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down the old track they would have met the reserve party coming up.

The latter party arrived in the camp, but by the same fatality did not open the cache, and so learned nothing of the "whereabouts and condition of the leaders. The latter broke down after a few days from sheer exhaustion. Both their camels died. Discouraged from continuing the attempt to get through to South Australia, just when they were perhaps within fifty miles of the settlements, and more than that from Cooper's Creek, they crept back to the latter place. They were utterly worn out. First Burke, then Wills died, and King was left alone in the wilderness. He was fortunate enough, however, to attract the sympathy of the natives, among whom he managed to subsist till rescued by the relief partly sent out under Mr. Howitt.

When the uncertainty occasioned by the long-continued absence of these explorers deepened into anxiety, and the anxiety became painful, earnest efforts were made in the several colonies to ascertain their fate or afford them relief. Three expeditions were dispatched in 1861 in search of the missing party. That under Mr. A. W. Howitt was successful in discovering the disastrous results of the former enterprise. Mr. Howitt found King among the Cooper's Creek natives, and from him learned the whole interesting, but melancholy story. He also recovered the remains of the leaders and returned with them to the colony.

Mr. Landsborough and a well-equipped party were sent round by water to the Gulf of Carpentaria to make an exploration from the north. At the same time a company, under Mr. Walker, was to proceed from Rockingham Bay, on the east coast, to cross the head of the gulf. Landsborough's party was conveyed in a little brig up the Albert River about twenty miles, where a depot was formed. Following their instructions, they proceeded south-westerly toward Stuart's Central Mount. They succeeded in attaining a distance of two hundred miles from the coast, and had passed through what was on the whole a promising country, well deserving the name previously given to one of its districts, "The Plains of Promise," but they were compelled to retire by the "threatening aspect of the natives." At the depot on the Albert, Landsborough found that

Walker had safely arrived from the east coast, bringing intelligence that he had come upon the tracks of Burke's party at the River Flinders. Landsborough immediately adopted a new course. Going up the Flinders, which he estimated to be five hundred miles long, he crossed a low dividing range, and a journey of about twenty miles brought him to the headwaters. of the Thompson, flowing southerly. On this stream they found that some colonists from Queensland had already preceded them in search of pastoral stations. Hence they made their way to the Barcoo, but were diverted by the drouth prevailing at the south-west from pushing through to Victoria, and so went by the way of the Darling and New South Wales.

M'Kinlay left Adelaide in August, 1861. He went in a northerly direction, and was six weeks in getting beyond the furthest settlements of the colony, which now extended four hundred miles into the interior. Beyond these he found some reaches of arid desert; but a very large proportion of the country passed through abounded in streams and sheets of water, and was clothed with luxuriant grass. It is probable that in other seasons of the year, and indeed at the same season in other years, it may present a less promising appearance. After this they traversed Stur's stony desert, now considerably contracted in the dimensions assigned to it in former reports, and emerged again into grassy and well-watered plains, varied with mountainous and picturesque scenery. A journey of a little less than nine months brought them to the mouth of Leichardt River, on the coast of Carpentaria. Instead of returning by the same route, the party struck off to the east, reaching Port Denison, the northernmost of the sea-coast settlements in Queensland. This expedition acquired much valuable information, and settled some doubtful questions concerning the interior.

There have been other minor expeditions important in their results. The continent has now been crossed some six or eight times since the beginning of 1860, and the principal mysteries have been cleared up. There are doubtless still large tracts of which nothing is known, but enough has been ascertained to enable us to form a pretty accurate estimate of the general character of the country."

The notion formerly prevailing that the whole interior was

one vast desert is now exploded. There are wide regions of perpetual desolation, but there are probably still wider ones of almost perpetual fertility. Then, again, there are extensive tracts which are exposed to the extremes of flood and drouth, and these are under the control of capricious influences, or hitherto incalculable laws. But there is reason to believe that the greater part of the country will soon be overspread with pastoral settlements. The probability is that the season of severest suffering in one region are not generally the same in those even adjacent; hence the colonies and districts may support each other, and in time means may be found to remedy the adverse physical peculiarities of the different sections.

The climate of Australia is of a favorable character, and appears for the most part to agree remarkably well with European constitutions. We have already alluded to the severe drouths to which the country is liable. It is also subject to extraordinary transitions of temperature. In the dryness of the atmosphere it is said to resemble Spain. There is less variation of the climate than might be inferred from the extent of the continent. Even the tropical regions are less subject to intense heat than many other regions of the same latitude; while the southerly portions, owing to the occasional hot winds blowing across the interior burning deserts, have frequently a high temperature. There is some conflict of testimony as to the effect of the climate on the longevity of emigrants; but we incline to the opinion that though the climatic change is great to those going either from Europe or America, the consequences are less deleterious than in any other exchange of residence of which we have ever known. In many instances the change has been remarkably beneficial, and even invalids and aged persons seem to have recovered their health and their youth. The statistics of mortality in the British army illustrates the climatic effect. In the West Indies the average mortality is over ten per cent. In Jamaica it is over fourteen per cent.; while throughout the Australian stations it is as low as one half per cent.

Not only does the country and the climate agree with the human species of other and distant nativity, but nearly all the lower animals, as well as vegetables of foreign origin, take most kindly to the new circumstances and thrive beyond all expectation.

The fauna of Australia seems to have been exceedingly meager and inferior, though curious. The kangaroo, of which there are nearly a hundred species, is the largest animal. The dingo, or native dog, is the most mischievous. We have already seen how sheep and cattle flourish and multiply, becoming immediately from the first a source of immense wealth. Horses, hogs, and almost every other kind of domestic beast, as well as fowls, improve and rapidly increase their kind here. The llama, or alpaca of Peru, has lately been introduced. Mr. Ledger, at much expense and with great difficulty, originated this enterprise. The government of Peru prohibited the exportation of the animals, but he collected about eight hundred of them, drove them across the Andes, and shipped them to New South Wales. At first a number of them died, but they have now become acclimatized, and, like the other imported animals, are multiplying rapidly. It is estimated that within a few years the clip of llama wool will exceed fifty million pounds in weight. The great value of this product is well known.

The agricultural resources of Australia are as yet scarcely begun to be developed. Till within the last half dozen years comparatively little attention has been given to them. The raising of stock and growing of wool, occupations so immensely lucrative, and more latterly the absorbing attraction of the mineral deposits, have diverted the minds of the people from the wealth of the soil. Add to this the preposterous landsystem, which has prevented the securing of moderate farms, and has every way tended to discourage the agricultural interest. But of late it has become evident that there are in Australia vast regions of almost unsurpassed farming country, and that with comparatively little labor and care nearly all the most valuable articles of produce in the United States and in Europe can be grown here with great profit. Wheat, corn, barley, potatoes, millet, rye, oats and English grasses are becoming largely cultivated; also indigo, (which is indigenous,) arrowroot, tea, coffee, and ginger; while tobacco, sugar, and cotton, the three great slave-grown articles of commerce, it is confidently asserted can be secured in the largest quantities by Europeans on the shores of the Pacific. The notion has prevailed in this country, and scarcely less in England, that these articles could not safely and profitably be cultivated by white

labor. This opinion is, however, now nearly exploded, and especially so far as Australia is concerned. Recent investigations and observations demonstrate that even in the tropical districts of that continent persons of European nativity, and descent work as freely and with as little risk in the open air as in the climate of the temperate zone. It is also proved in other portions of that country, as it has been elsewhere, that free, well-fed, high-priced English labor is, under fair circumstances of competition, more profitable than cheap African or Asiatic labor; of course, in the long run, far more profitable than slave labor.

Tobacco is indigenous to the soil, and plants of great luxuriance have been found along the banks of some of the New South Wales rivers. The manufactured article has been pronounced superior to that of America. The sugar-cane has been tried somewhat extensively, and the experiment is so far successful as to induce great numbers to enter upon its culture, to which there are extensive tracts adapted. On the Clarence River, two degrees south of Brisbane, the canes have yielded four tons of sugar to the acre.

In the colony of Queensland there is probably a region nearly as large as the present cotton-producing section of our own land which is particularly adapted to the production of that, at the present time, so important staple. The sea-island cotton, which is here confined to a narrow belt of coast of no great extent, is there found in great luxuriance, and is perhaps indigenous. It has this advantage over the American plant, in . that, while the latter has to be renewed every year, the shrubs of the former continue to improve up to the third and fourth year. The Manchester Chamber of Commerce, reporting on the samples of this cotton, says, they are "far superior to cotton from any other part of the world." It has been declared authoritatively that from this cotton "yarn could be produced finer than any that could be manufactured in India or Great Britain."

But it is well known that the demand for this more costly variety is not so great as for the shorter staple, or New Orleans variety. Whether the latter, which is a more profitable crop in our southern States than the higher-priced article, can be as profitably cultivated in Queensland, is a problem not yet fully solved. The prospects of engaging in the culture of the coarser

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