, but later
many deep shafts have been sunken and are now profitably worked. In this
more legitimate form of mining a permanent industry has been
established. There are so many prolific and excellent tin mines in the
colonies that these special deposits are held to be of no extraordinary
value.

It is proposed, as we were informed at Brisbane, to separate the north
of Queensland from the south, at the twenty-second parallel of latitude,
and to form the northern portion into a separate colony. This purpose
seemed at one time to have very nearly reached consummation, but it has
not been pressed for some unknown reason. As Queensland is larger than
England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark added
together, there can be no want of territory for such a political
division. It is only about thirty years since this province, as it now
stands, was separated from New South Wales.

From Brisbane we returned to Sydney on the way to the southern cities;
and here the journey was broken by a day's rest, as it is nearly twelve
hundred miles from Brisbane to Melbourne.

CHAPTER VIII.

An Inland Journey.--The Capital of Victoria.--Grand Public
Buildings.--Water-Supply of the City.--Public Parks and
Gardens.--Street Scenes.--Dashing
Liveries.--Tramways.--Extremes.--Melbourne Ladies.--Street
Beggars.--Saturday Half-Holiday.--Public Arcades.--The City
Free Library.--The Public Markets.--China-Town,
Melbourne.--Victims of the Opium Habit.

Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, lies nearly six hundred miles
southwest of Sydney. The journey from one city to the other by rail is
rather a tedious one, as there is very little of interest upon the route
to engage the attention of the traveller. Soon after leaving the latter
city the road runs through a level country, which is sparsely inhabited,
but quite heavily wooded with that wearying tree the eucalyptus,
presenting hardly one feature of attractiveness to recommend it to the
eye. It is always dressed in a sober, funereal garb, which by no effort
of the imagination can one reasonably call green. Miles and miles were
passed of houseless monotony, the land often denuded of trees, and
showing only a low growth of wattle, or some small shrub of the
eucalyptus family. Most of the settlers' cabins seen inland were mere
shells, consisting of frames of wood covered on roof and sides with
corrugated sheet-iron, unpainted; whil