chinery worked by steam or electricity. The cutting is done by little knives moving back and forth like the knives of a mowing machine. The knives are in a frame which is pressed against the wool, cutting it more easily and smoothly than by hand. The power is communicated by a tube like that which the dentist uses for drilling out teeth.

While the shearing is going on, men take the wool and sort it. They pack it in bales and load it on wagons, which are hauled by long teams of horses or oxen to the cars. In Western and South Australia camels are often used to carry the wool, two bales of wool forming a load for one camel.

We are delighted with our life at the station. We thought it would be tame so far off in the country, but

with riding and driving and games, every moment is filled. The squatter's boys think nothing of going off ten miles to play cricket, and his girls often ride twice as far to a party or to spend the night with a neighbor. They have their teachers at home, and their life seems very easy.

We must remember, however, that this is one of the richest of the sheep farmers and that his lands are among the best in Australia. The smaller farmers often have as hard times as our small farmers at home. All suffer when the weather is dry, some parts of the continent being subject to frequent droughts, during which the sheep die by thousands for lack of water and food. The droughts clear the land of everything green. The pastures become as bare as a road, and the sheep stagger about, nosing in the dust for the seeds of grasses and trees.

Their owners often have to sit and watch them die, knowing they can get nothing to feed them. The poor squatters sometimes go crazy because the rain fails to come.

In some districts the evils of the droughts are avoided by artesian wells which are being made by the government in many parts of the continent, where, although the surface of the land is almost a desert, vast reservoirs of water are found far below. Some wells are several thousand feet deep, a single one often flowing a million and some more than a million gallons of water a day. The water is often hot when it comes forth, but it soon cools. It is a little salty, but the sheep drink it and thrive on it.

Another great enemy of the sheep is the rabbit, which is found in vast numbers in many parts of Australia. These little animals eat the grass required for the sheep. Men are kept to do nothing else but hunt and trap rabbits, a single man sometimes killing four hundred in a day. Many sheep farms have fences of wire netting about them to keep out these pests, and some of the provinces have built hundreds of miles of rabbit-proof fences along their borders.

4. SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND THE GREAT CENTRAL DESERT — ADELAIDE

E have returned to Sydney and are now on our way to Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The

WE have retire, the capital

trip is a long one, but we have dining and sleeping cars and can spend day and night on the train. The weather is warm, and the dust makes us thirsty. We ask for a

drink, and are told to go to the water bag on the platform of the rear car. Most of the Australian cars carry no ice, but instead have canvas bags about two feet square filled with water, so hung on the platform outside that the wind strikes their wet surface, keeping them cool. There is a spigot at the bottom of each bag to which a tin cup is fastened. Such water bags are used throughout Australia, forming the cooler of many a home. When a man takes a long trip over the desert, he ties a water bag under his wagon or carriage, and if the wind is blowing, no matter how warm the weather, he is sure of a cool drink on the way. The canvas is so closely woven that the water does not run through.

We start from Sydney at night, and in the morning cross the Murray River, which forms the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria. The Murray is seventeen hundred miles long. It is the largest river of Australia, and with its tributaries drains the western sides of the mountains along the east coast. It is a sluggish stream, navigable for small steamers only as far north as Albury, the place where we cross. The waters are dark, but they are fringed with trees; and as the river winds about in its course, the Australians think it quite picturesque.

Adelaide is not far from the mouth of the Murray, but we do not see the stream again until we have crossed the whole of Victoria and traveled about a hundred miles through South Australia. The trip is delightful. The country is hilly, but there are fine farms on which are great herds of cattle and thousands of sheep.

Victoria is the smallest of all the Australian states. It is only a little larger than Kansas, but in proportion to its

size it is far richer than any other state of the commonwealth. Nearly all of it can be used for farming or grazing, and about one half of it has gold, silver, or other minerals. It is better settled than other parts of Australia, and we pass through many fine towns on our way to Adelaide.

Adelaide is the capital of South Australia. By this you must not think that it is the capital of all southern Australia, for Victoria, New South Wales, and the lower part of Western Australia are as much a part of southern Australia as this province. South Australia includes the whole central portion of the continent, a great slice of land running north and south from one end of it to the other, comprising almost one third of Australia. It is one fourth as large as the whole United States, including Alaska.

The greater part of this vast territory is a desert, as are the lands of the adjoining provinces for hundreds of miles on each side of it except away down here in the south. It contains the great central basin in which there is no water except in the salt marshes, salt streams, and salt lakes.

Our Great Lake Region is one of rich farms, fine forests, and valuable mines. It is surrounded by cities and villages, and peopled by millions of happy men, women, and children. The great lake region of Australia is far different. It has no inhabitants and no vegetation of value. It belongs to the Australian Desert, one of the bleakest, dreariest, and most horrible parts of the globe. The great lakes here, such as Lake Torrens, Lake Gairdner, and Lake Eyre, are all salt. They are surrounded by flats of treacherous mud which have a salt crust over