kland Islands.

The fact that all the troops of Australia must be transported to
London--a distance via the Suez route of approximately 11,000 miles, and
through the Panama Canal of 12,734 miles--did not keep back these brave
men from quickly enlisting. The great distance made fighting extremely
expensive, but the task was loyally assumed by the military of the far
continent. Universal military service was inaugurated for the first time
by an English-speaking community, and war loans were offered and quickly
accepted. Transports were immediately constructed out of seventy
steamers which were requisitioned.

At the declaration of war in November, 1914, the entire Australian army,
which consisted of 20,000 men, left Australia for Egypt, and at the end
of the first year of the conflict there were 76,000 men in the field. By
July, 1916, nearly 300,000 volunteers had been recruited and had crossed
the seas. The creation, equipment, and supplying of this army by the
people of Australia, a task involving enormous cost and personal
sacrifice, constitutes a thrilling chapter in the history of loyalty.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ALIKE.

To those who think that Australia is a little island situated in the
Pacific ocean it might be interesting to know that this continent, in
size and shape, is almost the exact duplicate of the United States.
There are also outlying provinces, that of Papua, a tropical land,
offsetting Alaska. Then there is the rich little Lord Howe Island, and
Norfolk Island. The surface of Australia is the most level in surface
and regular in outline of all the continents, and is the lowest
continent, with an average elevation of Ohio.

There are 2,974,581 square miles in Australia, while the land area of
the United States is 2,973,890 square miles, a difference of 691 square
miles. This, of course, is only the continental United States. Only
about one-twentieth of the total area of Australia lies in a latitude
farther removed from the Equator than Chattanooga, Tennessee; Clarendon,
Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there is less than one-third of
the area of this unique continent which lies in a cooler latitude than
the sugar-cane lands of Louisiana.

The streams of Australia are fewer and carry less water than those of
any other continent. The heart of this great island is dry and barren
and thinly populated. Most of the inhabitants are found within easy
reach of the coastline. The population of this great la