"Instruments, and cases made of the best seasoned wood--wood that has
been dried for years and years--crack and split and go to pieces in the
dry atmosphere of the interior of Australia. Leather becomes brittle,
and cracks and breaks when the slightest pressure is put upon it. One
exploring expedition was obliged to turn back in consequence of the
drying up and cracking of the wood contained in its instruments and
their cases. The evaporation from one's skin is very rapid under such
circumstances, and produces an agonizing thirst, which is no doubt
intensified by the knowledge of the scarcity of water and the necessity
of using the supply on hand with great care."

"I have heard," said Ned, "that Australia is a land of contradictions as
compared with England and the United States. I read in a book somewhere
that nearly everything in nature was the reverse of what it was in the
countries I mentioned."

"That is true," said the gentleman with whom they were conversing, "and
I will tell you several things to demonstrate the correctness of what
you say. In the first place Australia is on the other side of the world
from England and the United States, and that circumstance ought to
prepare you for the other peculiarities. Most countries are fertile in
their interior; but, as I have told you, the interior of Australia is a
land of desolation, where neither man nor beast can live. I have been
told that birds never fly in the interior of Australia; and certainly if
I were a bird, I would not fly there nor anywhere near it.

"We have very few rivers, and none of them come from far in the
interior. Most of them are low in summer or altogether dried up. There
is only one river, the Murray, that can be relied upon to have any
reasonable depth of water in it throughout the entire year. The other
rivers dwindle almost to nothing, and, as I have said, entirely
disappear. The greater part of the country is absolutely without trees,
and the dense forests which you have in America are practically unknown.
We have summer when you have winter, and we have night when you have
day. When you are in your own country, and I am here, our feet are
nearer together than our heads; that is to say, our feet are pressing
the ground on opposite sides of the earth, and so we may be said to be
standing upon each other."

"That is so," remarked Harry; "I was thinking of that this morning. I
noticed also that the ship's compass pointed to the south, an