AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATIONS.--THE BLUE MOUNTAINS FIRST TRAVERSED.--DISCOVERY
OF THE LACHLAN, MACQUARIE, MURRUMBIDGEE, AND MURRAY
RIVERS.--EXPLORATIONS OF STURT, MITCHELL, CUNNINGHAM, HUME, AND
OTHERS.--EYRE'S JOURNEY ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST.--SUFFERINGS AND
PERILS.--BURKE AND WILLS: HOW THEY PERISHED IN THE WILDERNESS.--MONUMENT
TO THEIR MEMORY.--COLONEL WARBURTON AND HIS CAMEL TRAIN.--STRAPPED TO A
CAMEL'S BACK.--PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT.--ABORIGINALS
OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.--THROWING THE BOOMERANG.--A REMARKABLE
EXHIBITION.--ORIGIN OF THE BOOMERANG.--DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS: A PUZZLE
FOR THE NATURALISTS.--VISITING A COPPER-MINE.--MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE
COLONY.--WESTERN AUSTRALIA.--ALBANY, ON KING GEORGE SOUND.--DESCRIPTION
OF THE COLONY.--CURIOUS POISON-PLANTS.--FAREWELL TO AUSTRALIA.--THE END.
The mention of the explorations that preceded the construction of the
Australian overland telegraph drew the attention of our young friends to
the men whose names are famous in the history of Australian discovery.
They had already thought of the subject when they saw in Melbourne the
bronze statue in memory of the explorers, Burke and Wills, but at that
time they were too busy to make any extended investigation concerning
it.
The result of their reading and other study of Australian explorations
they briefly summed up as follows:
"For the first twenty-five years after the settlement at Sydney, in
1788, exploration was confined to the strip of land between the Blue
Mountains and the sea; it was not until 1813 that the mountains were
passed and the valley of the Fish River and the Bathurst plains visited.
The Lachlan River was discovered in 1815, and the Macquarie shortly
afterwards; both these rivers were traced to a marsh, and were supposed
to lose themselves in an inland sea.
"The Murrumbidgee River was discovered in 1815, and the Murray in 1824,
by Mr. Hamilton Hume. Afterwards Mr. Hume accompanied Captain Sturt,
when the latter discovered the Darling River; later (in 1831) occurred
Captain Sturt's descent of the Murray, which has been already mentioned.
Major Mitchell, Mr. Cunningham, and other explorers continued the work
of investigating the interior of the great continent, and every year
added something to the maps of the country.
[Illustration: READY FOR THE START.]
"A most perilous journey was made in 1839 and 1840 by Mr. Eyre, who was
afterwards governor of New Zealand and Jamaica. He explored a portion of
the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf, and then turned to the westward along
the shore of the Great Australian Bight, a distance of twelve hundred
miles. Two hundred and fifty miles from the head of the gulf he had lost
four of his best horses; and as he could not carry sufficient provisions
for his party, he sent back his companion, Mr. Scott, and three others,
and continued the journey with his overseer, two natives, and a native
servant of his own.
"To make sure of water Mr. Eyre explored in advance of the party before
moving the animals, and was sometimes gone five or six days without
finding any. Most of the horses died of thirst, and the men only kept
themselves alive by gathering dew with rags and a sponge.
"One night the two natives armed themselves with guns, killed the
overseer, and ran away, leaving Mr. Eyre, with his servant, Wylie, two
horses, and a very small stock of provisions; they had six hundred miles
of unknown desert before them, and their whole supply of food was forty
pounds of flour, four gallons of water, and part of a dead horse. They
had to go one hundred and fifty miles before finding any more water, and
after struggling on for a month, living on horse-flesh, fish, and
occasional game, with a little flour paste, they were rescued by a
whaling-ship just in time to save their lives. They remained two weeks
on the ship, and then continued their journey, with more sufferings for
twenty-three days, to King George Sound.
"The next great exploration was that of Captain Sturt towards the middle
of the continent, mentioned in the previous chapter. About the same time
Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt, a German naturalist, was fitted out by private
subscription in Sydney, and explored Eastern Queensland from its
southern border to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In less than five months he
made a journey of three thousand miles, and was highly successful in
every way.
[Illustration: EXPLORERS IN CAMP.]
"Afterwards he started with another expedition to attempt to cross the
continent from east to west, carrying provisions for two years; but
after struggling for seven months he was forced to turn back. Later he
set out again with the same object, but since April, 1848, nothing
authentic has been heard from him or any member of his party. Several
searching parties were sent out, but beyond a few trees with the letter
'L' carved upon them, nothing was ever found to show where he went, and
nobody knows what was his fate; the general belief is that he and his
companions perished of thirst. About the same time Sir Thomas Mitchell
explored a part of what is now Queensland, and a year or so later Mr.
Kennedy started on an expedition in which he, with most of his party,
was killed.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS, MELBOURNE.]
"And now," continued Frank, "we come to Burke and Wills, the explorers
whose monument we saw in Melbourne. The Victorian Government fitted out
an expedition in 1860, with Mr. O'Hara Burke as chief, and Mr. W. J.
Wills second in command. The party consisted of eighteen men,
twenty-seven camels (which had been imported specially for the service),
a great many pack-horses, and several wagons.
"They formed a camp on Cooper's Creek, and left a party in charge of it,
under command of a man named Brahé; Burke and Wills, with two men, King
and Gray, with one horse and six camels, then pushed on to the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and thus made the journey across the continent. On their
return they suffered great privations; Gray died, and the others were so
weak that they hardly had strength to bury him; the horse was killed for
food, four of the camels were abandoned, and on the evening of April 21,
1861, the three men crawled into the camp on Cooper's Creek.
"Imagine their despair when they found the camp deserted, and the word
'dig' rudely cut on a tree. They did dig, and found a bottle containing
a letter saying that the camp had been abandoned by Brahé that very
morning. He had left a few articles of food, but no stimulants, tea, or
clothing, of which they were in great need. They rested a few days, and
then tried to reach a sheep-station one hundred and fifty miles away;
but they were driven back by scarcity of water, and both the camels
broke down and had to be shot. Brahé returned to the camp only two hours
after Burke and Wills left it; but Burke had buried his despatches in
the hole where the bottle was found, replaced the earth carefully, and
left no sign to indicate that he had been there. Consequently Brahé
supposed the explorers had not returned.
"The wanderers found some friendly natives who assisted them, but both
Burke and Wills died of exhaustion within a few days of each other,
about six weeks after their return to the camp. King joined a party of
natives, and was eventually rescued and brought to Melbourne. He was
found by one of four search expeditions that were sent out by the
Victorian Government as soon as it was known that the depot on Cooper's
Creek had been abandoned. Though only one of these expeditions was able
to afford assistance to the missing explorers, all made interesting
journeys, and added considerably to the stock of geographical
information concerning the country.
"Since the unhappy termination of the expedition of Burke and Wills
several expeditions have sought to explore Western Australia. The first
man who succeeded in traversing the Great Desert from east to west was
Colonel Egerton Warburton, who started from Alice Springs, on the
overland telegraph route, in April, 1873, and reached the mouth of the
Oakover River, in Western Australia, in the following December. He had
seventeen camels when he started, but was obliged to kill or abandon
all but three; the party nearly died of starvation, and for a part of
the time Colonel Warburton was so ill that he was strapped at full
length on the back of his camel. The country was a fearful desert, the
heat was intense, and for hundreds of miles there was not a drop of
water.
[Illustration: COLONEL WARBURTON STRAPPED TO HIS CAMEL.]
"Forrest, Giles, and other explorers have traversed various parts of
Western Australia; and it may now be said that though there is a very
large area of unexplored or little-known land, the character of the
whole continent is sufficiently well known for all practical purposes.
Not more than half of it is inhabitable by Europeans, or ever will be.
Some few districts now considered sterile may be made useful by
irrigation, but the western half of the continent is an arid waste,
where even the native black man cannot make a living."
Frank paused as he read to Fred the foregoing paragraphs.
"Perhaps you'll have to change the last statement," said Fred.
"Why so?" queried his cousin.
"Because it does not harmonize with the opinions of some of the
scientific men of Australia," was the reply. "Here is something I have
just found in a late number of a Melbourne newspaper."
Frank listened with interest while Fred read the following:
"At a recent meeting of commercial and pastoral men in Sydney, an
interesting paper on the Australian Desert was read by Mr. E.
Favenc. Here are some passages from it: 'In looking back at the
past history of Australia, the many disillusions that have taken
place with regard to our knowledge of its geographical formation
are very striking. In no particular is this more noticeable than in
the gradual disappearance of the dreaded desert. Each successive
adventurer has turned back with the tale that beyond his farthest
point it was impossible to penetrate, only for after-generations to
reverse his opinion and reclaim the waste land for habitation and
settlement. In a pastoral community, from the earliest ages, the
necessity of fresh grazing-lands for the increasing flocks and
herds has existed; and the residents on the border-land of
civilization soon found out that the herbs and shrubs of the
interior possessed qualities hitherto unappreciated and
unrecognized, and country looked upon as unfit to sustain animal
life became eagerly sought after as first-class fattening country.
That this has been the experience of New South Wales and Queensland
has resulted in the shadowy desert being driven into the heart of
South and Western Australia.
"'That immense areas of spinifex of the worst description exist in
the interior, which may well be called desert, there is no doubt;
but as yet we have no evidence to show that they are not belts. All
through the alleged desert blacks are found all the year round.
Although they can exist on a very small allowance of water, they
cannot live without it, and this proves the existence of a
permanent supply throughout the continent, although the springs
that are the source of the supplies may be but scanty drainage and
hard to find. Wherever large reservoirs are found--the standing
waters of the interior--fish form one of the principal native
dishes, and they are as a rule so fat as to be almost uneatable. On
these waters, too, wild feathered game are in profusion, from the
larger species--geese, pelicans, native companions, etc.--down to
the smaller kinds, the little pigmy goose and the plover.
"'Country, then, which can sustain human and animal life throughout
the year can scarcely be classed as an irreclaimable desert; and
when we know from experience that even at their driest stages the
edible grasses of this region can keep stock in good condition, and
in the case of some of the grasses even fatten, the future
occupation of the whole of the continent does not seem so very
problematical. The wonderful success that has attended boring
efforts to the northward of the Great Bight, long considered as the
driest country in Australia, and stigmatized by Eyre as the most
awful desert ever trodden by man, now being rapidly stocked with
sheep, points out the way to the gradual reclamation of the desert.
The knowledge we already have of some of the inland springs, slight
as it is, proves the existence of these subterranean supplies
throughout the continent. These springs are not what are known as
surface springs--that is, the residue of a former exceptionally wet
season, issuing from the foot of some well-soaked hill or
ridge--but strong volumes of water that vary not in any season,
totally unaffected by drought; in fact, running stronger during dry
weather. I think, therefore, that in most cases a judicious
selection of the site for boring will bring about a successful
result; and in this country, so deficient in surface drainage, we
shall find that Nature has provided a store that will render the
settlers independent of variable seasons.'"
"That reminds me," said Frank, "of what Doctor Bronson was saying the
other day when we were talking on this very subject. He said that when
he was a boy the maps of the school geographies had a 'Great American
Desert' between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and another
desert between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. But as
civilization has pushed westward the desert disappeared, and all that
region once supposed to be uninhabitable is now occupied as
cattle-pastures, and thousands of farms have been established and are
doing well where fifty years ago it was thought nothing could be made to
grow. Quite likely it will be the same with the great Australian desert,
but as my paragraph represents the present state of things we will let
it remain as it is."
[Illustration: DESERT SCENERY.]
The conversation then turned to the aboriginals who had been mentioned
in Mr. Favenc's address. Fred asked Frank if he had ascertained how many
there were at present in South Australia, and how they lived.
"Yes," was the reply, "and here is what I've learned. When the colony
was settled, in 1836, there were estimated to be twelve thousand blacks
within its borders. Now the number has diminished to about five
thousand; they have died of diseases of various kinds, and the annual
number of births is considerably less than that of the deaths. They are
protected by the Government, an official being charged with their care,
and the annual distribution of twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of
food, clothing, and medical comforts from some fifty depots which have
been established for that purpose. Five special reserves of land, about
six hundred and seventy thousand acres in all, have been set apart for
them, and they are being taught in the ways of civilization, just as our
American Indians are being instructed on their reservations."
[Illustration: THE WAY OF CIVILIZATION.]
"There's one thing we've forgotten to describe in our accounts of the
Australian aboriginals," said Fred.
"What is that?"
"The boomerang," was the reply. "No account of Australia is complete
without a description of the boomerang."
"That's so," responded Frank. "But first we ought to see it used."
Fred agreed to this, and in compliance with their desire one of their
Australian friends arranged that they should see a performance with this
remarkable weapon. Here is Fred's account of it:
[Illustration: A BOOMERANG.]
"The performer was a half-wild aboriginal who had been promised a reward
for displaying his skill. Our friend explained that there were several
kinds of boomerangs. The differences are in shape and weight; the
variations in shape are hardly perceptible to the eye of a novice,
though readily distinguished by those accustomed to them. The weight
varies from four ounces to ten and a half ounces; the blacks of Western
Australia used lighter ones than those of the eastern regions.
[Illustration: A WAR-DANCE OF AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.]
"Some of the boomerangs are intended for playthings, while others are
for war or hunting purposes. The playthings can be made to return to the
feet of the thrower, but the war boomerangs are not expected to return;
you can readily understand that a boomerang would be deviated from its
course or stopped altogether by hitting an object, and if it did not hit
anything it would not be of much use as a warlike weapon.
"We examined the boomerang that the man was to perform with. It was
about nineteen inches long from point to point, two and a half inches
wide in its broadest part, half an inch thick, and weighed eight ounces
and a half. Its shape was somewhat like that of a slightly bent sickle,
the curve being about a quarter of a circle.
"When we had done looking at it the fellow took it and examined it
carefully, and then he looked at the trees and the grass to note the
direction of the wind. Our friend cautioned us to stand perfectly still,
especially after the weapon had been launched; the performer selects
beforehand the spot where he wishes the boomerang to fall on its return,
and sometimes a spectator in his excitement moves to that very spot and
is injured. We promised to obey, and we did.
"Two or three times the man made a motion to throw it but did not.
Finally, when he felt that he could strike the wind at the proper angle,
he launched the weapon almost straight into the air; it went up a few
yards, then turned and seemed to glide along a little way above the
ground, gyrated on its axis, made a wide sweep and returned with a
fluttering motion to the man's feet. The farthest point of the curve was
about a hundred yards away. We are told that skilful throwers can
sometimes project the boomerang nearly two hundred yards before it
starts on its return.
"We offered him a sixpence for every time he would bring it back to his
feet and make it fall in a circle two yards in diameter which we drew on
the ground. In ten throws he brought it within the circle four times,
and in the six misses it dropped only a short distance outside.
"He did not throw it the same way every time. Once he made it skim along
the ground for at least fifty yards, then rise into the air fully one
hundred feet, and after making a great curve it returned. Next he threw
it so that it made at least half a dozen great spirals above him as it
came down, and another time it passed around a tree in its course.
"Frank paced off fifty yards from the performer, and placed a shilling
in the end of a split stick four feet long, which was then stuck in the
ground just far enough to hold it up. We offered the shilling to the man
if he would knock out the coin without disturbing the stick, and he did
it, but the boomerang did not return.
"Our friend told us that the powers of the return-boomerang had been
greatly exaggerated. The non-returning one is the real weapon, and is
greatly to be feared in the hands of a skilful thrower. It has been
known to hit a man behind a tree or a rock, where he was quite safe from
bullet, spear, or arrow; and if an expert in its use comes within
throwing distance of a kangaroo or an emu, the creature's fate is
sealed.
"He further said he had never known a white man to become expert in the
use of the boomerang, though many had practised with it for years.
"We asked if the natives knew how long ago and by whom the boomerang was
invented. He shook his head and said no one could give any account of
it; but as all the tribes throughout the country are familiar with it,
it must be of very ancient date. He said there was a theory that the
natives derived the invention from observing the peculiar shape and turn
of the leaf of the white gum-tree. As the leaves fall to the ground they
gyrate, very much as does the boomerang, and if one of the leaves is
thrown straight forward, it gyrates and comes back.
"Such an origin is certainly quite possible. Children might be playing
with such leaves, and to please them a man might make a large leaf of
wood, and from this the boomerang may have been developed. _Quien sabe?_
"And with this query of 'Who can tell?' we will drop the boomerang, or
leave it in the hands of the aboriginals of Australia, who alone of all
the people in the world know how to handle it."
[Illustration: AMERICANS WHO USE THE BOOMERANG.]
"That is true as to the return-boomerang," said Doctor Bronson when Fred
read the foregoing account, "but not of the non-returning one. According
to those who have carefully studied the subject, such a weapon was used
by the ancient Egyptians and by the Dravidian races of India. The Moqui
Indians of Arizona and New Mexico have a form of boomerang for killing
rabbits, and a similar weapon is said to be used by some of the tribes
of California Indians. The Moqui boomerang resembles the Australian one
in its general shape, but it is not a returning one. It gyrates along
the surface of the ground and is fatal to a rabbit twenty-five or thirty
yards away."
"There's something else peculiar to Australia that you've forgotten,"
remarked the Doctor, after a slight pause.
[Illustration: PLATYPUS, OR DUCK-BILLED MOLE.]
"What is that?"
"It is the platypus, or duck-billed mole," said the Doctor, "the
paradoxical animal of Australia."
"We had not forgotten him," Frank responded, "though we have not yet
written a description of this singular creature. He seems to be the
connecting link between bird and beast, as he has the body of the mole
or rat and the bill and webbed feet of the duck. The female lays eggs
like a bird, but it suckles its young, which no bird was ever known to
do. The one we saw at Melbourne was larger than the largest water-rat;
they told us that it lives in a hole which it digs for itself on the
banks of the rivers, is very sensitive to sound, and hard to catch. Its
fur is as fine as sealskin, and if it were larger it would be
systematically hunted for its skin."
"When the first specimens were taken to Europe," said Doctor Bronson,
"it was thought to be a hoax like the Feejee mermaid, and it was some
time before the naturalists were convinced of its genuineness. When its
existence was officially acknowledged, it received the name of
_ornithorhynchus_."
"But isn't there a question as to whether the platypus lays eggs?" Fred
asked.
"I believe there is," replied the Doctor, "but the latest student of the
subject, Mr. W. H. Caldwell, of Cambridge College, England, who visited
Australia in 1884-85 for the special purpose, says the creature is
oviparous; so we will rest on his authority."
[Illustration: HOME OF THE DUCK-BILL.]
From Australia in general the conversation changed to South Australia in
particular. It was directed to the mineral products of the colony, in
consequence of an invitation that had just been received by the Doctor
to visit a famous copper-mine. The Doctor explained to the youths that
copper was the principal mineral resource of the colony; the
exportations of mining products in the year 1885 amounted to £344,451,
of which £322,983 were in refined copper or copper ore.
"Gold has been found in several localities in the colony," he continued,
"but never in such quantities as in Victoria or New South Wales, the
annual export rarely exceeding £70,000, equal to $350,000. There are
also deposits of silver, lead, bismuth, and tin, and many persons
believe that the colony will ultimately prove very attractive as a
mining region; but up to the present time copper is very far in advance
of anything else."
They accepted the invitation, and went to the copper-mine which is known
as the Burra-Burra, and is one hundred and one miles by railway from
Adelaide. Starting at seven o'clock in the morning, they reached the
station near the mine a little past noon, spent three hours at the
works, and returned to Adelaide in the evening. It was a long day and a
wearying one, but the ride and visit were greatly enjoyed.
The Burra-Burra mine was discovered by a shepherd name Pickitt, in
1844, and has proved highly profitable to its owners; for a good many
years its annual product of ore was ten thousand tons, yielding two
thousand five hundred tons of pure copper. More than twenty million
dollars' worth of copper has been taken from this mine, and the supply
is by no means exhausted.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE MINERS.]
But our friends heard of even richer mines than the Burra-Burra. They
were told of the Moonta mines, which paid from the very start; not a
penny of capital was ever subscribed, but the mines have yielded large
dividends, in some years as high as eight hundred thousand dollars, in
addition to paying for costly buildings and machinery. It should be
added that the success of these and other mines led to a great deal of
mining speculation which was very disastrous for nearly all the
investors.
Early one Thursday morning it was announced that the regular mail
steamship of the Peninsular & Oriental Company was at Glenelg, and would
leave in the evening for King George Sound, Western Australia. Doctor
Bronson had taken passage for himself and his young companions; his
first intention was to stop at King George Sound, but owing to the
limited facilities of travel in Western Australia, the small population,
and the slight development of the country compared to that of the
eastern half of the continent, the idea of making an extended tour
through the only remaining colony of Australasia was definitely
abandoned.
The steamer left Glenelg in the evening of Thursday, and on the morning
of the following Monday arrived at Albany, in King George Sound, one
thousand and seven miles from Adelaide. She anchored about a mile from
shore, and our friends were landed in a row-boat on payment of one
shilling each, the same fare being charged for the return trip before
the departure of the vessel in the evening. King George Sound is about
five miles long and nearly the same in width, and forms a good anchorage
for ships. Its advantages as a naval possession were long ago
recognized, the British Government having secured it by establishing a
colony there in 1826. There are two entrances on opposite sides of an
island called Breaksea, a massive rock that reminded Frank and Fred of
Alcatraz Island, in the harbor of San Francisco, or Capri, in the Bay of
Naples.
The youths were disappointed with Albany, which they had imagined to be
a place of some importance. It stands on rising ground on the north
shore of the harbor, and has not far from one thousand two hundred
inhabitants--hardly enough to give it the dignity of a city, which most
of its residents claim for it.
Frank asked how they could get away from Albany in case they had decided
to travel through Western Australia.
[Illustration: VIEW OF PERTH, CAPITAL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.]
"There is a road from here to Perth, the capital of the colony," said
the gentleman to whom the inquiry was addressed. "The distance is two
hundred and sixty-one miles; and whenever the mails arrive here they are
sent through to Perth by a coach, which makes the journey in about
fifty-three hours. You may travel by the mail-coach, or you can take a
coasting steamer once every fortnight, and touch at all the ports worth
seeing, as well as some that do not pay for the trouble."
"How many railways have they in the colony?"
"Not many," was the reply. "The Northern Railway, thirty-five miles
long, runs from Champion Bay, on the coast, to the town and mining
district of Northampton. The Eastern Railway, ninety miles long, extends
from the port of Freemantle, at the mouth of Swan River, to Perth, and
thence to Beverley, whence it is to be extended to Albany. There are
branches from both these lines, but none of great length, and there are
some private railways belonging to timber companies. All the lines of
the colony are of three feet six inches gauge; several new lines are
projected on the land grant system, in the same way that many of your
railways in the United States have been constructed, and on some of them
work is now under way. But it will be several years yet before the
country has an adequate system of railways."
"Western Australia is territorially the largest colony of Australia, but
there are not yet fifty thousand inhabitants in its whole area," the
gentleman continued. "The largest place is Perth, which has a population
of about six thousand. Freemantle, its port, twelve miles lower down on
the Swan River, has four thousand, and the other places of consequence
are Guildford, Geraldton, and Roebourne, the latter the centre of the
pearl-fishery."
Fred asked what were the products of the country, and how it happened
that Western Australia, while nearer to Europe than any other colony of
Australasia, had been so neglected.
"To your first question I will reply," said his informant, "that wool is
our largest item of export, and then come sandal-wood, lumber,
pearl-shell and pearls, horses, and sheep. We send many horses to India,
Singapore, and Java, and our trade in this line promises to increase.
Our annual exports of all kinds amount to £290,000, and our imports to
something less than that figure. We have mines of gold, lead, copper,
iron, and tin, but up to the present, though there have been a few gold
rushes, very little attention has been given to our mineral resources,
and we really know little about them.
"There is an abundance of fine country in Western Australia. There are
splendid forests in the south-west, and excellent pasture lands in the
west and north. An American visitor once said that Western Australia had
been run through an hour-glass, alluding to the great number of sandy
regions in the limits of the territory. Of course we have considerable
areas of desert, but his remark is unfair as a general description. We
could support a large population, and when our advantages become better
known we shall have it too.
[Illustration: FOREST SCENE IN THE SOUTH-WEST.]
"I ought to tell you that some of our most fertile land in the
south-west is unfit for pasturing sheep and cattle, owing to the
poison-plants that abound there. There are several of these plants, four
of them being well known and easily recognized. The most common is the
York-road plant, a low scrubby bush with narrow green leaves and a white
stem. Sheep feed eagerly upon it, swell to a great size, and live only a
few hours; at certain times when the plant is full of sap a single
mouthful is sufficient to kill a full-grown sheep. The plant will also
kill horned cattle, but does not affect horses, or only slightly. As you
go to the north you cease to find this dangerous plant, and the pastures
there are as good for sheep as those of Victoria or New South Wales.
[Illustration: A KID-GLOVED COLONIST.]
"The latter half of your query," he continued, "compels me to speak of
something which the most of us wish to forget. In the first place, when
the colony was formed, in 1829, enormous grants of land were given to a
few individuals of capital and influence who were to bring out colonists
and otherwise develop the country. The grants were all the way from one
hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand acres, and the system
proved a bad one. The capitalists came here to live on their estates,
and not to work, and the colony was the reverse of prosperous. The
stories of the old colonial days would be ludicrous if they were not
saddening; of fine gentlemen and ladies, blooded horses, pianos,
carriages, packs of hounds, and other belongings of old countries landed
on this desolate coast, and nobody knowing where his allotment of land
could be found. These kid-gloved colonists ate up all the provisions
they had brought, came near starvation, and then returned to England, or
went to Victoria and New South Wales to seek new homes.
"In the languishing condition of the colony it was sought to galvanize
it into new life by allowing the Government to send convicts here under
the stipulation that there should be an equal number of free colonists
brought out at Government expense.
"The system was continued until 1868. It was stopped in that year,
partly because no free emigration could be induced to come here as long
as the colony received convicts, and partly because of the opposition of
the other Australian colonies. One of the Governments of the eastern
part of the continent proposed to exclude from its ports all ships that
came from ours, through fear that our convicts would escape to their
shores. Every free immigrant shunned us as he would shun the cholera or
the plague, and if the system had been kept up to the present time our
population would consist almost entirely of convicts and their guards.
All our prosperity dates from the suspension of transportation, and we
want to forget that there was ever anything of the kind."
A desultory conversation followed, in which Frank and Fred learned many
things concerning the colony, but we have not a place for all of them in
this narrative. Talking about the pearl-fishery, they were told that in
1883 a mass of nine pearls, forming a perfect cross, was found in Nicol
Bay, each pearl being the size of a large pea, and perfect in form and
color. About the same time a rich bank of pearl oysters fifteen miles
long (the bank, not the oysters) was found in the vicinity of Beagle
Bay, and a single pearl weighed two hundred and thirty-four grains.
[Illustration: IN THE PASTURE LANDS.]
They further learned that capitalists of Melbourne and Sydney had
recently obtained large blocks of land in the north, and were sending
their flocks and herds into these new pastures. The climate was claimed
to be delightful, and their informant quoted the words of a clergyman
who averred that it was no exaggeration to say, generally speaking, that
Western Australia possessed one of the most healthful climates in the
world.
But in spite of its praises they had no wish to remain, and after
strolling through the streets of Albany, looking from the heights in its
rear upon the peaceful waters of King George Sound, and gazing upon the
spot where, with much ceremony, ground had been recently broken for the
railway to Beverley, they walked to the end of the long pier which juts
into the harbor, and were soon once more on the deck of the steamer.
Just as the sun was dipping into the west the great vessel left her
anchorage, passed through the channel at the side of rugged Breaksea,
and then skirted the coast to the westward for several hours. In the
morning Cape Leeuwin, the last headland of the island-continent, was
dimly visible in the distance; before the sun marked the meridian the
cape and all behind it had disappeared, and the great steamer, her only
companions the sea-birds, ploughed the waters of the Indian Ocean, with
her prow turned towards the shores of spicy-breezed Ceylon.
As Cape Leeuwin sank from sight beneath the waves our friends murmured a
farewell to the land whose skies are stippled at night by the stars of
the Southern Cross, and whose arid plains are cooled by breezes from
antarctic seas. And their farewell was accompanied with the heartiest
good wishes for the people whose enterprise and energy are so admirably
exemplified in the populous and busy cities and the prosperous colonies
which have been described in these pages by those veteran though still
young travellers, Frank and Fred.
[Illustration: ROCKS AT THE CAPE.]
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[Illustration: Adapted from Map of Oceanica, Harper's School Geography.
Copyright, 1879, by Harper & Brothers.]
[Illustration: NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIA.]