rd six of his
heaviest cannon. In late years efforts have been made to secure these
cannon as souvenirs, but the search for them has proved unavailing. One
may easily imagine that they have been long since entombed in thick
growths of coral.

On his return home, Cook gave such a glowing account of the great island
that the English Government forthwith sent out a body of soldiers to
take possession of the country and to make settlements. Because it is
well watered, the southeastern part was selected as best adapted for
colonization. For a long time this part of Australia was utilized
chiefly as a penal colony, but the fruitful land and salubrious climate
quickly attracted free emigrants from England. Then gold was discovered,
and thousands of people rushed to the new Eldorado, not only from Great
Britain but from all parts of the world. Almost in a twinkling it
changed from "our remotest colony" to a great country producing annually
millions of wealth.

So far as its surface features are concerned, one may regard Australia
as a continent not quite so large as the United States. The eastern part
is diversified by low ranges of mountains fantastically scored and
carved by rivers which are swift and impassable torrents during the
season of rains, and trickling streams, or dry washes, the rest of the
year. This is the region that has produced a wealth of gold and wool and
a stock of hardy people that for intelligence and strength of character
can scarcely be matched elsewhere.

The central part of the continent is a dish-shaped table-land. Its
surface is sandy here, stony there, but intensely hot and desolate
everywhere--desolate of everything that adds to the comfort of man, but
full of about everything that contributes to his misery. The "bush"
which covers so much of this region is chiefly acacia, and the acacia is
chiefly thorns. The rivers that flow into the interior from the coast
highlands seem at first sight to be formidable streams so far as
appearance goes. One, the Murray, is more than a thousand miles in
length. But even the Murray will match the description which an English
traveller gave to Platte River--"A mile wide, an inch deep, and bottom
on top!"

The few lakes of the interior are great "sinks," or marshes, much like
Humboldt Sink, in Nevada. They are shallow, reed-grown, and briny, and
they are bordered by mud flats and quicksands between which there is
little to choose. An unfortunate victim will si