where one can get
delightfully lost and bewildered now and then.

Adelaide has been called the city of churches, and as already intimated
it certainly is well supplied in that respect; but it is still better
entitled to be called the city of public parks.

There was a grand Industrial Exhibition open at Adelaide during our
visit, to which all the sister colonies had contributed; and hosts of
strangers were consequently attracted to the town, imparting a business
aspect to everything and a general life to its streets which doubtless
was not its normal condition. Still, be this as it may, the capital of
South Australia is growing steadily in population and material wealth.
The present Exhibition Building stands in the Adelaide Park lands,
fronting North Terrace, adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. A direct line
of railway, seven miles long, connects the Exhibition with the wharves
at Port Adelaide, where ships of the largest tonnage can lie at the pier
and discharge their cargoes. The completeness, thorough organization,
and amazing variety of this Exhibition of Industries here in the South
Seas was a subject of great surprise and admiration to us. It is not,
however, our intention to go into a description of the Exhibition, but
it was certainly worthy of all commendation.

The Australian ladies of this section are essentially unlike their
sisterhood of the colonies in general. They are characterized by a
bright, buoyant, piquant manner which charms and captivates the stranger
who is so fortunate as to enjoy their proverbial hospitality. Without
being in the least flippant, they are debonair and winsome in the
display of their many accomplishments, which always embrace music,
drawing, and dancing. They are more like the women of America in height
and general figure than their English progenitors. They have none of the
English stoutness which indicates a plethora of blood and vigor; indeed,
there was a marked delicacy generally apparent in the matter of health,
which is to be attributed doubtless to climatic influences,--and yet
statistics show a low scale of mortality in Adelaide, as in most parts
of Australia. Regarding amusements, dancing is a favorite one, quite as
much so here as among the ladies of Spain. Among gentlemen belonging to
what is termed the best society in Adelaide, it is a fact worth
remarking that one finds no idlers; all have some legitimate calling,
and would evidently feel ill at ease without it. Id