does. Mark my
words, sir, Dr. Leichhardt hasn't got it in him, and never will have."

Two invaluable qualities in an explorer, apart from his scientific
attainments, Leichhardt possessed. These were courage and determination;
necessary no doubt, but not sufficient in themselves to carry through an
expedition to success. He lacked tact, and was deficient in practical
knowledge of the bush, and especially in what is known as bushmanship.
One fixed idea of his was, that in dry country if one can only keep on
far enough one is bound to come to water: a theory plausible enough if it
could be carried out to its logical conclusion; but the application of
which often involves a physical impossibility. And it must be taken into
consideration that Leichhardt had never travelled in the dry country of
the interior, but that what small experience he possessed had been gained
on the fairly well-watered coast. He asserts in his journal that cattle
and horses trust entirely to the sense of vision for finding water, and
not to the sense of smell. The exact reverse is of course the case.

The character of the lost explorer will thus be seen to have militated
strongly against his success when he came to be pitted against the -- to
him -- unknown dangers of a dry season in the far interior. But his fatal
self-confidence led him to challenge the desert, thinking that he must
succeed where better men had been denied even the hope of success. When
his last expedition comes to be reviewed, a more detailed discussion of
the probabilities of a successful issue to it will be made. Poor
Leichhardt, with all his moods and caprices, it would have been strange
if he had not shown some appreciation of humour. Let us quote his
description of his sudden and unexpected arrival in Sydney, after the
Port Essington expedition.

"We did come to Sydney, it was quite dark; we did go ashore, and then I
thought to see my dear friend Lynd. So I went up George Street to the
barracks. And then I went to his quarters to his window. He was dressing
himself; I did put in my head; he did jump out of the other window and I
stood there wondering. Soon many people did come round, and did look, Oh
so timid. I did not know all. And there was such a greeting. I was dead,
and was alive again. I was lost, and was found."

But in thus reviewing Leichhardt's aptitude -- or rather inaptitude --
for the work, and commenting upon his shortcomings, we must do him the
fullest just