for her vast territory. Of these 120,000 are gathered in Adelaide, which stands on a plain 10 miles wide between the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Gulf of St. Vincent. With the rolling sea in front, and the blue hills rising tier after tier behind, the city is charmingly placed. Seen from a distance it first presents two towers, those of its Post Office and Town Hall rising out of the plain, and surrounded by a wide level of houses, over which hangs a slight smoke amid the general brightness and sunniness of the Australian atmosphere. It is surrounded by pleasant

suburbs of villas and cottages with gardens and treecovered reserves. The central city-encircled with the park lands as a broad belt of verdure-can boast of handsome streets, one of which, King William Street, broad, with fine buildings and plenty of trees, presents a remarkably striking vista. And across it run many lines of busy thoroughfares. In the northern side of the rectangle made by the park lands, stand the Governor's Residence, Parliament House, Public Library, University, and other buildings. Adelaide is at present an attractive city, but is rapidly developing many manufactures, which may eventually make it less so.

South Australia possesses no other town of much importance. The largest are those which have gathered round the rich copper mines of the colony. MOONTA and WALLAROO, which lie close together upon the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, have each only 1500 people within their municipal boundaries, but each has 3000 or 4000 miners not far away. These miners live in cottages a little inland round the various copper mines, but the towns themselves lie on the sea-shore, and are kept busy in exporting the copper and importing the various necessities of the miners. KAPUNDA, on the contrary, stands remote from the sea, at a place about 50 miles north of Adelaide. Near it some copper mines, once immensely rich, are now almost worked out. The surrounding land, however, in spite of the dangers of seasons of drought, is largely tiled for wheat-growing, so that Kapunda will still probably exist when the copper is all gone. KOORINGA, 50 miles still farther north, has grown up around

some famous copper mines, which in their day yielded £4,000,000 worth of copper, though the yield from them is now greatly fallen off. GAWLER, 25 miles from Adelaide, is the centre of a large agricultural district, where much wheat is grown. But good wine is also made here, and the town has some foundries and large saw-mills. MOUNT GAMBIER TOWN, in the southeastern corner of the colony, stands on the slope of the extinct volcano called Mount Gambier. All the district around it is composed of rich volcanic soil, on which wheat, oats, barley, and potatoes grow luxuriantly. It has about 3000 inhabitants, but the surrounding country is populous with farmers.

The Northern Territory is a vast area, whose resources have been as yet scarcely touched. It has one town called PALMERSTON on the shores of Port Darwin, with a population of 600. A number of small villages lie here and there, either on the coast or around the silver mines, or in the gold-fields which have been discovered inland, but their inhabitants only form a fringe of population round a great uninhabited district, into which, however, settlers are advancing with cattle. There is plenty of fine grassy land and no want of water. The only drawbacks are that the climate is rather warm, and that the wild blacks, with their spears and clubs, are ferocious and treacherous neighbours.

QUEENSLAND

The north-east of Australia is occupied by another colony of wide extent, called Queensland. The area of this region amounts to 668,000 square miles, and is therefore more than three times the size of the German Empire. Its most northerly point, Cape York, lies within 11° of the Equator, and the settlers who are engaged in pearl-fishing among the islands round that cape have to endure a climate of severely tropical character. The south of the colony, on the other hand, lies hundreds of miles outside of the tropics, and its inhabitants enjoy a

mild and equable climate. As in New South Wales a coastplain intervenes between the table-land and the sea. In Queensland, however, this plain is generally hot and moist, so that vegetation grows luxuriantly upon it. The forests are magnificent, and much profit arises from cutting cedar and other timber for exportation. Maize and arrowroot are grown in the fertile river-valleys, and sugar-canes wave their green blades over some 60,000 or 70,000 acres, supplying for export 60,000 tons of refined sugar and nearly 2,000,000 gallons of treacle.

The table-lands are much cooler in climate, and there the oats and potatoes required for the colony are grown. Large districts of this elevated ground consist of open "downs," or grassy undulating land, whereon immense herds of cattle are kept to be gathered for sale in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. But by far the largest portion of the colony consists of the great plains of the interior, which, in the south, suffer from periods of drought like the plains of New South Wales, of which indeed they form only a continuation. In the north, however, these plains are watered by periodical tropical rains, and offer a fine field of enterprise for those who can endure the heat of the climate. Though the sheep and cattle now on these plains may be numbered by millions, much more than half of the country is still unoccupied. Settlement, however, is steadily advancing into the lonely places.

This vast colony is inhabited by less than 400,000 persons, of whom about 350,000 are white people, about 10,000 are Chinese, and nearly 20,000 are aborigines who wander from place to place through the unsettled or thinlysettled parts of the colony. There used to be large numbers of Kanakas or South Sea Islanders on the sugarplantations. These were brought over in ships from the islands to provide cheap labour, as nothing could be done with the Australian natives, who will not work. But the Queensland Parliament has forbidden its people to bring over any more of these dusky labourers, as it was found difficult to prevent them from sinking into a kind of slavery.

The chief city, Brisbane, with about 80,000 inhabitants,

stands on the river Brisbane about 25 miles from its mouth. This stream winds as a deep smooth current, with green and park-like banks. In approaching the town by water the traveller first sails past far-stretching suburbs of villas and gardens, and at last finds the city built on either side of the river. On the right, long wharves line the banks, where many steamers and sailing-ships, loading or unloading, keep the steam-cranes employed. Behind these the streets form a populous level, broken by the steeples and towers of many churches, and the pillared fronts of public buildings. Farther up the river the houses are crowded quite as thickly on the left-hand side, but they cease altogether on the right, where the Botanic Gardens begin, of which the Brisbane people are so justly proud. Gorgeous flower - beds, clumps of palms, and feathery clusters of bamboos are here backed by the Governor's house, which stands beside them, and the Houses of Parliament, which raise their long rows of windows behind. Beyond this green and pretty part the river again bends, and the visitor finds himself face to face with houses once more, thick on either hand. At last he reaches a large and handsome iron bridge, which spans the river in a line with the finest street and chief

business thoroughfare of Brisbane. Here are the great Public Offices, the Town Hall, banks, two theatres, churches, a great many newspaper offices, and handsome rows of shops. Brisbane, as the chief port of so large and so prosperous a territory, has a great amount of traffic, which increases from year to year at a marvellous rate.

But as Queensland has an immense coast-line, other ports have naturally been required to provide more convenient shipping-places for the people of the northern parts. The most important of these ports, ROCKHAMPTON, with 12,000 people, stands nearly 30 miles up the broad river Fitzroy, which is crossed by a fine suspension bridge resting on five heavy piers. It is a busy place, with manufactures and plenty of trade, and supports two rival newspapers. The chief thoroughfare of the town runs parallel to the river, with several good buildings in it. All the streets are broad and abundantly planted with