sugar-cane, maize, the grape vine, and nearly all the fruits of temperate and sub-tropical regions, are grown in profusion. Wheat is cultivated on the lower table-lands.

7. The western side of the great dividing range consists also of table-lands and deep valleys and minor mountain ranges. Further again to the west are vast level plains, the chief being the Liverpool Plains in the north-one-fourth the size of England and Wales—and the Manaroo Plains, or Brisbane Downs, in the south. The great rivers flowing west from the dividing range are the Darling, the Lachlan, and Murrumbidgee, all tributaries of the Murray.

8. Notwithstanding that gold and coal are found in plenty, wool constitutes the great wealth of the colony. Millions of sheep pasture on the dry western downs and plains, and wool to the value of nearly £4,000,000* is exported every year to England. Coal is raised to the value of nearly £1,000,000, and the value of the produce of the gold mines from 1873 to 1878 was upwards of £9,000,000. Copper, tallow, and preserved meat, are the chief exports besides wool and gold. The total yearly value of the imports is about fifteen millions, and of the exports about thirteen millions sterling.

9. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is the oldest city of Australia. Its harbour-Port Jackson-is one of the finest and most beautiful in the world; and from its fine broad streets and imposing public buildings and its fine situation, it has been called the "Queen of the South." The city, with its suburbs, now contains about 120,000 inhabitants.

10. Maitland, on the river Hunter, is the next largest town. It is the centre of the wine-producing district. Newcastle is the shipping port of the northern coast, and, like its namesake in England, is the centre of the coal trade. Paramatta and Bathurst are the only other towns with upwards of five thousand inhabitants.

11. Norfolk Island, 900 miles east of Sydney, noted for its pine trees, formerly a penal settlement, belongs to New South Wales.

* In 1879 the quantity sent to the United Kingdom was 64,059,824 lb., of the value of £3,800,542.

1. Victoria is the smallest but the most populous and the most wealthy colony in Australia. In size it is a little less than Great Britain. It dates as a separate colony from 1851, before which period it formed a part of New South Wales. The estimated population in June, 1879, was 887,734.

2. The surface of this colony, except in the northwest, is mountainous. A broad mountainous district, consisting of numerous chains, spreads through the centre from east to west. The highest summits are in the Australian Alps in the east-Mount Bogong (6,508 feet) is the highest peak in the colony. Westward of the Alps is the Dividing Range (so called, as in New South Wales, because it divides the country into two parts), and further west again are the Pyrenees and Grampians.

3. There is no regular coast range, but many smaller ranges of mountains spread over nearly all the country south of the main system. Many of the mountain peaks of Victoria, especially in the west, are extinct volcanoes. Some of the cones and craters are still very perfect.

4. The north-west consists of the vast plains of the Wimmera district, covering an area of more than 20,000 square miles. They are chiefly dry sandy plains with thin grass. In some parts there are extensive swamps, and in others broad belts of "myall scrub." The whole district is liable to severe droughts.

5. The central mountain region forms the great water-parting. The streams running north join the Murray, which for over 600 miles forms the northern boundary of the colony, or are lost in the sandy plains and salt lagoons. The streams flowing south are devastating torrents in the rainy season; but during the summer heats they dwindle down to small streams or chains of pools of stagnant water. The Goulbourn is the

chief northern river; the Glenelg and Loddon are the longest flowing south.

6. There are numerous lakes in Victoria, but many of them, as in New South Wales, are shallow and salt. Lakes are also formed in many of the craters of the extinct volcanoes. Lake Hindmarsh, in Wimmera, is a salt lake covering 25,000 acres.

7. The valleys and southern plains of this colony are exceedingly fertile, and large crops of wheat, oats, and potatoes, are grown; and the sides of many of the hills towards the east are covered with magnificent forests, containing some of the largest trees in the world.

8. Wool and gold are the two chief exports of Victoria. Of the former, about six and a half million pounds worth are sent to Great Britain every year. The yield of gold is decreasing, but from its discovery in 1851 to the end of the year 1878 gold was raised to the value of over £190,000,000. The value of the yield in 1878 was £3,000,000. Other exports of less importance are tallow, hides, wheat, and preserved meat. The total exports in 1879, excluding gold, were of the value of £7,500,000, and the imports £5,500,000.

9. Melbourne, the capital, is a city of 200,000 inhabitants, to which must be added 50,000 for the suburbs. It is a city of forty years' growth. Ballarat, the great gold-field city, ranks next to Melbourne. It has a population of 45,000. Sandhurst, formerly called Bendigo, the centre of a mining district, and Geelong, a sea-port, are the next most important towns.

LESSON XXX VIII.

AUSTRALIA.-SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

1. South Australia owes its origin to colonists sent out from Great Britain in 1836, who obtained from the Government a grant of the land. The colony made but

slow progress, until in 1845 the rich copper mines of Burra-Burra were discovered. The name South Australia is misleading, for the colony includes a slice of territory running through the centre of Australia from the north to the south, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and having an average width of 700 miles. Of this vast area of over 900,000 square miles only one-tenth part is settled. Its population is about a quarter of a million.

2. There is no great dividing range of mountains in South Australia separating the country into well-marked regions, and there are no great river valleys, and the rivers are of little importance. There are several low ranges of mountains in the southern part, and low hills form a very broken chain throughout the whole length of the colony. There are many large lakes; but the country is usually so dry that these are liable to become mere muddy swamps. Lake Gardner is an immense salt lake in a desert region, and Lakes Eyre and Amadeus are sometimes immense salt lakes, and at other times plains of saline mud. There are many rich plains of fertile lands, and on many of the mountains fine gum-trees grow, but millions of acres are arid plains and scrub.

3. South Australia has a very hot climate. There are no mountains as in the other colonies running in a direction to check the hot winds of the interior, and the country suffers from excessive drought during the summer months.

4. The chief productions of South Australia are wheat, copper, and wool. The climate of the south of the colony is well suited for the growth of wheat, and wheat is grown in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the neighbouring colonies, and to export to England to the value of nearly half a million sterling. Copper is to South Australia what gold is to Victoria, and coal to New South Wales. The yearly export is valued at about half a million.

5. Sheep form an important source of wealth, as in the neighbouring colonies, but sheep farmers here are liable to great losses from the droughts which so frequently visit the colony. During some of these