eraging as high as in Boston and New York, and the wealth of the
people is represented to be very great in the aggregate.

Australia in its extreme breadth, between Shark's Bay on the west and
Sandy Cape on the eastern shore, measures twenty-four hundred miles; and
from north to south,--that is, from Cape York to Cape Atway,--it is
probably over seventeen, hundred miles in extent. The occupied and
improved portions of the country skirt the seacoast on the southern and
eastern sides, which are covered with cities, towns, villages, and
hamlets. The country occupied for sheep-runs and cattle-ranches is very
sparsely inhabited. The reason for this is obvious, since the owner of a
hundred thousand sheep requires between two and three hundred thousand
acres to feed them properly. The relative proportion as to sheep and
land is to allow two and a third acres to each animal.

The great dividing mountain-chain of Australia is near the coast-line in
the south and east, averaging perhaps a hundred miles or more from the
sea. Nearly all the gold which the land has produced has come from the
valleys and hillsides of this range. The gold-diggings of New South
Wales have proved to be very rich in some sections; but unlike those of
Queensland and Victoria, the precious metal is here found mostly in
alluvial deposits.

Many nationalities are represented in Australia and New Zealand, but the
majority are English, Scotch, and Irish. The officials of New South
Wales especially, look to England for favors which a political
separation would cut them off from; among these are honorary titles and
crown appointments of a paying nature. The constitution under which the
colonies are living is such as to entitle them to be called
democracies. In many respects the local government is more liberal and
advanced than in England. Church and State, for instance, are here kept
quite distinct from each other. As to the legislative power of the
colonies, it is seldom interfered with by the home government.

A journey of about five hundred miles northward, either along the coast
by steamer, or by railway inland, will take us to Brisbane, the capital
of Queensland, which has a population of about fifty thousand. Until
1860 it was an appendage of New South Wales, but was in that year formed
into an independent colony. The site of the city is a diversified
surface, with the river whose name it bears winding gracefully through
it, about twenty-four miles fro