thus, 

 at the famous Kalgoorlie gold mines, two 

 cities, with their thousands of people, are 

 dependent for their water upon a supply 

 pumped up from a reservoir near the 

 coast, at Perth, through steel pipes, over 

 a distance of about 350 miles. 



We visited the magnetic observatory 

 of the Department of Terrestrial Magnet- 

 ism at Watheroo, in the midst of a sandy 

 plain, where the emu, the kangaroo, and 

 the wallaby roam at will. 



Wandering over this sandy waste, in 

 the midst of scrubby trees and bushes, 

 trying to shoot the swiftly moving kanga- 

 roo, we would pause in wonder at the 

 beautiful orchids smiling up from the 

 sand at our feet. 



