Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

356 AUSTRALASIA.Our knowledge of the Interior was doubtless greatly enlarged by the search forgrassy lauds, and after the discovery of gold in 1851, by the sudden rush ofminers to the still unknown alluvial plains and rocky vallej's of the eastern regions.But far more was accomplished by the disinterested expeditions of travellers whonever hesitated to risk their lives in the cause of science and geographical discovery.And, in truth, the work of Australian exploration has cost the lives ofmany daring pioneers and distinguished naturalists, such as the botanist Cunningham,the learned Leichhardt, Gray, Burke, Wills, who, with numerous comrades,fell victims, either to the spears of the natives or to the hardships, himger, andthirst of toilsome journeys across inhospitable lands and the trackless wilderness.4.nd of those more fortunate pioneers, who brought their expeditions to asuccessful issue, how many proved themselves true heroes, displaying all theenergy, resolution, and endurance of which man is capable !For days and weekstogether they had to study the soil and scan the horizon in search of some streamlet,mere, or " water-hole." Fellow-travellers had to disperse in the midst of thedesert in quest of a little moisture to quench their burning thirst, indicating astheir rallying-point some distant rock, from which they might easily be beguiledby a treacherous mirage.plains, through salt marshes, and thorny scrub ;Then the weary ploddings across sandhills, over shinglythe deviations in search of strayhorses ; the intolerable heats beneath brazen skies, followed by the .dangerouschills of night !Altogether the history of Australian exploration forms a chapterin the records of heroism, which gives the most exalted idea of the greatness ofman.In the series of essays which followed year after year, the decisive journey wasthat made in 1862, after two failures, by MacDouall Stuart, whose itineraries tothe right and the left resemble the movements of the antennoe of puzzled ants.He first succeeded in crossing the Australian continent at its broadest part, fromSaint Vincent Gulf to the north coast, opiDosite Melville Island. Australia wasthus severed, as it were, in two by a transverse route, along which stations sprangup at intervals, as so many places of refuge, or starting-points for future explorers.From these headquarters, which reduced by one-half the distance to be traversed,it became possible to penetrate far into the surrounding wilderness, and in 1873Warburton at last reached the west coast. The network of itineraries was nowrapidly extended in all directions, east and west, as well as north and south, andthe preliminary rough survey of the continent may be regarded as already accomplished.The inland regions are known in their main featui-es, while the detailsare being gradually filled up by the partial expilorations undertaken in connectionwith the telegraph ser^'ice, or in quest of springs and grazing grounds. Neverthelessthere still remain vast spaces, especially in the west, where no Europeanhas j'ot succeeded in penetrating, and the blank spaces, even on the latest maps,between the routes of Giles, Forrest, and Warburton represent altogether an areaof some 300,000 square miles, or considerably more than double the whole extentof the British Isles.