Australasia (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AUSTRALIA. CHAPTER IL THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA. 1. Dimensions, Form, and Outline. Until recently the Australian continent, especially in its western half, was one of the least known regions of the globe. But for some years past the exploration of the country has made such rapid strides, that we are already in a position to form a clear idea of its general character, while, even regarding its more special features very little will soon remain to be done. "With a total area of 2,983,200 square miles?that is, rather less than Europe?the Australian continent forms a somewhat unshapely mass of land, with little-varied outlines, and a monotonous seaboard, washed on the west by the Indian, and on the east by the Pacific Ocean. In the North it is separated from New Guinea by Torres Strait, 90 miles in breadth; and in the south, from Tasmania by the much-frequented yet dangerous Bass's Strait. Parallel with, and about 60 miles distant from the east coast, stretches the Great Barrier Reef, which, throughout its entire length of 1200 miles, presents only a single safe opening for ships; and which reaches northwards almost to the extremity of York Peninsula. This peninsula, which is the most distinctive geographical feature of the Australian continent, forms, with the more westerly, butfar less boldly developed peninsula of Arnhem Land, the great northern bight known as the Gulf of Carpentaria. Corresponding with this inlet is the Great Australian Bight on the south coast, but neither of them materially affects the general character of this continent as a compact and but slightly varied mass of land. The west coast is, on the whole, richer in bights and inlets, and also possesses several good harbours. In the south, besides the already-mentioned Great Bight,...