ling is not popular;
each citizen is expected to contribute in some form to the general
condition of thrift and progress, as well as to do his share toward
developing the natural resources of the State. This is imperative in a
youthful colony, and not out of place in any community.

It is believed that the interior of the continent, which is largely
embraced within the territory of South Australia, was at a comparatively
recent period covered by a great inland ocean. Here are found the
mammoth bones of animals of the marsupial species, now extinct, which
have afforded much interest to scientists. On some portions of these
plains it is said that the heat absorbed from the sun in the daytime is
radiated from the soil at night to such a degree as to be insufferable
to human beings. The soil is represented to be at such times like
burning coal; and when the air moves over it, an effect is produced as
from a furnace, or from a sirocco blowing off the coast of Africa. The
effect of these winds is occasionally felt in Sydney and Melbourne; and
while it lasts, humanity becomes inert, and exertion impossible. It
rarely continues, however, more than three days, and in the vicinity of
Adelaide is seldom experienced more than twice in a season.

Several lakes are represented to exist in the interior, as shown by maps
of Australia,--among them Lake Torrens, Lake Eyre, Lake Gardiner, and
Lake Amadeus, apparently covering large areas; but these localities are
little more than muddy swamps or salt marshes, which are completely
dried up in summer. Their level is believed to be considerably below
that of the sea; and it has been proposed to cut a canal from Torrens to
Spencer Gulf: if that proved advantageous, then Lake Eyre could be
connected with comparatively little labor. Spencer Gulf is the deepest
indentation upon the south coast, and would flood these swamps with
permanent water, rendering them not only navigable, but producing a
favorable change in the climate. At present, during the summer season
the thermometer rises in the lake region to 110 deg. and even to 115 deg.
Fahrenheit.

This district is regarded as a desert waste because of its want of a
permanent supply of water, being "eaten up," to use a local phrase, with
drought. And yet this want of water at certain seasons while there is
an abundance at others is a matter so obviously within the ability of
the people to remedy, that one cannot sympathize much with them in th