G--AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES--FINDING A BIG NUGGET.

When they had finished with Williamstown and Sandridge our friends went
to St. Kilda, which may be called the Coney Island of Melbourne, as it
is very popular with those who are fond of salt-water bathing. Harry and
Ned remarked that there were hotels, restaurants, and other places of
resort and amusement such as are usually found at seaside watering
places, and Ned thought it would require no great stretch of the
imagination to believe that they were at the famous bathing place of New
York. Ned observed that there were fences consisting of posts set in the
ground, not more than ten or twelve inches apart, extending a
considerable distance out into the water and completely enclosing the
bathing place.

He asked why the fences were placed there, and was informed that it was
because the bay abounded in sharks, and people who came there to bathe
had a prejudice against being eaten up by these sea-wolves. "If we
should take away the fences," said one of the attendants at the bathing
house, "we would not do any more business here, and you may be sure that
we are very careful to keep the fences in order."

Sharks abound all through the waters of Australia. They have caused not
a few deaths, and everybody who understands about them is careful not to
venture into the water at any place where the creatures are liable to
come; but occasionally one hears of an incautious or ignorant person
falling a prey to these monsters of the deep. When sailboats and other
craft are overturned in storms or sudden squalls and their occupants are
thrown into the water, they suffer fearful peril. Not long ago a small
sailboat was overturned in Port Philip Bay with two gentlemen and a lady
on board, in addition to the boatman and his boy. Before help could
reach them the whole five had fallen victims to the sharks.

Port Philip Bay, into which Hobson's Bay opens, is a grand sheet of
water between thirty and forty miles wide, and navigable for ships of
all sizes, and the bay affords anchoring space for all the ships in the
world, in case they should come there at the same time. The entrance to
the bay is about thirty miles from Melbourne, and at Queenscliff near
the entrance there is a fine watering place, which is reached both by
railway and by steamboat. It has the advantage of St. Kilda in standing
on the shore of the ocean, while the former place has only the waters of
the bay in front of it.