Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-19

ging three or four feet he found at q depth
| of Is feet small quantities that would haye
/ helped small party, but was hardly q
thimbleful apiece for his large force.
In 1875, this experienced explorer
crossed Australia from Port Darwin to
| Adelaide accompanied only BY q native boy
and four baggage animals. If he had
started on his latest journey with flying
column of four experienced bushmen and
eight camels the result might have been
different. As it was his unwieldy party Of
scientific experts had no knowledge of bush
or desert travel, but their appetites were
good and they needed plenty of water.
Drawing Water From the Trees.
1t should not be inferred that all these
inland regions are permanently unit for
human enterprises Lindsay saw them last
when they were suffering from an unusually
prolonged period of drought; but much of
this region needs only rain to vivify it.
Natives inhabit certain districts and Lind
saw saw them drawing their water supply
from the roots of small trees called the
malice tree He saws they can tell by the
appearance of the trees which will yield q
supply of pure water.
Mr. Charles Chewings and other authori-
ties assert that immense expanses of inner
Australia, once believed to be nothing but
useless desert, contain large number of nat
ural artesian springs, and they believe that
by artesian irrigation many hundreds of
thousands of acres will yet be reclaimed for
the uses of man. ~s-..
Australia and Africa have this striking
difference Africa is like an inverted
saucer, the interior being higher than the
rim of the continent. Australia is the
saucer in its usual position, the inner
plateaus being lower than the more or less
mountainous outer portions
Place for Sea but No Sea.
When the early travellers saw the country
beyond the highlands of the southeast coast
descending to lower levels they imagined
there must be soue great Caspian sea
within which received all running waters
In place of this central, imaginary sea, how
ever, there exists only comparatively small
basins without exterior drainage; and it is
the utter lack of rivers available as high
ways to the far interior that has made the
exploration of inner Australia so exceed
ingly difficult.
The history of Australian discovery is
more crowded, in proportion, with tragical
incidents than that Of any other continent
Many explorers have succumbed, some
killed by the natives and others overcome
by fatigue, thirst and hunger. Friends have
separated, appointing a rendezvous at some
lake or enlinence that the treacherous
mirage pictured in the distance, and have
never met again. Many a record of travel
tells story of intense suffering amid far
spread sand dunes, of foundering through
saline marshes or thornv spinifex, the ter
ror of all Australian explorers. with heat
intolerable by day and freezing temperature
at night.
A Sad Record OF Exploration.
The botanist, Cunningham, was murdered
BY the natives of the Began river in 1885.
The savant Leichardt, after his first great
journey, which is shown on our map, at
tempted in 1S47 to cross the continent from
east to west, and disappeared with his
entire party from human ken, leaving no
trace that has ever been discovered. Burke
and Wills perished of their privations in
1860 not far from Lake Eyre, and the only
survivor of their party was King, who was
rescued by relief expedition.
These are only the most conspicuous of
the tragedies of Australian exploration.
Geographers began to think it was ini-
possible to cross Australia through its
center Finally South Australia offered a
reward of $50, 900 to the first man who
should traverse the continent from south
to north. Stuart made two attempts and
failed.
The Great Overland Telegraph Line.
He tried again in 1862 and won the rich
prize. following the route that is now occu-
pied by the overland telegraph; and 1t has
been said that he stood upon the verge of
the Indian Ocean gazing upon it with as
much delight as Balboa when he had
crossed the isthmus of Darien from the At
lantic to the Pacific Stations are now es-
tablished along the telegraph route, and in
recent years they have been the base of
operations of all expeditions that have
pioneered the way into various parts Of
Western Australia ...-
In view of the disastrous collapse of the
Lindsay expedition it may be some time be-
fore the land exploration of Australia is
completed; but the present failure is not at
all likely to be regarded as final The ex-
plorers' routes. shown on the map, prove
conclusively that with the aid of camels,
there is no longer any doubt as to the prac-
ticability of traversing the interior.
CYRUS G. ADAMS