Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, 1896, Vol. 4 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, 1896, Vol. 4 Lacking the immense advantages, for investigation, of this intimate and continuous association of the early settlers with the natives, the inquirer of more recent times, though possibly better trained in the methods of observation, experiences to the full the disadvantages that have been mentioned even if he should escape actual hostilities in remoter parts. Moreover in Central Australia, particularly, the urgent necessity for rapid movements, on account of the all important question of water supplies, not unfrequently precludes a sufficiently long stay in certain localities to allow of the growth of that mutual confidence which must precede all attempts to extract reliable information. Thus ethnological science in Australia has fared badly. Those who might have spoken have remained silent, while, too often, the trained observer has lacked the opportunities for observations. To no country is the remark of a distinguished traveller more appropriate than to Australia - that as a rule the men who know don't write, and the men who write don't know, and, if it must be admitted also, that ethnological investigations have been too little considered as part of the functions of an exploring party in Australia it must also be admitted that the difficulties in the way of these, as of other biological investigations, are very great on such flying expeditions. With the necessity of frequently covering long distances, by forced marches in waterless tracts, the quest for water supplies from sources either of unknown or of doubtful permanency being the first and paramount consideration; with the difficulties of transport of food in regions where no indigenous supplies exist, to say nothing of the carriage of collecting material and materials collected, the representatives of the various branches of natural history have often little scope for their efforts or the observer little time for deliberate and systematic observations when a detention might imperil the safety of the whole party. Though it is true that some of these difficulties have been minimised in recent years by the use of camels, enough still remain to form substantial obstacles to scientific exploration in Central Australia. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.