The manner in which you travel in the Central area– that is, between Oodnadatta in the south where the railway ends and the Macdonnell Ranges in the north–depends very much upon the nature of the season and upon what you want to do. In early times the explorers had no alternative. They were obliged to take horses and to accept the risks attendant upon the probable scarcity of water and their total ignorance of where the few scattered waterholes were to be found. If they were fortunate in this respect, as upon the whole was McDouall Stuart, then, apart from the hostility of natives or failure of food supply, they could, with more or less difficulty, penetrate the unknown country; but if, like Sturt, one of the ablest of their number, they chanced upon bad seasons, or struck country where, even in good times, water is rarely met with, then they were completely baffled in their attempts. No amount of bushmanship will suffice to take horses and human beings across more than a certain extent of absolutely dry country, and only those who have crossed the Central area, since it has been opened up by the early explorers, can realise the difficulties with which they had to contend. Australia cannot be congratulated on the way in which she has treated their memory.