rf eucalyptus. The appearance of a large reach
of this scrub is desolate indeed, the underlying soil being a sort of
yellow sand which one would think could surely produce nothing else. We
were told of one large section of South Australia ten thousand miles
square, which is solely covered with this scrub. "Yet," said our
informant, himself an agriculturist of experience and a large
landholder, "experiment has shown that if a watercourse were turned upon
this ground and the scrub cleared away, it would give us a soil nearly
as fertile as the valley of the Nile." And he added: "After a year or
two more of useless talk, irrigation will be applied in all directions."

The climate of Adelaide and the surrounding country is of much greater
warmth than that of the region about Brisbane, Sydney, or Melbourne. It
is not uncommon for the thermometer to register 100 deg. in the shade
during the summer months. The vegetable products are almost identical with
those of South Africa, and the soil is equally productive, yielding crop
after crop with no signs of exhaustion. The food of the common people is
cheap, abundant, and good. Mutton and beef do not cost one tenth as much
as is charged for them in England or America, while bread is but four
cents per pound. The flour produced here we were told won prizes
wherever it was exhibited, and was considered as ranking with the very
best manufactured anywhere. All kinds of vegetables are also cheap, and
thanks to the Chinamen they are also in good supply: no one but John
pretends to raise them. Everybody eats meat three times a day, rich and
poor; but of the cooking,--well, as we cannot say anything complimentary
about it, we will not dilate upon this theme.

The large number of German residents in and about Adelaide is
particularly observable, and whole villages were found to exist in South
Australia where German was the one language spoken. This people form
the best class of settlers, for they come hither with a well-considered
purpose, almost always in the direction of agricultural enterprise; and
this they pursue undeviatingly. Many of them are from the Rhine
districts of Germany, and interest themselves in the planting and
culture of the grape and in winemaking, having brought with them a
special and valuable experience obtained in their native land.

The large, well-kept parks which surround this capital of South
Australia form a magnificent drive, eight or ten miles long, outside o