all the coal below the locality of the explosion. Sometimes it is
broken up into lumps that a man can handle, and sometimes it comes down
in a single block, which requires another blast to break it up, and then
the cars are brought up as near as possible. The coal is loaded into
them, and pushed away to the shaft. Each man is paid according to the
amount of coal he gets out, and some of them receive large wages. There
are about five thousand people employed in the coal mines here, and the
probabilities are that the business will be extended, and the coal
product of Newcastle increased within a year or two from the present
time."

From Newcastle our friends continued their journey northward to
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. They traveled all the way by rail,
changing trains at Stanthorpe, on the frontier. During the delay
subsequent upon the change of trains, Harry made the following
memorandum in his notebook:--

"It seems to me that it is a great misfortune for Australia that each
colony insists upon having its own particular gauge of track, thus
preventing the running of through trains without change of cars. Some
day the people will find out their mistake, and I believe some of them
realize it already. Dr. Whitney says that there was at one time in the
United States several different gauges of track from four feet, eight
inches and one half up to six feet, and that the railway managers
generally agreed upon four feet, eight inches as the standard gauge.
Since that agreement all other tracks have been changed to make the
tracks uniform. Now any railway car can be run all over the United
States, with the exceptions of a few special lines where the gauge is
three feet, six inches.

"Three feet, six inches is the gauge of the railways of Queensland. That
of New South Wales is four feet, eight and one half inches, while that
of Victoria is five feet, three inches. In South Australia some of the
lines are of five feet, three inches gauge, and others have the same
gauge as the Queensland railways. The narrow gauge is especially adapted
to mountain regions, and also to thinly populated districts. On lines
where the business is light and the distances are not long, this gauge
answers all requirements, but on many lines, especially those having
considerable business, it is not at all advantageous."

During their railway ride our friends observed the strange combination
of aboriginal and English names, and called Dr.