is immense lake
is supposed to resemble in shape a horse-shoe, and to extend for full
400 miles, whilst its apparent breadth is from 20 to 30. The greater
part of the vast area contained in its bed is certainly dry on the
surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and
yielding a character as to render perfectly unavailing all attempts
either to cross it, or to reach the edge of the water, which appears to
exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. Once only was
Mr. Eyre, the enterprising discoverer of this singular lake, able to
taste of its waters, and then he found them as salt as the sea. The low,
miserable, desert country in the neighbourhood, and Lake Torrens itself,
act as a kind of barrier against the progress of inland discovery at
the back of the colony of South Australia, since it is impossible to
penetrate very far into the interior, without making a great circle
either to the east or to the west. The portion of the bed of the lake
which is exposed is thickly coated with particles of salt; there are few
trees or shrubs of any kind to be found near, nor are grass and fresh
water by any means abundant. Altogether, the neighbourhood of Lake
Torrens would seem a very miserable region, and forms a strong contrast
to the smiling and cultivated district of which it forms the back
country.[28]

[28] These particulars are taken from the South-Australian Almanac
for 1841, pp. 68-73.

Although Australia, in its natural and uncultivated state, abounds in
trees, like most other wild countries, nevertheless, there are vast and
extensive tracts where the plains are entirely bare, or covered only
with a low, thick, and often prickly, bush, or else are what is termed
"open forest," that is, are dotted about with fine trees, dispersed in
various groups, and resembling the scenery of an English park. The
greatest peculiarity of the native forests appears to be, that the
whole of their trees and shrubs are evergreen,[29] although European
trees will flourish in the land of the south without acquiring this
peculiarity, or losing their deciduous character. But it is rather a
subject of complaint against the woods of New Holland, that they have
very little picturesque effect in them, which may be partly owing to
the poverty of the foliage of the prevailing tree, the _eucalyptus_,
(commonly called the _iron-bark_, or _blue gum_, according to its
species,) which seldom has anything ornamental t