regularly refreshed by rain, it will be an invaluable addition to the
Colony.

The fate of the tribes I have been endeavouring to describe, is a
melancholy one: they are fast disappearing from the face of the earth;
and one or two more generations will, in all human probability, see the
last of them.

CHAPTER XI.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

THE HOT WINDS--PROJECTED MAIL-ROAD FROM SYDNEY
TO PORT ESSINGTON--SHEEP-FARMS--GRAZING IN
AUSTRALIA--HORSE-STOCK.

I have often heard the question raised in Australia, Whence proceed the
hot winds? Hitherto, this inquiry has not, to my knowledge, been
satisfactorily answered. These winds invariably blow from the
north-west; but the question is, Whence do they derive the heat they are
charged with? In the months during which they prevail, the north-west
monsoon is blowing in the Java sea, and thence all the way to Torres'
Straits; and northerly winds are prevalent on the eastern coast of
Australia. The weather in those seas, at that season, is wet and cold
for the latitude; consequently, the north-west wind, when it first
reaches the northern coast of Australia, is the reverse of a hot one:
whence, then, the heat it brings with it to the thirty-fourth degree of
south latitude? From Torres' Straits to this latitude, the distance is,
in southing alone, fifteen hundred miles, twelve hundred of which are
entirely unexplored. I have heard it suggested, that, in this space,
may, and probably does exist, a great inland desert, the crossing of
which heats and dries the wind. Whether such a desert does or does not
exist, is a problem that may not be solved for many years to come;
unless, indeed, the expedition now in contemplation, for the survey of
the country in search of a practicable overland route from Sydney to
Port Essington, should lead to its earlier solution. To this expedition,
should it ever start, I wish every possible success, though I have my
misgivings as to its favourable result, and question the soundness of
the judgment that advises the undertaking at this time. Supposing the
route should prove practicable simply as a mail line, is the Colony at
present in circumstances to bear the expense of keeping it up? The
object is, to have the overland Indian mail carried from Singapore by
steam to Port Essington, thence to Sydney overland; the distance being,
in round numbers, two thousand miles, three-fourths of the way through
an uninhabited and unknown country. To keep