. Natives of Australia. higher than it is at present. The river system of Australia is in many ways pecu-liar. There are three important watersheds : one is atthe south end of the Gulf, another east and south-eastof the central tableland, and the third is the Riverina,drained by the Murray-Darling. But the term drainedby is almost a misnomer. In Europe from 20 to 50per cent, of the rainfall flows away in rivers ; whereasin the Darling at Bourke less than 10 per cent, of therainfall of its catchment area is collected ; not only so,but from Bourke to the sea, a distance of 550 miles ina direct l
. Natives of Australia. higher than it is at present. The river system of Australia is in many ways pecu-liar. There are three important watersheds : one is atthe south end of the Gulf, another east and south-eastof the central tableland, and the third is the Riverina,drained by the Murray-Darling. But the term drainedby is almost a misnomer. In Europe from 20 to 50per cent, of the rainfall flows away in rivers ; whereasin the Darling at Bourke less than 10 per cent, of therainfall of its catchment area is collected ; not only so,but from Bourke to the sea, a distance of 550 miles ina direct line, the river gives up water rather than re-ceives it. After heavy rain, however, the great plainsare flooded, so much so that Oxley, in 1817, believedhimself to be on the shores of a great inland sea. Theflood water, however, sinks into the ground in a fewhours in many cases, and, unlike other continents, thesoil of Australia does not give back in the form ofsprings the moisture thus absorbed. If the rivers of Plate 2. INTRODUCTORY 5 the south-east are uncertain in their flow, this is still more the case with the streams which at times flow into Lake Eyre. Many of them disappear in the sand, though their beds bulk largely on the map. The result of this is, that one explorer describes the country as a barren desert; while another, visiting it at flood-time, sees nothing but marsh land ; and a third, coming soon after him, finds a fertile plain. Floods are not, however, confined to the Riverina and centre; the rainfall of Australia is greatest on the east coast, reaching 50 inches at Sydney, as against 14 inches at Wentworth, nearly 500 miles inland. But the east coast in the early part of the last century was visited by droughts, varied by extraordinary floods, the Hawkesbury rising 93 feet above its usual level at some points. In 1867 the town of Richmond was nearly submerged by a rise of 60 feet. The effect of these extraordinary changes on fauna and flora, and indirectly on
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