he likelihood of
interference, they rarely took up fresh claims, but contented
themselves with what the white man had left. Even this form of work was
considered an encroachment by the white miners, who frequently attacked
the Mongolians and drove them out at the point of the pistol. Many of
these attacks were accompanied by bloodshed, and if the history of
Australian mining were written in full, it would contain many a story of
oppression, accompanied with violence.

Our friends made a visit to the famous lake district of Victoria, where
they found some very pretty scenery, and from the summit of one hill
counted no fewer than fifteen lakes, some of them of no great size,
while the largest measured ninety miles in circumference. Harry made
note of the fact that this largest lake was called the Dead Sea. It is
said to be not as salt as the famous Dead Sea near Jerusalem, but it is
a great deal salter than the ocean, and no fish of any kind lives in it.

"I asked a resident of the neighborhood," said Harry, "if they had ever
tried the plan of putting fish from the ocean into this Australian Dead
Sea. They said they had done so, but the fish thus transported always
died in a few hours, and the experiment of stocking the lake had been
given up long ago.

"A curious thing that we found regarding the lakes in this part of
Victoria," Harry continued, "is that some of them are salt and some
fresh, and sometimes the salt lakes and the fresh ones are quite close
to each other, and on the same level. We were puzzled how to account for
the peculiarity and tried to learn about it. How the circumstances
happened, nobody knows exactly, but the theory is that the salt in the
salt lakes comes from the drainage of the rocks, and as the lakes have
no outlets, the superfluous waters are carried off by evaporation. They
told us that in summer these lakes sink a good deal below the level of
other times of the year, and when they did so the ground left dry was
thickly encrusted with salt, which the people gathered in large
quantities. The market of Melbourne is supplied with salt from these
lakes, and you can readily understand that it is very cheap.

"Another peculiarity of this part of Victoria is the large quantities of
potatoes that are grown there. The land often yields from twenty to
thirty tons of potatoes to the acre, and an acre of ground for raising
potatoes will frequently sell for four hundred dollars, while it will
rent for