lish conditions.
There were no natural grain-crops; there were practically no
food-animals good to eat. The kangaroo and wallaby provide nowadays a
delicious soup (made from the tails of the animals), but the flesh of
their bodies is tough and dark and rank. Even so it was in very limited
supply. The early settlers ate kangaroo flesh gladly, but they were not
able to get enough of it to keep them in meat.

Communication with England, whence all food had to come, was in those
days of sailing-ships slow and uncertain. At different times the first
settlement was in actual danger of perishing from starvation and of
being abandoned in despair at ever making anything useful of a land
which seemed unable to produce even food for white inhabitants.

Fortunately, those thoughts of despair were not allowed to rule. The
dogged British spirit saved the position. The conquest of Nature in
Australia was perseveringly carried through, and Great Britain has the
reward to-day in the existence of an all-British continent having nearly
5,000,000 of population, who are the richest producers in the world from
the soil.

[Illustration: THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. PAGES 8 & 29.]

After the early settlers had learned with much painful effort that the
coast around Sydney would produce some little grain and fruit and
grass for cattle, there was still another halt in the progress of the
continent. West of Sydney, about forty miles from the coast, stretched
the Blue Mountains, and these it was found impossible to cross. No
passes existed. Though not very lofty, the mountains were savagely
wild. The explorer, following a ridge or a line of valley with
patience for many miles, would come suddenly on a vast chasm; a
cliff-face falling absolutely perpendicularly 1,000 feet or so would
declare "No road here." Nowadays, when the Blue Mountains have been
conquered, and they are traversed by roads and railways, tourists
from all parts of the world find great joy in looking upon these
wonderful gorges; but in the days of the explorers they were the cause
of many disappointments--indeed, of many tragedies. Men escaping from
the prisons (Australia was first used as a reformatory by Great
Britain) would attempt to cross the Blue Mountains on their way, as
they thought, to China and freedom, always to perish miserably in the
wild gorges.

Finally, the Blue Mountains were conquered by the explorers Blaxland,
Lawson, and Wentworth. Two roads were cu