CHAPTER XXIX

Religion—Blacks in the service of the white men—Fickle minds—Settlers

and natives on the borders of civilization—Morality—A life and

death struggle—The cruelty of the whites—Future prospects of the

Australian natives.

A native who had been brought up by the white men was visiting the

tribes near Peak Downs, where I stopped for a time. He was able to read

and write, and on Sundays he sometimes sent word to the station and

asked to borrow a Prayer-book, from which he would read passages aloud

to the other blacks in the tribe, who looked with wonderment upon his

superiority over them. He also frequently read chapters from the Bible

to them, but apparently he did not himself understand much of what he

read. Once, when an old woman of the tribe died, he asked to borrow the

Prayer-book, in order “to read” over the dead as he had seen the whites

do. Finally a Prayer-book was presented to him. He read its title, _Book

of Common Prayer_, whereupon he handed it back, saying he did not want

anything that was “common.”

It is a well-known fact that the Australian natives are almost wholly

devoid of religious susceptibilities, and that missionaries seldom

succeed in imparting to them more than the outward appearance of

Christianity. Upon the whole, there are but few missionaries in

Australia, and the natives come but little in contact with Christianity.

Missionary efforts have been made, especially in the southern part of

the continent, but with poor success. The lack of the receptive faculty

on the part of the blacks and the ill-will of a portion of the white

population are great hindrances in the way of missionary work; rough

colonists will not abandon the practice of prostitution, from which the

blacks derive some pecuniary advantage. The fact that the missionaries

see but little fruit from their labours does not therefore allow us to

draw the conclusion that the Australian race is quite unsusceptible to

religious influence.

In my opinion, an Australian native cannot be christianised unless he is

brought up outside his own tribe from infancy. In such circumstances he

has been found to be capable of considerable mental development. Many of

the natives have learned reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, etc. It

is even claimed that they acquire these accomplishments more rapidly

than white children, but that they also more quickly forget them again.

They are also able to play cards, even “euchre,” a game requiring

considerable thought. A squatter in the far west informed me that when

he forgot what day in the week it was he only needed to ask his black

boy, who never failed to know.

The highest degree of civilisation attainable by the blacks is skill in

the work to be done at a station. Women are usually employed in the

house, and at each station two or three find work. They make good

waiters, but poor cooks. As stock-men and shepherds the blacks are

excellent, in this work sometimes even surpassing the whites. They are

superb riders, and have a wonderful talent for mastering an unruly

horse. On the other hand, they are unable to break a horse properly, and

as a rule have very heavy hands.

Among the sheep and cattle the blacks are wellnigh indispensable at

every station. They know every animal, and give it much better care than

it can get from a white man. A black boy whom I knew was able to

distinguish the footprints of the various horses belonging to the

station. Some of them have great skill in making whips and bridles, in

carving whip handles, and in doing other handiwork.

These civilised blacks soon try to acquire the white man’s manners; they

like to wear clothes, and they like to have their clothes fit nicely.

Some even shave and wash themselves, use towels, and are perfect bush

dandies. They soon acquire a very high opinion of themselves, of their

ability, and of their importance. They look upon themselves not only as

equally good, but as better than the white men. No man on earth is more

proud than a black man on horseback, with good clothes on, his clay pipe

lit, and his pocket full of tobacco and matches.

[Illustration:

CIVILISED GIRLS FROM THE VICINITY OF TOWNSVILLE.

]

This “civilisation,” which is quickly assumed through intercourse with

the white man, does not, however, strike deep root, and the good nature

which often accompanies their brutal qualities rarely wholly overcomes

the latter. However comfortable they may be with the white man, they

still long to get back to their forests. As a rule they must have an

annual vacation, when they visit their tribe and take part in the

hunting and in other amusements. There is no use in refusing this, for

then they would become sulky and unwilling to work. Their love of change

makes them constantly give up one situation for another, though they may

have no reason to be dissatisfied with the one they abandon. In some few

cases a black man will become very much devoted to his master, and will

occasionally serve the same one a long time if he only gets his annual

vacation. I may mention that a black boy who had been with his master

for many years nursed him during a severe illness, nay, even prevented

him from committing suicide in a moment of desperation.

A black man twenty-three years old, who from childhood had been educated

at a station in Victoria, where he had lived nearly all his life and had

been treated almost as a member of the family, one day suddenly

disappeared. He was found in the camp of the blacks as naked as he was

born, but later on he returned to the station, where he resumed his

former work. Sometimes this kind of civilised native becomes so fond of

savage life that he never returns to the stations.

It frequently happens that a black-fellow makes a journey abroad when

the squatter goes to visit his native country. It would be reasonable to

suppose that the great cities of the old world would make some, if not a

very deep, impression, on this child of nature, but such is not the

case. The Australian native is not surprised, because he lacks the

faculty of appreciating. A locomotive flying past him for the first time

does not astonish him very much. When, after a long journey, he returns

to his tribe he sees the difference, but he has no words with which to

explain himself, although his fellows get the general impression that

their comrade has had wonderful experiences. He is naturally very proud

of his achievements, and wears an air of superiority over both white and

black men. A colonist who was trying to give a black man a grand

impression of Sydney, received the startling answer: “I like London

better.”

Though the language used by the colonists in conversation with the

blacks, which the latter gradually learn, is a disconnected jargon,

still some of the natives learn to speak English very well. These more

talented blacks, mostly from Victoria and New South Wales, become

literally angry when addressed in the common jabber-jabber English. A

white man who was out hunting emus asked a black of the above kind: _You

been see ’im tshukki-tshukki big fellow?_ The latter indignantly

replied: “I suppose you mean an emu.”

Though the Australian native is thus able to acquire some of the fruits

of civilisation, it still remains a characteristic fact that he never

gets so far as to occupy an independent position. As a subordinate he

may serve to the complete satisfaction of his master, but he never saves

anything, and does not comprehend the value of money. He never learns

enough to become a tradesman, and all that he gets he at once spends. In

his natural condition he has a decided distaste for agriculture, and

this aversion clings to him when he becomes civilised. Cattle-raising is

an easy way of making money, but not even this can teach him to make

money on his own account.

“A living sheep is an impossibility in the camp of the blacks,” most

truly writes Mr. Finch-Hatton, and the gold of Australia is nothing but

a common stone to him, even when he sees the greedy digger getting rich

by seeking the precious metal. A strong tendency to communism hinders

social development among the tribes. Natives employed on a farm

invariably share their earnings with their relatives and friends, who

live in their camp near the station. When a black man has regular

employment at a station he frequently gets five shillings a week besides

board and tobacco, but all this he divides with his comrades in the

camp. The latter do not care to hunt, but live on what he or their women

earn from the squatter. No sooner has one of them saved a pound than he

and his friends go to town and buy brandy and opium with the money.

As a rule the relation between the whites and the blacks is not at first

a friendly one. It has occasionally happened that the natives have

received the whites kindly the first time they met them; they have even

given assistance to people who have been shipwrecked, but in most

instances a war soon breaks out between the two races. Sheep and cattle

begin to feed on the grounds that have belonged to the blacks, and the

latter are prohibited from going where they please; because the herds

are disturbed by the black men’s hunting, nay even by the smell of the

savages. As a matter of course, the natives therefore try to resist the

strangers who interfere with their inherited rights.

[Illustration:

“THE LONELY OLD PEOPLE,” NATIVES FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF TOWNSVILLE.

]

The rough settler, who never sees a woman of his own race, soon begins

to associate with the black women. A friendly relation between the two

races is made impossible; the white men shoot the black men, and the

black men kill the white men when they can, and spear their sheep and

cattle.

Both parties, however, gradually learn to take advantage of each other.

The colonist avails himself of the cheap labour furnished by the blacks,

and the natives acquire a taste for what the white man has to offer,

though it is of course mainly limited to tobacco, food, and clothes. Of

this change of condition the colonist reaps the whole advantage, for the

invariable result to the black man is both mental and physical

degradation and retrogression. Unfortunately the first white men with

whom the blacks on the frontiers of civilisation come in contact are

frequently rough and brutal, and hence we cannot expect any marked

improvement on the part of the natives from their new acquaintances.

Their keen sense of observation enables them to discover quickly the bad

qualities in the white man’s character, and these they are not slow to

imitate; but they have no eye for the good qualities. There is not much

to be said of the morals of the blacks, for I am sorry to say they have

none. Still, their moral condition has a somewhat better aspect before

they come in contact with the white man. It cannot be denied that the

young black women originally had a certain amount of modesty. In some

parts of the country they assume the position of a Venus of Milo, or

they hide behind the older women to take a peep at the white man, whom

they see for the first time. It has been observed that the savages who

wear an apron are more modest than those who are naked. I have also

heard that the women in some tribes take their baths by themselves. It

should also be remarked that the natives never represent obscene ideas

in their rude drawings, and though it cannot be denied that the husband,

in return for certain advantages, will part with his wife, yet he

jealously protects her as his most valuable and dearest possession. On

the other hand, as soon as the white man comes, immorality knows no

bounds, and the black race hasten on to the inevitable ruin awaiting

them. Sometimes the most brutal settlers even make use of the revolver

to compel the natives to surrender their women; sometimes they actually

kill the black man if he makes resistance. At length threats become

unnecessary, for the blacks do not need to remain long under the

influence of “civilisation” before they offer their wares for a little

tobacco, or when the “civilisation” has struck deeper roots, for a

shilling. The murder of infants increases, syphilitic diseases become

common, and the women having become prostitutes, cease to bear children.

The settlers also reduce the numbers of the natives in a more direct

way, and the latter have often been slaughtered in the most unmerciful

manner. At times there may possibly be some excuse for this. The white

man’s friendship may be rewarded with ingratitude. The blacks frequently

punish the innocent for the guilty, and they spare no white man. I know

of instances where the blacks have persisted in killing cattle, in spite

of the fact that the owner has been extravagant enough in his friendship

to give them cattle for slaughter. In such circumstances the blacks do

not care if some of their comrades are shot; but at last their ranks

become so reduced that they have to yield. They may dog a white man

secretly for days, with no less energy than they exhibit in pursuing

their game for food, and on the first favourable opportunity take his

life. In North Australia no traveller is safe, and many a lonely

wanderer who has disappeared in these remote regions has been slain by

the spear of the black man. They rarely attack a man on horseback.[22]

Still, they watch him and lie in ambush for him, in case he should

dismount to look for water to drink, or to rest for the night. In some

instances the blacks have attacked a station and killed all the

inhabitants. Thus it is necessary for the white man to defend himself,

but there is no doubt that in this respect he has gone further than

necessity demanded. The settling of Australia is stained with more than

one shocking story of this sort. There are instances where the young men

of the station have employed the Sunday in hunting the blacks, not only

for some definite purpose, but also for the sake of the sport; the

blacks have even been killed with poison. A squatter at Long Lagoon, in

the interior of Queensland, achieved notoriety by laying strychnine in

the way of the blacks, and thus taking the life of a large number of

them in a single day.

Footnote 22:

A white man on foot is always regarded as a “little” white man.

Similar acts of brutality occur even at the present time. A farmer whom

I met at Lower Herbert boasted that he had cremated some blacks whom he

had shot. He looked upon this as a most excellent precautionary measure,

for it made proof against him impossible. The life of a native has but

little value, particularly in the northern part of Australia, and once

or twice colonists offered to shoot blacks for me so that I might get

their skulls. On the borders of civilisation men would think as little

of shooting a black man as a dog. The law imposes death by hanging as

the penalty for murdering a black man, but people live so far apart in

these uncivilised regions that a white man may in fact do what he

pleases with the blacks.

In Northern Queensland I often heard this remark: “The only treatment

proper for the blacks is to shoot them all.” A squatter in that part of

the country acted on this principle. He found it severe, but necessary.

He shot all the men he discovered on his run, because they were cattle

killers; the women, because they gave birth to cattle killers; and the

children, because they would in time become cattle killers. “They are

unwilling to work,” I have heard colonists say, “and hence they are not

fit to live.”

The result of this is that in the frontier districts there is still

being waged a war of extermination between the two races. Any savage

discovered by the white men runs the risk of being shot. Poison was laid

in the way of the blacks once while I was in Queensland. I also take the

liberty of reporting the following shocking event, though without giving

the names of any of the parties concerned.

A cedar-cutter in Northern Queensland had one day left one of his white

workmen in charge of the camp, while he and his other labourers went to

the woods to work. In districts where the blacks are dangerous it is

always necessary to leave a man on guard in the camp. In the course of

the day two blacks came to the guard, and as the latter had no ill-will

to the natives, he treated them in a friendly manner and gave them

tobacco. When the master returned in the evening he became very angry on

account of what had happened, and the next day he set a Kanaka to watch

the camp. The natives of course thought the white man was friendly, as

he had given them tobacco, and so they did not hesitate to visit the

camp again the next day; but they soon found out their mistake. One of

the blacks who tried to make his escape was wounded in the leg, while

the other one was captured and tied to a tree. This done, the wounded

man was seized and killed with a butcher’s knife. When the Kanaka came

back to the camp the master had returned, and the latter at once

ordered, in cold blood, that the prisoner who was tied to the tree

should also be killed. They did not even waste a bullet on the poor

fellow, who was pierced with a knife.

That inhuman institution, the native police, has also been an important

factor in the destruction of the natives. They have not only slain a

large number of this unhappy people, but also contributed largely to

their demoralisation.

In the courts the blacks are defenceless, for their testimony is not

accepted. The jury is not likely to declare a white man guilty of

murdering a black man. On the other hand, if a white man happens to be

killed by the blacks, a cry is heard throughout the whole colony.

There are, however, persons who look upon the blacks as human beings

with a right to live in the land which is in fact their own. “Were I a

black man, I would kill all the whites,” an Australian gentleman once

said to me. One of these protectors of the blacks writes to me—

“If I thought that anything I might say on the treatment of the

aborigines would in any way tend to ameliorate their present wretched

condition, I would not for a moment grudge my lost health, and would

plead their cause to my last breath. But alas! it were vain to hope for

any improvement in their condition; for it is an immutable law of nature

that the strong will prey upon the weak. I always look upon the

condition of the lower order of ‘whites’ as a fearful satire on

Christianity. The English nation is continually casting stones at other

nations for the treatment of conquered races, but nothing could be more

barbarous than their own treatment of the aborigines of Australia.”

[Illustration:

NATIVE POLICE DISPERSING THE BLACKS.

Sketch after a description given to me on the spot.

]

It must be admitted that the colonists in several places have tried to

protect the blacks by giving them reservations and means of existence.

In Victoria there are six stations, where the natives raise crops and

cattle, and receive instruction.

All this, however, is of no avail. It only gives the doomed race a short

respite. It is supposed that there were 9000 blacks in Victoria when the

colony was founded. There now remain scarcely 800, and many of these are

_half-castes_, who are but little superior to the pure blacks in

intelligence, while they have an even less favourable appearance.

“When civilised nations come into contact with barbarians, the struggle

is but short, excepting where a dangerous climate helps the native

race,” says Darwin, and history corroborates his statement. In 1872 the

last Tasmanian died. His ancestors succumbed, not only because they were

weaker than the invading race, but also because they were abused by the

invaders. The same fate as that which overtook their brothers in

Tasmania is in store for the natives of Australia. They have proved

themselves almost incapable of receiving either culture or Christianity,

and they have not the power to resist the onward march of civilisation.

They are therefore without a future, without a home, without a hope,—a

doomed race. The two races cannot exist together. If the Australian

attacks the whites or their herds, he is shot; if he tries to secure the

friendship of the white men, his ruin is no less certain. He is

unwilling to abandon his habits of life, and for this reason the

settlement of the country robs him of his means of existence, while

European culture at the same time causes his moral and physical

degradation.

The philanthropist is filled with sadness when he sees the original

inhabitants of this strange land succumbing according to the inexorable

law of degeneration. Invading civilisation has not brought development

and progress to the Australian native; after a few generations his race

will have disappeared from the face of the earth.

APPENDIX

I

AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

The history of Australia illustrates in broad outlines how a continent

inhabited by a most primitive race of men becomes known to the

Europeans, how the latter colonise the country and drive the natives

before them, and how the new community is organised and developed. Thus

the subject may be divided into three chapters—(1) The condition before

the discovery; (2) the story of the discovery; and (3) the story of the

colonisation.

THE CONDITION BEFORE THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY

The degree of culture attained by the Australian aborigines when they

first came in contact with the Europeans was not a high one. We find a

race living in small tribes, without any social organisation, always

moving from one place to another, living in huts hurriedly made of

leaves or bark; almost naked; destitute of implements of metal,

destitute of perforated stone implements, destitute of bows and arrows;

having miserable boats, or none at all; having no other domestic animals

than the semi-wild dingo, and having no knowledge of agriculture. The

development which preceded this stage of civilisation must be looked for

in the very infancy of human culture, where we have but little light to

show the way. Nor is any special value to be attached to peculiar

customs which this people may have in common with other races similarly

situated. Circumcision, tattooing, exogamy, and sorcery are found in

every part of the globe, but for none of these have we been able to show

a common origin. Nor has the science of philology hitherto been able to

connect the prehistoric ages of Australia with the culture of the rest

of the world, though efforts have been made to show linguistic

resemblances both with the Dekkan races and more recently with the

negroes of Africa. The archæological investigations are confined to

enormous “middens” or refuse heaps. One science remains, viz.

comparative anthropology; but even this is not able to give a

satisfactory answer, for the Australian aborigines form a group by

themselves without any marked similarity to any other races. A few

anthropological correspondences have led to comparisons with the

Papuans, who geographically are their nearest neighbours.

There are in like manner faint traces pointing to the north and

north-east, when we seek the source of the earliest culture of

Australia. A later current from north-east to south-west has been

suggested, but cannot be made to serve as the basis of any reliable

hypothesis. It has been shown that weapons (the bow), and boats, and

houses, and physical development reveal progress as the York peninsula

is approached, and the influence of Malays and Papuans can be definitely

pointed out. But all this bears the stamp of modern times, and must be

the result of communications in a very recent period. The one thing

certain is that the Australian race must have originated ages ago.

Investigation, which shows how completely Australia has been cut off

from external influence, gives the best answer to the question why the

development of the blacks has made so little progress, for the

development of the world is found to be dependent on the intercourse

between different races, on the conflicts between them, and on the

struggle for existence thus caused.

The very nature of the country has helped to keep the people from making

progress. In the first place there are but few inlets of the sea, and in

the next place there are two other circumstances which only need to be

pointed out to be appreciated. There are no ruminating animals, and

grain is very rare. The transition from the most primitive life to that

of the herdsman was therefore impossible, and this common door to a

higher culture was closed. On the other hand, there was but little

inducement to become agricultural, though the wild rice found in the

northern part of South Australia has been used as food. Besides the

climatic conditions, the long droughts—sometimes lasting for years in

the interior of the country—were a decided obstacle to agriculture, even

if there had been grain that could bear them better than rice. Finally,

it should be added that the natural products are usually so abundant

that it is comparatively easy to subsist without labour.

The fact is, at all events, that the great discovery on which all higher

civilisation is based, viz. agriculture, had not been made in Australia

at the time when it was colonised by Europeans.

There could be no doubt about the result when the aborigines and the

Europeans met. The difference was so great that assimilation was

impossible. The only vocations open to the aborigines in the new

Australian community were those of the herdsman and policeman. The

latter of these was of no advantage to the natives. The first English

colonists were mainly banished criminals, reckless people a fact that

gave the conflict between the two races the character of a war of

extermination from the very outset, and in this warfare the native

police has contributed much toward the destruction of the aborigines.

It is difficult to estimate the number of aborigines in Australia at the

time when the European colonisation began. Natives, or traces of them,

were met everywhere. Sturt relates that he met about 4000 in the course

of a few days. We probably are not wide of the mark when we assume that

fifty years ago there were about 200,000 natives in Australia; their

number is now estimated at about 60,000.

The world is familiar with the systematic cruelty with which the

Tasmanians were exterminated. In 1872 occurred the death of the last

representative of a people which numbered about 5000 souls at the time

of the founding of the colony in 1803. Many were killed in wars, many

were even hunted out of the woods and destroyed. A large number of them

were transported to the islands in Bass Strait, where death and ruin

soon overtook them. The regular hunting and shooting of the natives in

the early days of Queensland suggests the question, whether the coming

of the new settlers deserved the name of the “advent of civilisation.”

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY

Australia was the last continent discovered by the European, a fact

easily explained by its situation. In the age of the great discoveries,

navigators were seeking a way to India, and whether they chose to go by

the way of the Cape of Good Hope or by the Straits of Magellan, in

either case the route was far to the north of Australia. The navigators

also seem to have kept as far to the north as possible. Still, a very

long time cannot have passed ere sailors came in sight of the Australian

coast. Strange to say, it is not known with certainty who was the first

discoverer of this great continent. Some old maps seem to show that the

Portuguese were aware of the existence of a large country south of Java

before the year 1545, viz. “Great Java.” On these maps are found coral

reefs, rivers, promontories, etc., and a number of names. It is,

however, difficult to determine how far these maps may be based on the

old purely theoretical assumption that there was a large _terra

australis incognita_, to give equilibrium to the earth and balance the

northern hemisphere.

Ere long the Spanish, the chief rivals of the Portuguese, also presented

their claims. By the decision of Pope Alexander II, who acted as

arbitrator, the Spanish were permitted to develop their sway only

westward of Europe, while all to the east was left to the Portuguese.

The conflict which then arose in regard to the Moluccas may explain why

both parties were silent in regard to the great country they may have

discovered south of the boundary.

[Illustration:

COOK’S MONUMENT IN SYDNEY.

]

At all events, the first Australian discoveries of which we have

perfectly reliable accounts were not made before the beginning of the

seventeenth century. We first come across the Dutch, who during their

war of independence attempted to conquer the rich colonies of their

enemies—the Spanish and the Portuguese. In connection with this we

obtain the following reliable dates: in 1601 the Portuguese De Eridia

landed on the north-west coast from the west; in 1606 the Spaniard

Torres passed from the east through the straits named after him; and

subsequently a Dutch ship called _Duyfhen_ sailed along the coast toward

Cape York. From this time the Dutch carry on nearly all the

explorations. It would take us beyond our present limits to present the

details of this gradual discovery, from the Dutch headquarters in Java,

or on their route to East India, a route which they had to lay south of

that of the Portuguese. In 1627 Peter Nuyts entered the great Australian

bay from the west. In 1642 Tasman gained the south point of that

country, which he called Van Diemen’s Land. It is not easy now to decide

whether his reasons for regarding the latter as the southern point of a

large continent were based on old theories or on more recent

observations.

The English, the nation which was destined to control the development of

Australia, did not make their appearance before 1688, when the

freebooter Dampier explored the west coast. This happened one hundred

years before the first colonies—the centenary of which has been recently

celebrated—were planted, in 1788.

It was a long time before anybody made any decided effort to take

possession of the country, and for this delay there were many reasons.

The power of the Spanish was exhausted, and so was that of Portugal,

while the victorious Dutch were fully occupied with their new rich

provinces. To this must be added that all descriptions of Australia

represented the continent as barren and without water to drink, and its

natives as poor and savage. Nor did the coasts that had been seen

present any very inviting aspect. There are but few harbours on the west

and south coasts, and on the north-east side are dangerous coral reefs.

The wrong side of Australia had been seen, and it was absurd to prefer

this country to the Spice Island or America.

It is interesting to note that it was a scientific expedition which

first led to the colonisation of the country. In 1768 Captain Cook

carried an astronomer and one or two other scientists to Tahiti to

observe the transit of Venus, and to make some other researches on their

home voyage. This was the beginning of the present phase of scientific

expeditions. In 1770 he touched Australia at Botany Bay, and made a

chart of the coast to the north as far as Torres Straits, the importance

of which he was the first to point out.

At this time England was greatly puzzled as to what it should do with

all such criminals as it had heretofore sent to America. The declaration

of independence on the part of the United States had put an end to the

transportation of criminals to that country, and the favourable report

made by Cook in regard to Botany Bay led Sydney to make up his mind to

try Australia. The first transportation was made in 1788, but the colony

was soon moved to the magnificent harbour of Port Jackson, where the

city of Sydney was gradually built up.

The opening up of the continent was continued with this solitary colony

as the base of exploration. Flinders and Bass commenced their

expeditions in the year 1795 in a small open boat to both sides of the

coast. In 1797 Bass called attention to the strait between Tasmania and

the continent, and the next year he circumnavigated the island with

Flinders. At the expense of the Government Flinders made charts of a

large part of the coast of Australia, and this coast survey was

continued from time to time almost to the present day.

During the most recent years attention has been chiefly given to the

exploration of the interior.

How difficult it must have been to penetrate the Blue Mountains

separating Sydney from the plains in the interior is evident from the

fact that men like Bass attempted it in vain. It took twenty-five years

to advance the first fifty miles, and thus to find a way between the

steep rocks to the open country beyond. The first passage was effected

in 1813, and from that time the explorations have progressed rapidly.

Oxley, Cunningham, Mitchell, Sturt, and others explored the whole

country along the rivers toward Victoria. The German naturalist Dr. L.

Leichhardt began his explorations along the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1835,

and made most valuable reports. In 1847 he undertook his last

expedition, a bold attempt to penetrate to the west coast. Not a word

was heard of him after April 3, 1848.

From Adelaide, settled about the same time, a series of attempts were

begun in 1839 to penetrate the country from the south to the north.

Heroic efforts were made in this direction by Eyre, who afterwards

suffered untold hardships in travelling 1200 miles along the coast to

King George’s Sound. O’Hara Burke and Wills were the first to reach the

north coast in 1861, but both perished from hunger on their way back.

The following year M‘Donald Stuart, after having made two abortive

attempts, succeeded in getting through, and from that time onwards the

route was open. In 1872 a telegraph line was laid, amid great

difficulties, across the whole continent. It followed Stuart’s route,

and this enterprise became the basis of a series of explorations all the

way to the west coast, and thus the main features of the geography of

Australia have become established. Prominent names in connection with

this are Giles, Forrest, Warburton, and Gregory.

Most of these expeditions into the interior have been undertaken amid

the greatest privations, such as a constant lack of water and terrible

heat, even up to 127° F., so that it has at times been necessary to bury

one’s self in the ground in order to endure it. Add to this the almost

impassable spinifex-scrubs, the salt lakes, the sand-storms, etc., and

we can form some idea of what the explorer had to suffer. The bright

sunlight destroyed Sturt’s eyes, and many a life has been lost in the

conflict with these similar impediments. But a large territory has been

opened to civilisation by these martyrs.

HISTORY OF THE COLONIES

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney with his

first company of prisoners, and in a solemn manner took possession of a

whole continent in the name of the inhabitants of a small island on the

opposite side of the globe. Had the French expedition under La Perouse

come earlier than it did to this place, the whole development of

Australia might have taken a different direction. As it was, the ruling

power of the British nation got an opportunity of expanding, and a new

world was added to the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon race.

The beginning was made by about 1000 deported criminals, about

one-fourth part of these being women. Now, one hundred years later, the

population of the Australian colonies, leaving New Zealand out of

consideration, is nearly 3,000,000. The first means of subsistence had

to be produced by agriculture, but as few of the new settlers had any

knowledge of this art, there was much suffering in the beginning, and in

order to escape death from starvation, the domestic animals which had

been brought had to be slaughtered. One hundred years later Australia

contains 80,000,000 sheep and almost 8,000,000 head of cattle, and it

sends annually to the mother country beef, mutton, wool, tallow, wheat,

and metals to the value of about £40,000,000 sterling. A most remarkable

progress!

The story of the early days of the colonies is chiefly a history of the

deportation of criminals. The first colony received, from 1788 until the

importation was stopped in 1839 by the energetic protest of the “free

immigrants,” in all 60,000 criminals. The next colony of criminals was

Tasmania, or as the island was then called, Van Diemen’s Land (1803).

The deportation of criminals to the latter place ceased in 1853, when

68,000 prisoners had been sent there. What the condition was during the

early days of these colonies, guarded by rough soldiers, we can judge

from the fact that there occurred in 1835 in New South Wales, among

28,000 prisoners, 22,000 disciplinary punishments (3000 floggings) and

100 executions. In Tasmania, with a population of 37,000, about 15,000

were punished in 1834, including one-seventh part of the free citizens

arrested for intemperance.

The last colony to which convicts were regularly deported was West

Australia, founded in 1829. In 1849 this colony sent a petition to the

Government asking for criminals to be sent thither, in order to promote

the development of the colony. Under pressure from the other colonies,

which finally on their own account resisted by force the landing of such

immigrants, West Australia had to abandon this traffic in 1868, having

then received about 10,000.

Thus it will be seen that this transportation introduced great numbers

of people to Australia, and at the same time the voluntary immigration

kept increasing. Two of the present colonies were not started as convict

settlements. There was an attempt to send convicts to Melbourne in 1803,

but the plan was soon abandoned, and the colony of Port Phillip, as

Victoria was then called, was founded in 1834 by free citizens from

Tasmania. South Australia was colonised directly by an English company,

who received the land for nothing on condition that they should

encourage immigration. In 1841 this settlement contained 23,000

inhabitants, chiefly freemen.

The growth of the colonies depended on the development of trade and

industries. In the beginning all labour was confined to agriculture, and

but little progress was made, till during the first decades of this

century MacArthur advocated the raising of sheep with great energy, and

after a passage through the Blue Mountains had been found by Macquarie,

a new impetus was given to the development of Australia. The manner in

which the country became settled may be described as follows—

In the first place, an explorer makes his way into unknown regions.

Close on his heels follows the squatter or shepherd, and slowly in his

track comes the selector, the permanent agricultural settler. The

original huntsman, the shepherd, and the farmer follow each other in

rapid succession—it is the history of civilisation in a nutshell.

The economical politics of Australia have long been wrestling with the

question of the proper _modus vivendi_ between the squatter and the

selector, whose interests are conflicting. Many experiments have been

made in the various colonies, but this troublesome question has not yet

been solved.

In the midst of the development of sheep-raising and agriculture a third

factor, gold, was added, which gave Australia an immense advantage, even

though it at the same time interfered with the above-mentioned

industries.

* * * * *

The year 1851 marks an epoch in the history of Australia. It was

literally the beginning of a golden age for the continent, for in that

year the great gold mines of Victoria were discovered.

It had long been believed that gold must be found in Australia; among

the deported criminals there were all sorts of reports about finds said

to have been made in the Blue Mountains; but the Government paid no

attention to these strange rumours and the result was that the matter

was not properly investigated.

But in 1851 the greatest excitement was created when the Government

purchased from a Californian gold digger, for a large sum of money, some

rich gold fields which he had discovered in the Blue Mountains. When the

Government by this step had given its public sanction to the question,

the colony became wild with excitement. The most extravagant reports

concerning the immense wealth of the gold fields were circulated, and

were accepted as gospel truth. From all quarters people assembled to the

new fountains of wealth, where they expected to find the pure gold in

such quantities that it was only necessary to stoop down and fill their

pockets with the precious ore. The disappointment when they arrived in

the promised land and learned from experience that there was need of

months—nay, of years—of hard and persistent labour to attain the wealth

they were seeking, was as great as the expectation which had previously

been formed. The larger part of the army of adventurers who had flocked

together to the gold mines to secure all of a sudden a wealth which they

had neither the strength nor the endurance to acquire under ordinary

circumstances, returned discouraged to Sydney, after having spent a

month in idleness in the gold fields. In their wrath on account of the

deception, as they called it, they nearly took the life of the

Californian who had discovered the fields.

A number of gold diggers, however, gradually congregated in the Blue

Mountains from the various colonies. When the work proved to be very

profitable the rush was so great that one of the earlier colonies, the

little Victoria, which had recently been founded, was on the point of

being entirely deserted. To prevent the colony from perishing

altogether, the leading men in Melbourne offered a large reward to any

person who succeeded in discovering gold in Victoria. Before long,

specimens of gold were found on the Yarra river, a few miles from

Melbourne; in the course of a short time the famous gold mines of

Ballarat and Bendigo were discovered.

At first gold was found in Ballarat in the usual manner—that is, in the

bed of a river; but this was soon exhausted. A thick layer of clay was

struck below the sand, and the work was abandoned in order to search for

new fields. Fortunately one of the gold diggers, who had made up his

mind to stay some time longer, got the idea of working through the clay,

and by so doing he reached enormous quantities of gold in the old bed of

the river. For centuries the streams had carried gold down from the

mountains and deposited it here in “pockets” in the bed of the river. A

single “pocket” of this kind would sometimes contain thousands of

pounds’ worth of gold. Within a month Ballarat became the richest gold

field in the whole world.

The gold fever grew into a perfect rage. Melbourne was almost deserted.

People of every class and from every part of the world left their work,

their situations, and their homes to seek their fortunes. In Melbourne

policemen left their posts of duty, officials threw up their offices,

and sailors deserted their ships.

In spite of the fact that everybody rushed to the gold mines, thus

preventing a normal development of the country, Australia got full

compensation in the new impetus given to immigration. The year after the

discovery of gold more than 100,000 immigrants arrived in Victoria. Thus

the population was doubled in a single year, and during the following

five years it increased fivefold. While in 1830 there were less than

4000 inhabitants, in 1860 their number had increased to 1,300,000. The

quantity of gold found was also sufficiently large to explain this

increase of population. During the next ten years £100,000,000 were

produced in Victoria alone.

As a matter of course, money had but little value in such circumstances.

During he first years after the discovery of the gold fields sovereigns

passed as freely as copper pennies. A barber would get £1 for cutting a

gold digger’s hair; the idea of giving change back was never thought of.

Many characteristic stories are told of this golden age of the

fortune-seekers. A gold digger took a holiday, and went into a

restaurant where he demanded a breakfast for £10. The hostess looked at

him, smiled, and answered that she was not able to furnish so expensive

a breakfast at present. Her highest price was five shillings. “Well,”

said the customer, “give me the best you have.” The hostess did her

best, and served every hot and cold dish she could devise. The gold

digger seated himself at the table, looked at the various dishes with

the air of an epicure, but at length turned up his nose and declared

that there was nothing fit for him to eat. Then he took a large roll of

bank-notes out of his pocket, selected a £10 note, laid it between two

pieces of bread and butter, ate it, and washed it down with champagne.

“That’s what I call a ten-pound breakfast,” he added, and paid his bill

and walked out.

Two Irishmen came into an inn to rest while the coachman was changing

horses. The Irishmen were gold diggers who had reaped an abundant

harvest, and they were now on their way home to the Emerald Isle with

their pockets full of gold.

They learned that the innkeeper also was an Irishman, and this fact

aroused their patriotism; so they resolved to drink a toast to old

Ireland in champagne. Fifty bottles of this choice beverage were

demanded for the honour of Ireland. But no sooner had they paid the £50

and opened the first two bottles than the coachman shouts, “All ready!”

The Irishmen climb into their places in the coach and proceed on their

journey, leaving the host to finish the remaining forty-eight bottles.

The average individual gains were, however, not so large, and the

digging for gold was gradually reduced to systematic methods. The work

by degrees became a link in that mining industry which embraced copper,

coal, and tin. Copper and coal were discovered in Australia long before

gold—as was also tin, which in its importance to the colonies may in

time equal the others. New discoveries of gold have attracted

adventurers to the north of Australia, and opened new avenues for

immigration; but the continent is, upon the whole, pastoral and

agricultural.

The Chinese have forced their way into all the islands of the Indian

Ocean, and this new current of immigration has given the development of

Australia, particularly of tropical Queensland, a peculiar character.

Efforts have been made to check in an effective manner this influx of

Chinese labourers, who supplant the white workmen. Here, as in America,

an “import duty” and similar obstacles have been tried in order to stop

the stream, but still the Chinese kept coming. A treaty with China,

making immigration therefrom almost impossible, last year failed to be

ratified by the Chinese Government. It is still an open question whether

there is any way of stopping this influx, or whether the Chinese stream

of immigration will continue to form an undercurrent to that from

Europe. It does not seem possible that the Chinese will ever become the

predominating element.

The Kanakas being better able to endure the heat than the white

population, it is probable that here, as in America, a class of

Anglo-Saxon plantation-owners dependent on coloured labour may be

developed.

The nature of the country has given its industries their peculiar

character. The raising of sheep requires immense pastures, and

agriculture assumes wide dimensions on the new and fertile soil. The

result is that local centres are created with great difficulty in the

midst of this industry spread over so large a domain. The points of

colonisation first chosen thus obtain a great advantage and monopolise

the trade. They become centres of knowledge and of pleasure, and they

absorb all that stream of immigrants who are not suited to agriculture

and do not acquire land but settle wherever they can earn a bare living.

The fact that a population of less than 3,000,000 scattered over an

immense territory has two cities, Melbourne and Sydney, of nearly

400,000 inhabitants each, and that one-third of the population of

Australia lives in five of the largest cities, is unique and is

explained by what has been stated above.

The political separation of the different colonies is intimately

connected with the uneven distribution of the population. The

independent development of the two chief centres, Melbourne and Sydney,

could not fail to break the old New South Wales into two colonies

(1851). Tasmania obtained its own seat of government in 1825 in Hobart

Town. With Brisbane’s development came Queensland’s separation in 1859

as an independent colony, which doubled its population in the subsequent

six years. There is a constantly growing desire for emancipation, and at

the present time strenuous efforts are being made to make the north part

of Queensland into a separate colony.

At the same time as this work of separation is progressing there are

also centralising elements at work, and the latter will no doubt lead to

favourable results in the near future. Efforts are being made to unite

the various colonies into a confederation. There also prevails a strong

common sentiment in regard to the efforts of all other nations to

establish colonies in the neighbouring countries (the Germans in New

Guinea and the French in New Caledonia), and an arrangement for a common

defence of their interests against these rivals has already been begun.

National pride is very marked in Australia.

The bond of union between Australia and the mother country has not been

loosened in the midst of this development toward independence. On the

contrary, the Australians cling to it with increasing tenacity, and with

even more enthusiasm than Englishmen themselves. The best proof of this

is the fact that Australia sent a special contingent to take part in

England’s last war at Suakim. The form of the proposed imperial

federation has, however, not yet been worked out.

A similar effort for political emancipation from British control has

been going on within the separate colonies. In the first convict

settlements of course martial law was administered by their governors,

but in the political conflict—carried on chiefly in the mother colony,

New South Wales—home rule became fully established. At first the

governor chose his own ministers; but in course of time (1824) the

ministry became dependent on the general elections, as in England. At

length in 1851, the critical year in the annals of Australia, the

colonies secured a perfectly independent constitution providing for two

legislative houses. In the various colonies members of the upper house

were chosen either by the Government or by the wealthy classes of the

community. A certain property qualification was also originally

necessary for members of the lower house, though this is now merely

nominal.

The English system of jurisprudence and of municipal rule prevails

everywhere. The schools are free and unsectarian, and attendance is

compulsory. The colonies which originally consisted of criminals have

developed a remarkable interest in the cause of education. As in the

United States, universities and academics are largely the product of

private munificence.

Relying on their rapid development and on their large natural resources,

the colonies have been induced to incur an enormous public debt,

amounting to about £20,000,000, and we must bear in mind that the

population is only about 3,000,000. The above debt includes, however,

local expenditures, and much of it has been created for building

railroads, which were very much needed in this large country. But the

Government owns 1,400,000,000 acres of unsold land, and though a part of

this is almost worthless, still the revenue which will come in from its

sale may justify the incurring of such a debt.

The history of the colonisation reveals a community which still

possesses the vigour of youth, and whose culture is wholly European, and

these results, wonderful as they are, have been achieved in two

generations. If we could visit Australia two generations hence we would

probably find a country where not only European flora—grain, grass,

etc.—and European fauna—the sheep, horse, cow, rabbit, sparrow,

etc.—will have invaded and conquered the large districts which have been

cut off from the rest of the world since the tertiary period, but where

every trace of the original population will have disappeared. Instead of

a stagnation of thousands of years in the first stages of the stone age,

we shall have a vigorous development parallel with the culture of Europe

and America.

In the whole history of man’s development a more sudden revolution is

not known than that which has happened in Australia during this century.

At the centennial festival celebrated last year in Australia it was

prophesied that one hundred years hence Australia will be a federal

republic with 50,000,000 English-speaking inhabitants, who, sprung from

the same race as that which gave birth to the Americans, will have

developed into a new but easily recognisable type, resembling but yet

differing from their Yankee cousins. The motto of the Australians is

“Advance Australia!” They have proved that they have been able to carry

out this maxim in the past and they will not fail to do so in the

future.

II

GEOLOGY

Australia may be compared to a gigantic plate. The interior part is

flat, moderately high (300 to 2150 feet), and the elevation increases

toward the edges. The raised edge of this plate is in the south-east,

where we find the highest summit in Australia, Mount Townsend, in

Kosciuszko Range, which is 7059 feet high. The edge of the plate has a

very marked character on the east coast, where a continuous though not

very high chain of mountains stretches from Victoria through the eastern

part of New South Wales and Queensland to the York peninsula, which

bounds on the east the great Gulf of Carpentaria. This whole mountain

chain is embraced by the Australian geographers (_e.g._ G. Sutherland)

in the term “The Great Dividing Range,” the separate parts of which have

separate names. In the boundary between Victoria and New South Wales it

is called the Australian Alps, and west of Sydney the Blue Mountains.

Round the lower part of the Gulf of Carpentaria and in a part of the

south coast of Australia the “plate” has no edge, and low and flat

country stretches here from the sea far into the interior. On the other

hand an elevation is found in the “bottom of the plate” in Central

Australia, but this elevation nowhere reaches 3000 feet.

Australia has no streams to be compared with the great rivers of other

countries, a fact due to the scarcity of rain. The largest stream is

Murray river, which empties itself into the sea on the south coast. With

its tributaries it drains a country as large as the triangle formed by

North Cape, Christiania, and St. Petersburg. During the rainy season the

lower part of Murray river is navigable.

Australia consists of primitive rock, granite, gneiss, and silurian

rock—that is to say, very old formations, and nearly identical with

those of the Scandinavian peninsula.

There are many coal-bearing strata in Queensland and in the

north-eastern part of New South Wales; thus Australia, in addition to

its other mineral wealth, also possesses “black diamonds.” In many

places strata from the mesozoic period of the earth’s history have been

found.

The shell given below, of which I found a large number lying in

sandstone near Minnie Downs 400 miles west from Rockhampton, is a

gigantic _Inoceramus_ from the cretaceous period. I gave this fossil to

the mineralogical cabinet in Christiania University, and it has been

described by the Swedish Professor Bernh. Lundgren, who is an authority

in this field of science.

[Illustration:

A LARGE FOSSIL SEA-SHELL FROM WESTERN QUEENSLAND (_Inoceramus

maximus_)

(length 12¾ inches, breadth 7¼ inches).

]

The remains of animal and vegetable life found in the older strata

agree, as a whole, with those found in other parts of the globe of the

same periods. At some time in the mesozoic age the Australian continent

must have been separated and have become a continent by itself. This

plainly appears in the tertiary period, during which the greater part of

Australia seems to have remained an independent dry country. This was

also the case during the quaternary period.

Australia has had no ice period. At least but uncertain traces of

glacial actions are to be found.

In the tertiary period we must look for the oldest ancestors of the

present fauna, in the quaternary for the immediate progenitors, which

resemble the present animals, and many of them are remarkable for their

size. There has been a kangaroo one-third larger than the present

species, there has also been a gigantic animal related to the kangaroo

and living on vegetables, the _Diprotodon_, which was about as large as

an elephant. The remains of this animal are so widespread and so

numerous as to make it evident that it must have existed wellnigh

throughout Australia.

At the time when the country became inhabited by man there still lived

one of the great animals of the palæozoic times, namely a bird

resembling the ostrich and much larger than the emu. Its bones have been

found in the middens of the savages, and the joints show marks of their

flint knives.

Among the more recent geological formations is the so-called “desert

sandstone,” which is found scattered through a great part of the

interior. It contains no sea-shells, and but few remains of plants and

of fresh-water shells. There are various opinions in regard to its

origin. Some think it was deposited in large lakes, which are supposed

to have been very numerous in a remote age. A more probable theory is,

however, that the substratum has been disintegrated into sand and stone

dust and blown about by the wind.

Australia has no active volcanoes, but extinct ones are numerous. Some

of those found in Victoria are believed to have been active in a late

prehistoric age.

Among the mineral products of Australia gold is the most important. It

had its seat originally in veins of quartz in the oldest rocks. By the

disintegration of the rocks during the long geological ages much

alluvial gold has been deposited among the sand and the gravel. The

running water carries stony substances with it more rapidly than gold,

which lags behind on account of its weight. The result is that the

deposits increase in quantity as we approach the original seat of the

gold, and when circumstances are favourable the gold digger may be

handsomely rewarded for his labours.

III

FLORA

Scarcely a flora is to be found with so many peculiarities as the

Australian. Still this does not imply that the things which appear so

remarkable to the traveller are of equal interest to the botanist,

though often they are more so. It is often stated as a curiosity that

the Australian “cherry-trees” have the stone outside of the berry, and

not inside, as with us in Europe. As a matter of fact this is nothing

remarkable, the explanation being simply that what we call the fruit is

merely an enlarged berry-like stalk, while the fruit proper is an

unsavoury nut, hard as stone, growing at the extreme end of this stalk.

Hence the tree is called _Exocarpus_ (“outside fruit”). Similar

phenomena are found in other parts of the world.[23] The Australian

“pear” grows with the large end nearest the stalk; but it is not a pear,

just an inedible fruit, hard as wood, of a Proteacea called _Xylomelum

pyriforme_.

Footnote 23:

In the West Indies there is a similar fruit, _Anacardium_, growing at

the extremity of the enlarged stalk.

This is not uncommon near Port Jackson. Another species of the same

genus inhabits Queensland, and two others Western Australia; all bearing

similar woody fruits or seed-vessels.

The arboreous and shrubby vegetation of Australia is almost exclusively

evergreen, or rather one might say the leaves are persistent, for the

beautiful shades of green characterising the forests and fields of the

northern hemisphere are wanting, and are replaced by a monotony of

olive-green or bluish-green. On the other hand, brilliantly coloured

flowers abound, the natural orders _Leguminosæ_, _Myrtaceæ_, and

_Proteaceæ_ being especially numerous, diversified, and generally

dispersed over the whole country.

Although large areas in the interior have not been botanically explored,

the flora of the country is almost as well known as that of Europe, not

in its minutest details, but in general character and composition.

Robert Brown the eminent English botanist, _facile princeps_ among

botanists of his time, was the first real investigator of the

exceedingly rich Australian flora. He accompanied Flinders on his voyage

of discovery in Australian seas during the first years of the present

century, and made very extensive collections of dried plants, which he

elaborated after his return home. Noteworthy among subsequent botanists

who have turned their attention to the vegetation of that part of the

world are Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, and the late Mr.

George Bentham. Assisted by the extensive collections and notes

accumulated by Mueller, combined with the numerous earlier collections

preserved in England, Bentham wrote a descriptive account of all the

plants known to inhabit Australia. This work is in English, and it is a

monument of industry and learning, consisting of seven octavo volumes

with an aggregate of 4000 pages.

[Illustration:

LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT OF _Eucalyptus amygdalina_.

]

Sir Ferdinand von Mueller has since largely supplemented this work,

besides publishing a number of highly important, fully illustrated

monographs of the more important genera, such as _Eucalyptus_ and

_Acacia_. According to Mueller’s latest census of the flora, the number

of species of flowering plants and ferns known to inhabit the country at

the end of 1888 was 8909, belonging to 1394 genera and 149 natural

orders.

These are large numbers, but, what is more remarkable, something like

7700 of these species are endemic, or peculiar to Australia. The endemic

element in a flora is nowhere in the world higher, if even so high, in

so large an area, as in Western Australia, where eighty-five per cent of

the species are peculiar, and of the remaining fifteen per cent few

species extend beyond Australia.

Several genera are very numerous in species, notably _Acacia_, of which

there are upwards of 300, and _Eucalyptus_, of which there are 150; and

_Grevillea_ (_Proteaceæ_) is represented by 150, and _Melaleuca_

(_Myrtaceæ_) by 100 species.

Foremost in utility and most prominent in the scenery all over Australia

are the species of _Eucalyptus_, locally named blue gum, green gum,

iron-bark, stringy-bark, etc. etc. They vary in stature from dwarf

bushes to the tallest tree in the world, one species, _E. amygdalina_

(p. 370), considerably overtopping the “big trees” (_Wellingtonia_) of

California. In some parts of Victoria there are groves of this tree

averaging upwards of 300 feet in height, and several, as recorded in

Mueller’s useful _Eucalyptographia_, have been found to measure more

than 400 feet, and the tallest of all 471 feet.

In addition to being the largest and most durable timber of the country,

the gum-trees yield a variety of useful products. Most of them exude a

valuable gum resin; the bark of others is employed in tanning, and the

oil of _Eucalyptus_ is now extracted to the extent of 2000 gallons

annually in one factory. Several of them periodically shed their barks

in large sheets, after the manner of our planes and birches, but more

thoroughly. The leaves, like those of many other Australian trees, are

vertical instead of horizontal, so that they afford comparatively little

shade. Unlike our forest trees, too, they have more or less conspicuous

flowers—some of the western species especially large and highly coloured

flowers, followed by woody seed-vessels varying in different species

from less than a quarter of an inch to three inches in diameter, and

containing numerous very small seeds.

The genus _Eucalyptus_ belongs to a tribe of the _Myrtaceæ_

characterised by having a dry instead of a fleshy fruit. To the same

group belongs the large genus _Melaleuca_, which is likewise almost

peculiar to Australia and spread all over it. Conspicuous among the

species of _Melaleuca_ is _M. Leucadendron_, which inhabits all except

the south-eastern region. It is called tea-tree, paper-bark tree, and

milkwood in the different colonies. The wood of this tree is very

beautiful and durable, and valuable for shipbuilding and other purposes;

and the papery bark is said to be impervious to water and remains sound

after the wood has decayed. The accompanying woodcut (p. 373) will give

an idea of the aspect of the tree.

Next to the _Eucalypti_, the _Proteaceæ_ and _Acaciæ_ are almost

everywhere prominent features in the landscape. The numerous species of

_Banksia_, honeysuckles of the colonists, are generally dispersed, and

easily recognised by their large dense heads of showy flowers, succeeded

by large, gaping, woody seed-vessels.

With few exceptions, the species of _Acacia_ differ from those of other

parts of the world (except two or three in the Mascarene and Sandwich

Islands) in the feathery pinnate leaves being reduced to vertically

flattened, rounded, and variously shaped organs corresponding to the

leaf-stalk, and termed phyllodes. Occasionally, and especially in young

seedling-plants, the ordinary pinnate blade is born at the end of the

phyllode, thus giving a clue to its true nature.

[Illustration:

AN AUSTRALIAN SPRUCE (_Araucaria Bidwillii_).

]

True cone-bearing trees are rare in Australia, but the allied

slender-branched weeping species of _Frenela_ (_Callitris_) and the very

similar _Casuarineæ_ (the she-oak, river oak, forest oak, etc.) are

almost inseparable from Australian scenery. In Queensland and northern

New South Wales there are, however, two remarkable true cone-bearing

trees: namely, the bunya-bunya (_Araucaria Bidwillii_) and the Moreton

Bay pine (_A. Cunninghamii_). There are other species of _Araucaria_ in

Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, and South America. The Australian species

both afford a valuable timber, but it is not permitted to fell the

bunya-bunya on the Crown lands, owing to its seeds being a valuable

article of food to the aborigines.

[Illustration:

THE TEA-TREE (_Melaleuca Leucadenron_).

]

Even so slight a sketch as this of the vegetation of Australia would be

singularly imperfect without some reference to the highly peculiar

grass-trees (_Xanthorrhœa_), which form so striking a feature in the

scenery, especially in West Australia. The larger species have stout

trunks surmounted by a tuft of long narrow recurved leaves, from the

centre of which rise the tall, slender, shaft-like inflorescences.

Few persons knowing anything of botany have not heard of the gigantic

African baobab; yet fewer probably have heard of the Australian baobab,

found on the sandy plains and stony ridges from the Glenelg river to

Arnhem’s Land. It is equally remarkable for the great size of its trunk,

which is sometimes as much as eighty feet in circumference.

Tree-ferns are abundant and exceedingly fine in some parts of the

eastern side of Australia, and there are some handsome palms in

Queensland and New South Wales; but neither of these groups is

represented in West Australia, unless it be quite in the north.

One more prominent feature in Australian vegetation are the large

expanses of the so-called “scrub” of the colonists. This is a dense

covering of low bushes, varying in composition in different districts,

and named according to the predominating element.

The nearest botanical affinities of the Australian flora are with that

of South Africa, though the characteristic genera, as well as the

species, are invariably different in the two countries.

* * * * *

I am indebted to Dr. F. Kïær for the following brief note on the

Australian mosses:—

The moss flora of Queensland has hitherto been comparatively but little

studied. The number of varieties of foliaceous mosses known does not

reach 200, while there doubtless are three or four times as many. Among

those who have collected mosses in Queensland may be mentioned Miss

Hellen Scott and Mrs. Amalie Dietrich, and more recently Mr. F. M.

Bailey. Some of the mosses found belong to genera scattered throughout

the world, _e.g._, _Sphagnum_, _Dicranum_, _Barbula_, _Bryum_,

_Neckera_, _Thuidium_, _Hypnum_, etc. On the other hand genera are found

that are peculiar to Australia, and finally there are forms which are

characteristic of the tropical and subtropical zone.

As peculiar to Australia, we must first mention among the mosses bearing

top-fruit the genus _Dawsonia_, which has not hitherto been found

outside of this continent. This genus, of which there are three known

species in Queensland, is one of the most beautiful and the largest of

all mosses. It resembles a _Polytrichum_ in appearance, and, like the

latter, has a hairy cap, but around the opening its fruit is studded

with a bunch of threadlike hairs, the latter attaining a number of five

hundred and over.

Among other genera hitherto found only in Australia we may mention among

mosses having side-fruit the _Euptychium_, remarkable for its leaves,

which are folded very compactly, and the short-leaved _Bescherellea_,

which abounds in Queensland. The latter genus is known in New Caledonia,

and resembles a _Cyrtopus_, but has only a single row of teeth around

the mouth.

The genus _Spiridens_, found in many species on the Australian islands,

and also on the Sunda Isles, on the Moluccas, and on the Philippine

Islands, is not represented at all in Queensland.

Among Australian forms we should also mention one or two species of

_Endotrichella_, _Orthorrhynchium_, the beautiful _Braithwaitea_, three

species of the handsome _Thamniella_, and a few species of the tree like

branched _Hypnodendron_. The _Ptychomnium aciculare_ (_Brid._), common

in the southern hemisphere, is also found in Queensland.

In addition to _Octoblepharum albidum_ and _Rhizogonium spiniforme_,

found everywhere in the tropics, there are in Queensland several species

of the last-named genus.

The genus _Macromitrium_ has many representatives in Queensland (more

than ten species). Furthermore, we may here mention several species of

the genera _Papillaria_, _Hypopterygium_, and _Rhacopilum_.

The moss flora of Queensland, little as it is known, already presents a

type widely differing from the European, and the future will doubtless

bring forth many interesting discoveries in this extensive colony.

Of liverworts but few (eighteen) have yet been found in Queensland, but

there is a prospect that our knowledge of this interesting group in this

country will be supplemented before many years.

IV

FAUNA

[Illustration:

_Chlamydosaurus kingii._

]

It is evident that Australia is the country which has been least changed

in the later geological time, being now in the main as it was in the

early part of the tertiary period. It has also been called a land

forgotten in the cretaceous period by the development of the earth. This

“land of the dawning” reveals to us a corresponding primitive and

peculiar animal life, as well as flora with its proteaceæ, leafless

casuarinas, and acacias, which remind us of the vanished vegetation of

the elder tertiary period. The major part of Australia’s mammals

consists of the remarkable marsupials, which belong to the very oldest

and lowest organisation of all known mammals, and which have, without

doubt, survived from an earlier geological period, during which they

were also found in Europe. Among birds the country has some remarkable

species (_Megapodidæ_), the only ones in the world that do not hatch

their eggs themselves but, like reptiles, bury them in earth-mounds,

whose elements of fermentation produce heat and thus hatch the eggs. The

two coursers, the emu and the cassowary, when we except the kiwi-kiwi of

New Zealand, have more rudimentary wings than any now existing ostrich.

In the tertiary period Australia is supposed to have been much larger

than it now is. It is thought to have included New Guinea and Tasmania,

and possibly to have extended eastward to the Fiji Islands. According to

the celebrated naturalist Mr. A. R. Wallace, this hypothesis is

absolutely necessary in order to explain certain facts connected with

the Australian fauna. As already stated, remains of remarkable gigantic

marsupials have been found. They lived chiefly on grass, and are not

supposed to have had a higher organisation than those now existing.

Placental[24] beasts of prey that could disturb the existence of these

giants not having been found among the fossils, Wallace is of opinion

that the latter became extinct on account of physico-geographical, and

particularly climatic, changes taking place at the same time as the ice

period appeared in the rest of the world. As a remarkable fact it may be

mentioned that remains have recently been found of the gigantic moa

(_Dinornis_), a genus hitherto supposed to have been found only in New

Zealand.

Footnote 24:

Placental mammals are those having a placenta to nourish the fœtus, as

is the case with all mammals except the marsupials and monotremes.

Among the six zoological regions into which Wallace and Sclater divide

the _terra firma_ of the globe, one of the best marked and certainly the

most peculiar one is the Australian. Australia and New Guinea are the

largest countries in this region, which, in addition to New Zealand and

the islands of the Pacific, includes the Indian Archipelago east of

Borneo, Java, and Bali. The latter islands, all of which belong to the

Indian-Malay region, are separated from the Australian by a belt of very

deep water, where Wallace’s well-known line is found on the map. The

water is shallow between all the islands south-east of this

belt—Celebes, Timor, Amboina, Banda, and New Guinea—which evidently all

lie on a submarine bank, and have at one time been united with

Australia. There are the most striking differences between the fauna on

each side of the belt. Apes, rhinoceroses, tapirs, tigers, leopards, and

similar Indian and Malay animals disappear, and we enter an entirely new

region, the Australian, the chief characteristic of which is that it

lacks nearly all the groups of mammals found elsewhere in the world.

Instead we either find the peculiar marsupials, or the mammals are

entirely wanting, as is the case on most of the South Sea Islands. In

ornithology the honey-eaters are especially remarkable, then we have the

birds of paradise, the cassowary, and finally the kiwi-kiwi of New

Zealand.

The zoological character of the region is most marked in Australia,

which is rich in peculiar animal forms. As an island-continent extending

from 39° to 11° S. lat., and which consequently is several times as

large as the islands of the other regions added together, the country

naturally has very various climates. In the southern part there is a

climate like that of the countries along the Mediterranean; in the

northern there is a regular season of rain; while the centre is more hot

and more arid than any other part of the earth. Still, strange to say,

the climatic differences are not attended by corresponding variations of

the fauna, which is strikingly uniform throughout the country. Many

important species are found everywhere in the continent. Generally

speaking, Australia is a hot and dry country, and its flora and fauna

have been developed in harmony with its physico-geographical conditions.

This explains, for instance, why the tropical North Australia has not so

luxurious and varied vegetations as the adjacent New Guinea, with its

more humid climate. Many of the Australian mammals can subsist without

water for a long time. Gould is even of opinion that the large

kingfishers, whose food consists mainly of lizards and insects, never

drink.

The fauna of Australia has many special forms, and occupies a peculiar,

isolated position. This is most apparent among the mammals, which give

to the Australian fauna its most marked feature. Imagine a continent

about the size of Europe with no other mammals than marsupials, a few

bats, rats, and mice. There are no apes, no beasts of prey, no hoofed

animals. None of those groups are found from which our domestic animals

have been developed. The only exception is the dingo, the Australian

dog, but although fossil specimens have been found, it is generally

supposed that the dingo was introduced by man; it does not differ much

from the wild dogs of other lands. The fact that Australia at present

has so many large land animals, which at one time were represented by

kindred forms in Europe, shows that the country in some way or other has

been united with Asia, just as Great Britain must at some time have been

connected with the European continent. But the present remarkable

isolation of the Australian mammals from the land fauna of the rest of

the world is, as Wallace remarks, the best evidence that Australia and

Asia were not united throughout the tertiary period, and it is a most

characteristic fact that the only mammals which Australia has in common

with the rest of the world are the flying-bats and such small mammals as

could most easily be carried on floating logs, roots, and similar

objects to foreign coasts. Marsupials are also found in America; but,

with this exception, they now exist only in Australia and in the

adjacent islands New Guinea and Tasmania, which is evidence that the

latter islands were at one time united with Australia.

The marsupials are so called from their having a pouch (_marsupium_) for

carrying the immature young. The young are born without much

development, and they are at once transferred to the pouch, where they

continue to grow until they are able to take care of themselves. The

pouch is supported by the marsupial bones, which are equally developed

in both sexes. There are also many other peculiarities in the structure

of these animals, distinguishing them from the higher mammals, _e.g._

their teeth being quite different from those of other animals.

The large kangaroo bears a young “no larger than the little finger of a

human baby, and not unlike it in form.” This helpless, naked, blind, and

deaf being the mother puts in an almost inexplicable manner into the

pouch with her mouth, and places it on one of the long, slender,

milk-giving strings found in the pouch. Here the young remains hanging

for weeks, and grows very rapidly. The mother possesses a peculiar

muscle with which it is able to press milk into the mouth of the

helpless little one, and the larynx of the young has a peculiar

structure, so that it can breathe while it sucks, and consequently is

not choked. Gradually it assumes the form of its parents, and when big

enough it begins to make excursions from the pouch, which continues to

enlarge with the growth of the young. These excursions become longer as

the young grows larger, and thus this pouch serves both as a second womb

and as a nest and home. All marsupials are propagated in this manner,

but the number of young may vary from one to fourteen.

The brain of the marsupial is small and has but few convolutions,

indicative of small mental development. They are the most stupid of all

mammals, and indifferent in regard to all things save the wants of their

stomachs. Brehm calls attention to the fact that no marsupial mother

plays with her young or makes any effort to teach them.

The marsupials may differ widely in appearance, structure, and habits;

they may be as large as a stag and as small as a mouse. Some move on the

hind-feet alone, others on all fours; some live on the ground, others in

trees, others again are able to fly. Most of them feed on grass, but

some of them live on fruits, roots, and leaves; others again on meat and

insects; while there are also marsupials that eat honey.

Ever since Captain Cook’s sailors in 1770 came and told him that they

had seen the very devil hopping away on his hind legs in the form of an

animal, the kangaroo has been inseparably associated with our ideas of

Australia, the land of the kangaroo. The kangaroo (_Macropus_) is also

the largest and most remarkable of all marsupials, and is represented by

many species throughout Australia. The largest one is reddish (_Macropus

rufus_) and is found in the interior. Of the smaller kinds we may

mention the wallabies, kangaroo-rats, which are about the size of a

rabbit, and the pademelon, which is easily recognised by the fact that

when it runs it lets one arm drop as if it were broken. During recent

years kangaroos have greatly increased in number, one of the causes

being the systematic extermination of the dingoes and the decrease of

the number of natives. Thus kangaroos, like their smaller relatives the

wallabies and the kangaroo-rats, have become noxious animals that

destroy the pastures, and the colonists are making great efforts to

exterminate them. In Queensland the Government pays a premium for every

such animal killed, and in this way the number of marsupials was reduced

in the years 1880–1885 by six millions.

The tree-kangaroos (_Dendrolagus_), living in the dense scrubs of

Northern Queensland, are very remarkable and very different from the

other members of the family.

The phalangers (_Phalangeridæ_) are a large family found everywhere in

Australia. They inhabit the trees, and like most of the marsupials, seek

their food at night. They are usually called opossums, but are very

different from the genuine opossum of America. Just as the latter are

the most perfect and most intelligent of all marsupials, so the

Australian opossums are the most perfectly organised of all Australian

marsupials. They are, so to speak, the apes of the marsupials, in that

they feed on fruit, but are able to live on insects and birds’ eggs;

have a prehensile tail and a movable thumb, which almost converts their

feet into hands.

Closely related to the latter are the flying-squirrels (_Petaurus_)

which are strikingly like those in India. The smallest one of this

family, the beautiful _Acrobates pygmæus_, is a perfect wonder of

elegance and graceful movement. Though not larger than a little mouse,

still it flies through the air as skilfully as the larger species. It

frequently becomes the prey of domestic cats.

A transition between the kangaroos and the phalangers is found in the

marsupial bear (_Phascolarctus_), while the rodents are represented by

the large, plump wombat (_Phascolomys_).

The family _Dasyuridæ_ are carnivorous. The colonist usually names them

after animals of the old world, “marsupial cat,” “marsupial tiger,”

“marsupial wolf,” etc. All these marsupial beasts of prey are very

rapacious, and one or two of them are quite equal to the martens and

weasels in this respect. The marsupial wolf (_Thylacinus_) and the

marsupial devil (_Sarcophilus_) in Tasmania are the most ferocious and

most powerful of all the Australian animals, and do great damage among

the sheep. The former is, however, wellnigh exterminated. Native cats

(_Dasyurus geoffroyi_) are numerous everywhere, and are hated by the

colonists, because they attack the poultry. Near Mount Elephant, in

Victoria, five hundred of them were killed in one night by two poisoned

sheep carcasses. There had long been a drought, so that the animals had

congregated in the only place where water was to be found.

We now come to the _Monotremata_, the lowest group of all mammals. They

have the marsupial bones, but no pouch, and they are destitute of teeth.

Of this remarkable family there are only two genera, the duck-billed

platypus and the spiny ant-eater.

The duck-billed platypus (_Ornithorhynchus anatinus_) is easily

recognised by its horny jaws, which have a striking resemblance to the

bill of a duck. The animal is about fifteen inches long, and the body,

which is covered with close brown hair, is broad, flat, and somewhat

like that of a reptile. The feet are short and the toes are webbed.

During the daytime the ornithorhynchus sleeps in deep burrows dug in the

banks of rivers. It is common in the southern and eastern part of

Australia, and is also found in Tasmania.

The spiny ant-eater (_Echidna_) resembles our porcupine in appearance

and size, has quills like it, and can roll itself into a ball. The toes

are not webbed, but the animal is a very good swimmer. It feeds on ants

and insects, and, like other ant-eaters, has a long, slender tongue,

which has a secretion of a sticky substance. It is a most powerful

animal, and can disappear so rapidly in loose earth or sand that it

seems to sink into the ground. Its flesh is very fat, and is considered

a great delicacy by the blacks. On Herbert river, where the ant-eater is

called gombian, the natives hunt it with the help of tamed dingoes.

These mammals, the two most remarkable ones on the globe, reveal a

wonderful relationship to the lower vertebrates, reptiles and birds.

Thus we find that the front extremities are fastened to the breast-bone

by a highly developed coracoid and an epicoracoid, as in the case of

lizards. This does not occur in any other mammal. Their skulls, like

those of birds, have no visible sutures whatever.

The most remarkable fact, however, is that these animals do not bear

living young, but lay eggs. The latter contain a large yolk, and when

hatched the young are suckled by the mother.

The stages of development of the eggs are different from those of all

other mammals, and resemble to a great extent those of reptiles and

birds. As the eggs are _meroblastic_,[25] these animals seem to be even

more closely related to birds and reptiles than to the mammals.

Footnote 25:

Where only a small part of the yolk goes to form the fœtus, while the

greater part is used to nourish it, as is the case with birds, the egg

is called _meroblastic_. With mammals, all the yolk is used to form

the fœtus (_holoblastic eggs_).

The eggs lying in the ovaries are ⅛ of an inch in diameter, possibly

even more, and they certainly are the largest eggs produced by mammals.

In a human being and in the higher mammals the egg averages ¹⁄₁₂₅ of an

inch in diameter.

The young seem to require a long time to arrive at maturity. They are

hatched small, blind, and naked, and their mouths have not at first the

form of a beak, but are thick, round, soft, and well adapted to receive

the milk, which is strained through the lacteal glands, for there are no

nipples. As these animals have no pouch (the ant-eater has a rudimentary

one in the form of a crease in the skin while it nurses its young), the

young remain in the nest, where the mother suckles them.

Though the ornithology of Australia is not so isolated in its character

as the mammals are, still its birds are very remarkable, and have almost

as many points of interest. We here find eagles, hawks, thrushes,

swallows, fly-catchers, sea-gulls, ducks, etc., though of other species

than those to which we are accustomed; but we are astonished that

vultures and woodpeckers, which exist in all other parts of the world,

are wholly wanting.

The honey-eaters (_Meliphagidæ_), so well adapted to the circumstances

of the country, are very remarkable. As the trees and bushes of

Australia have a great wealth of flowers, but are wanting in juicy

fruits, many of its birds find their food in the flowers, inhabiting the

trees and bushes, particularly gum-trees and banksias, and rarely coming

down on the ground to seek food. These characteristic birds, of which

there are no less than 200 species, remind us by their mode of life of

the American humming-birds; still they are very different from the

latter. The largest are of the size of a small dove, but much more

slender. They are strong lively birds, which with their powerful feet

cling fast to the branches, almost like titmice, while they suck the

flowers, and their tongue ends in a brush, so that they can easily lick

up the honey and the honey-eating insects. Even some of the parrots, the

so-called brush-tongued (_Trichoglossidæ_), live on honey and pollen,

and are peculiar to Australia.

The strange habits of many of the Australian birds have already been

described, _e.g._ the play-houses built by the æsthetic bower-birds, and

the three species which do not themselves hatch their eggs, like the

reptiles, but leave the hatching to be done by artificial heat. The

latter belong to the family of _Megapodidæ_, a group which receives its

name from the fact that their feet and claws are very large and

powerful, and consequently well adapted to building the large mounds in

which the eggs are laid.

[Illustration:

WILD GEESE FROM NORTH QUEENSLAND (_Anseranas melanoleuca_). Photograph

from nature.

]

It is a strange fact that the kingfishers found everywhere in the world,

and the equally cosmopolitan pigeons, should be so numerous in

Australia. Among the former are the wonderful laughing jackasses

(_Dacelo_) whose voice is unlike that of any other bird. In Australia

the pigeons attain the highest development both as to wealth of species

and brilliancy of plumage. Some of them even have a crest on the top of

the head, a very rare ornament for this family. The extraordinary

development of these defenceless birds indicates that they have but few

enemies in Australia. Wallace gives as the reason for their great

numbers the total absence of apes, cats, weasels, and other animals that

live in trees and that eat the eggs and the young of birds, while the

very green colour of these birds conceals them from birds of prey, their

only foes. On the plains in the interior of Queensland countless numbers

of pigeons are seen, but of modest-coloured plumage, to protect them in

this open country.

Many of the Australian birds are distinguished for their brilliant

plumage, and in this respect they easily rank with the humming-birds of

America and with the trogons and parrots of India. Thus we have the

elegant little wrens whose leading colours are azure blue and

scarlet-red; the yellow and velvety black regent-bird (_Sericulus

melinus_); and the metallic glittering rifle-bird (_Ptilorhis

victoriæ_); and finally, the finches, that have a combination of colours

the like of which is to be found only in butterflies. Among the many

parrots, which include such strange forms as the white and the black

cockatoos, there are some which are unique in the beauty of their

colours. So remarkable a decoration as the tail of the lyre-bird

(_Menura_) is found nowhere else in the world of birds.