Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
George Robertson & Co.
BOOKSELLERS,
Publishers, and Commercial Stationers.
ACCOUNT BOOK MANUFACTURERS.
Bookbinders Letterpress Printers.
Paper Rulers Engravers
Lithographers Die Sinkers
Embossers.
MELBOURNE—
384-390 Little Collins Street.
SYDNEY—
361-363 George Street.
ADELAIDE—
Freeman Street.
BRISBANE—
Elizabeth Street.
AND
LONDON—
17 Warwick Square. Paternoster Row, E.C.
FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN
ACROSS A CONTINENT ON
A BICYCLE.
AN ACCOUNT OF A SOLITARY RIDE FROM ADELAIDE
TO PORT DARWIN
BY
JEROME J. MURIF.
George Robertson & Co.,
MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, ADELAIDE, BRISBANE
AND LONDON.
1897.
GEORGE ROBERTSON AND CO.
PRINTERS
MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, ADELAIDE, BRISBANE
AND LONDON
FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN.
A vague longing to do something first flattered, then irritated, thenoppressed me. In vain I tried to argumentatively brush it aside, topooh-pooh it, to laugh it out of countenance. My arsenal of tritewell-worn sayings (so commonly the accompaniment of a weak argument) wasransacked for ammunition to once and for all lay out this absurdrestlessness. For instance, I resolutely endeavored to persuade myselfthat of course the maxim was true that "There is nothing new under thesun." I argued that that was as absolutely convincing in my case as aMaxim is in some others. Then I went to sleep, dreamily reflecting thatthat was settled, anyway. In the morning, I was witness that onesaying, at any rate, was true: I had convinced myself against my will,and was in reality still longing for that formless something.
So I made a bargain with myself to strive to give my longing a localhabitation and a name—to set about discovering something to be donethat no man had yet even dared.
In my quest of a world to conquer, I bought a book of "Human Records"(which is not to be confounded with "A Human D