While Frank was busy with the study of the birds of Australia, Fred contemplated with great care the map of the country. He observed that all the mountain ranges were near the coast, so that the course of the larger rivers was towards the interior. "There is not," said he in his note-book, "a single large river flowing into the ocean from all this great continent, with the exception of the Murray. Every other stream is short and insignificant; and even the Murray and its tributaries do not form a first-class river.
"Here we are," said Fred, "on the head streams of the Darling, one of the rivers that unite with the Murray to pour into the sea through Lake Alexandria, between Melbourne and Adelaide. On looking at the map I thought we should be able to descend in a boat to the ocean, but Mr. Watson tells us we can do nothing of the sort. Some of the rivers on the maps are at this season simply dry beds, though at times they have water enough to float a first-class boat from the Mississippi.
"Steamboats have ascended the Darling to Walgett, 2345 miles from the sea, but they can only do so at certain, or rather uncertain, times, and therefore no dependence can be placed on the navigation of the Murray and its tributaries. The Darling depends on flood-waters; sometimes they will fill the stream to its junction with the Murray, and thence to the sea, and again they fail before going half way. The river can never be navigated throughout the year, and in some years boats are not able to run at all.
"So my scheme of going down by water to the ocean is not practicable, and we return to the coast the way we came."
OUT PROSPECTING.
And return they did, taking the railway to Brisbane, and thence going by coach and rail to Gympie, the centre of the Queensland gold-mining region, or rather one of its centres, as the colony possesses several auriferous fields. There is a standing offer of a reward of £1000, or $5000, to any one who discovers paying gold-deposits in a new locality upon which there shall be upwards of two hundred men at work six months after the fields are opened. Consequently a great many prospectors are constantly at work, through the double hope of the reward and of making a fortune out of the discovery.
The gold-fields of Gympie were discovered in 1868 by Mr. James Nash, and the settlement which rose there was at first called Nashville. The existence of the precious metal in the colony was known for at least a decade before that date, but none of the mines had proved remunerative. At present there are upwards of twenty gold-fields in Queensland, and the aggregate annual yield exceeds $5,000,000. From 1867 to 1885 inclusive the mines of Queensland yielded 4,840,221 ounces of gold, valued at not far from $80,000,000.