“And how?” asked Mangles.
“By crossing Australia as we crossed America, keeping along the 37th parallel.”
“But the DUNCAN?” repeated Ayrton, as if particularly anxious on that score.
“The DUNCAN can rejoin us, or we can rejoin her, as the case may be. Should we discover Captain Grant in the course of our journey, we can all return together to Melbourne. If we have to go on to the coast, on the contrary, then the DUNCAN can come to us there. Who has any objection to make? Have you, Major?”
“No, not if there is a practicable route across Australia.”
“So practicable, that I propose Lady Helena and Miss Grant should accompany us.”
“Are you speaking seriously?” asked Glenarvan.
“Perfectly so, my Lord. It is a journey of 350 miles, not more. If we go twelve miles a day it will barely take us a month, just long enough to put the vessel in trim. If we had to cross the continent in a lower latitude, at its wildest part, and traverse immense deserts, where there is no water and where the heat is tropical, and go where the most adventurous travelers have never yet ventured, that would be a different matter. But the 37th parallel cuts only through the province of Victoria, quite an English country, with roads and railways, and well populated almost everywhere. It is a journey you might make, almost, in a chaise, though a wagon would be better. It is a mere trip from London to Edinburgh, nothing more.”
“What about wild beasts, though?” asked Glenarvan, anxious to go into all the difficulties of the proposal.
“There are no wild beasts in Australia.”