SAND DRIFT PROBLEM OF ARID NEW SOUTH WALES. 145 
ance. The sandhills are rarely more than a quarter of a mile in 
width by two miles in length, and the shifting occurs only in 
seasons of severe drought; the tops are a series of mounds like 
billows, which in good seasons are changed by the action of rain 
and moisture, and herbage and grasses grow on the sides of these 
hills. Ifthe natural scrubs and bushes in the area mentioned 
are destroyed indiscriminately and removed from the surface of 
the ground, windswept country will occur, especially where rock 
or stone is close to the surface, and the result will be disastrous, 
as nothing will grow upon the bare subsoil. Ringbarking and 
scrub-cutting should be strictly supervised, and where the timber 
is thin, it should not be ringbarked. 
‘For binding these loose sands the local drought-resisting 
growths are most suitable, these consist of spinifex, red soil roly- 
poly, button, wire grasses and budda bush It is almost impossible 
to kill the latter scrub, rabbits and drought have no effect upon 
it, and if cut down it comes up thicker than ever. During the 
severe drought of the last five years, the scrubs have survived 
when thousands of acres of pine, box, coolibah, and other large 
trees have perished—many of the dead pines being up to one foot 
in thickness.” 
