in number, but at the close of the
century there were scarcely one-fourth as many. Those who remain are for
the greater part herdsmen and farm laborers.

[Illustration: Homestead and station in Young district, Australia]

One may not be very far from right in saying that the climate of the
habitable part of the continent is the foremost asset of Australia.
Certain it is that for healthfulness and the stimulation that creates
activity, the climate of Australia is unsurpassed elsewhere in the
world. And because of its life-growing and invigorating character it has
placed the Australian high in the rank of the world's foremost people.

Climate and soil, too, have made Australia one of the foremost
wool-producing countries of the world. Not far from one hundred million
dollars' worth of wool and mutton are exported yearly, and much of the
wool clip is a fine grade of merino. Gold is another product of
Australia. At the close of the century the mines had produced a total of
more than one billion dollars' worth of the metal. In round figures, the
great Thirst Land, with a population of about four millions, scattered
along the edge of a great desert continent, produces enough wealth to
sell yearly about three hundred millions of dollars' worth of its
products!

The foregoing picture of Australia presents, perhaps, the unpleasant
side of Australian life. But this great Thirst Land, so far from being
an inhospitable desert, is one of the world's greatest storehouses of
wealth.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Within the tropical parts of the great South Sea are submarine gardens
that in the beauty of their floral forms and their richness of coloring
rival the most elaborate flowerbeds made by man; in color and variety
they are fairy regions of exquisite living animal flowers. One of the
greatest and most attractive of these sea gardens lies off the coast of
Australia.

Of all the wonderful animal structures in the world the Great Barrier
Reef of Australia is the most remarkable. It consists of a chain of
coral islands and reefs parallel to the east coast of Queensland. This
great reef is about twelve hundred miles long, and the distance from the
mainland to its outer border is from ten to more than one hundred miles.
It is far enough off the coast to leave a wide channel between the reef
and the shore.

Since it is well charted this channel is the route taken by many
vessels. It is admirably furnished