be Coronation day. A
little nearer the heart of the town, in what is known as Farm Cove, Lord
Brassey's famous yacht, the "Sunbeam," rode quietly at anchor, whose
keel has cut the waters of all the notable harbors of the world, and
whose significant name the late lamented Lady Brassey has rendered a
household word by her delightful pen. The snow-white hull and graceful
rig of the yacht was not unfamiliar to the author, who saw it six years
ago at Port Said, and who then met its late mistress at Cairo, in Egypt.
Excursion steamers, ferry-boats, men-of-war launches, racing-cutters,
and a hundred small sailing-craft added life and interest to this
impressive picture of Sydney harbor, as seen from the higher streets of
the town.

The much-lauded bay is indeed charming, as the most indifferent
spectator must admit; yet it did not strike us as so much more beautiful
than others that we have visited in various countries. It is better,
however, not to challenge the ire of all Sydney by speaking irreverently
of the harbor, since the faithful worship of its alleged incomparable
beauty is with the citizens a species of religion. It has the advantage
of being but slightly affected by the tides, and in consequence has no
shoals to spoil the view with their muddy aspect at various times each
day, or to emit noxious fumes under the rays of a burning sun. Eight or
nine fathoms of water in nearly any part of the bay make it accessible
to ships of heaviest draught. It is seven miles from the entrance at the
Heads up to the city proper. This capacious basin, with its countless
nooks and windings, has a shore line of two hundred and fifty miles, the
whole of which is so well protected and land-locked that in all weather
it is as glassy and smooth as the Lake of Geneva.

The main thoroughfares of Sydney are not kept in a very cleanly
condition,--a statement which even the residents must indorse; but the
streets are full of the busy life which appertains to a great
metropolis. Cabs and private vehicles dash hither and thither;
heavily-laden drays grind their broad wheels over the rough pavements;
pedestrians crowd the sidewalks; messenger boys, mounted upon wiry
little horses, gallop on their several errands, some of them dressed in
scarlet coats, signifying that they are in Government service; newspaper
hawkers, boot-blacks, bearers of advertising placards, itinerant
fruit-venders, Chinamen with vegetables in baskets slung on a pole
acro