wice
as large as California, it will be realized that she is not greatly
circumscribed in territory. The present population, in the absence of
actual statistics, may be safely stated to amount in round numbers to
one million.

Sydney, often called by her citizens the Queen of the Pacific, is built
upon two ridges of land of considerable elevation, the valley between
being occupied by the busiest portion of the population and containing
the best shops in every department of trade. There are many fine large
business and public edifices of stone, but these are only too often
flanked by buildings of a very low and awkward construction, one story
in height. There is no consecutive purpose or uniformity in the street
architecture, a wild irregularity prevailing. George Street, which is
the main business thoroughfare, is two miles in length, and contains
many stores or shops furnished as well as the average of those in Vienna
and Paris. These are really fine business edifices, having massive
French plate-glass windows and being in all particulars admirably
appointed.

The peculiar conformation of the town makes the lateral streets
precipitous, so that a large portion of the city is composed of hilly
avenues, to surmount which there is a constant struggle going on with
loaded teams. Like the old streets of Boston, those of Sydney were the
growth of chance, and were not originally laid out after a system, as in
Melbourne, Adelaide, or Brisbane. Our Washington Street was originally a
cow-path, while the present site of George Street in Sydney was at
first a meandering bullock-track. The names of the streets are historic
in their suggestions. George Street was named after George the Third,
during whose reign the colony was founded. Pitt Street is named after
the Earl of Chatham; Castlereagh, Bathurst, Erskine, and other streets
recall familiar names of English statesmen. The higher thoroughfares,
those upon the ridges, overlook the inner harbor and shipping, affording
a constantly varying maritime picture. Thus from nearly opposite our
hotel, on the day of our arrival, we saw lying upon the waters of the
bay four large German men-of-war (the same which afterward visited and
terrorized the simple natives of the Samoan Islands), and also an
iron-clad belonging to Japan fully equal in nautical appearance to the
German craft. All were dressed from their hulls to their topmast heads
with tiny flags in gayest colors, as it happened to