Part 8 (2/2)
”Yes, that is quite true,” Dr Whitney replied; ”and they would have illustrated the saying of a philosopher, that great rivers nearly always run past large cities, but there was a practical difficulty in the way, of which you are not aware”
”What is it?”
”The Murray at its erous to cross, and a large area at its entrance consists of shalloater
The mouth of the river, furtherreat waves that have their origin in the neighborhood of the South Pole Consequently it was concluded that the location of the city at the place with the largest entrance into the sea would not be advantageous, and a location on Spencer's Gulf was considered preferable”
”Very good reasons,” said Ned, ”and I have no doubt that the founders of Adelaide acted wisely They certainly have a very prosperous city where they are, although their seaport is several miles away”
The train increased its speed as it descended the incline, and the youths found plenty of occupation and a the scenery on each side of the the handsome residences of the merchants and other well-to-do inhabitants of Adelaide The river was crossed by e, a substantial structure which was evidently built to last After crossing the Murray, the railway proceeded for awhile along its valley, and gradually left it to enter a region of long-continued monotony
”For hours in succession,” said Harry in his journal, ”we had little else but scrub I iine that when the surveyors laid out the railway line, they took their bearings by observation of the moon and stars, and laid it directly across from one side of the scrub country to the other
Scrub land is land covered with bushes There are notthe monotony There is one bush that looks like an umbrella turned botto upright, as one holds it to keep off the rain Then there are bushes and trees, soar loaves, and so else that I can think of at this ht up to fifteen and twenty feet, and soht of thirty feet or more
”Mile afterit is to be lost in the scrub I can well understand that it is terrible, and can also understand how easily such a calaht about One mile of scrub is exactly like another mile, or so very nearly like it that it is next to impossible to tell the difference I have heard that people who stepped only a few yards fro their way again, or have been sought for by many people before they were found Many a ain, or perhaps years after his bones were discovered bleaching at the foot of a tree, where he had sat or lain down for his last rest when he could go no further”
A portion of the road from Adelaide to Sydney is called ”the ninety-ion
It was a great relief to any one to get out of this desert country, and reach the region of farms, and fences, cattle or sheep pastures, and cultivated fields In soh which our travelers passed they saw great nuentle about the rabbit pest fro
”If you want to entle the rabbits in Australia There is a standing reward of twenty-five thousand pounds (one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of your money) for any method that proves successful The reward is offered by the colony of New South Wales, and the other colonies will pay as much more”
”Were there rabbits in this country when it was first discovered?” Harry asked
”There were no rabbits here,” was the reply; ”nor any ani near Dunedin, New Zealand, was on a visit to the old country, and it occurred to hi to have rabbits in New Zealand, so that they could as On his return froenitors of all the rabbits in New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania For a few years, as fast as rabbits were obtainable they were distributed throughout the colonies, but it was not long before the distributors found out their mistake
”The rabbits increased and multiplied at a terrific rate How many there are now in the colonies, nobody can tell, as it is impossible to take a census of them, but they certainly amount to many millions They have destroyed e, so that reat numbers of sheep have been deserted in consequence of the rabbits Let ive you an illustration that I know about, as I was one of the sufferers by these vero, I owned an interest in a sheep run on the bank of the Murray River in the colony of Victoria Our holding extended back into the dry and coot in there, and gradually the sheep were starved out
Year by year the nuo I sold my interest in the run for a very small sum From two hundred thousand sheep, the number had di in the paddock for want of food The rabbits were the cause of the whole destruction They had eaten up all the grass and edible bushes, and it was so starved out, and were dying by the hundreds daily When the rabbits there are all dead the place can be fenced in, so that no new ones can get there, and it is possible that the grass will grow again, and the run once more become a place of value
”The story I have just told you,” the gentlereat many sheep and cattle runs all over Australia and New Zealand All sorts of et rid of the pest, and while some have been partially successful, none have been wholly so The best plan is the old one, to lock the stable before the horse is stolen; that is, enclose the place with rabbit-proof fences before any rabbits have been introduced The Australian rabbit is a burrowing aniround, he is very apt to dig under it Thus it has happened that h the owners had gone to the expense of enclosing it
”Most of the cities of Australia and New Zealand have a rabbit-skin exchange, just as you have a cotton exchange in New York At these exchanges ten or fifteen ate perhaps of fifty or sixty millions, and yet the number does not decrease perceptibly Factories have been established for preserving theit to ht that this would certainly reduce the nu so
”Various kinds of apparatus have been devised for filling the dens of the rabbits with noxious gases that kill theeneral introduction; and, besides, it does not ell in rocky ground Rewards are given both by the government and by the owners of land for the destruction of rabbits, and these rewards have stis to hunt down the rabbits for the sake of the bounty Sorand rabbit hunt and thousands of rabbits are killed
Pasteur, the celebrated French che chicken cholera a a feith the disease he could spread it a the others, so that they would all be killed off He admitted that the chicken population would be killed at the saet rid of the rabbits, as we could easily reintroduce domestic fowls”
Ned said that he wondered why the rabbits increased so rapidly in the Australian colonies and not in the United States or England
”Here is the reason of it,” said the gentleman ”In America there are plenty of wild animals, like wolves, weasels, foxes, ferrets, and the like, to keep down the rabbit population, but here there is not a single animal to interfere with them They have no natural enes entirely their oay They breed several ti, so that a pair of rabbits let loose in a given locality will in a few years amount to thousands or even to round and see what you think of it”
The boys looked where the gentlerass or grain waving in the wind A nearer inspection showed that the ground was covered with rabbits, and it was the movements of the animals that caused the illusion just described
”Rabbits are not the only pests froentleman continued; ”I will tell you about more of them