"What a real desert!" said Brown, gazing round on the dreary scene.
"Yes, it's about as hopeless a looking picture as one could find anywhere, at present. And yet, if the artesian water is found to extend throughout the interior, it will change the whole face of the Australian earth in time. This spinifex would not grow here, but that the climate is so arid that nothing else will grow, and this beastly stuff can thrive without any rain at all. No, burn this scrub off, or clear it somehow, and, with a good supply of artesian water, there are a hundred and one payable products one could grow here."
"You're an optimist, and an enthusiast at that."
"I am as regards the future of Australia. I believe the end of the coming century will see it settled from east to west throughout."
"If one could fill up all the dry creeks and lagoons we have passed with your artesian water, we might modify the severity of the climate."
"Yes. Now, let's have a ride round this inland sea in miniature."
"It smells like the sea, at anyrate; I bet that water in there is concentrated brine. How about all this saline country?"
"It has been proved successfully that the date-palm will thrive on the shores of these salt lakes, so they need not be quite barren."
Nothing of any interest was to be seen, and they retraced their steps to the granite rock, where they watered their horses. As there were still a couple of hours of daylight, they started back for their camp.
"Fancy if we had left the camp like this, forgetting all about those six Warlattas hanging about. What a massacre they would have had!" said Brown, as they rode on.