12. The animals of Australia are quite as peculiar as the plants. The large animals found in most other countries are all wanting in Australia, and most of the Australian native animals are not found elsewhere. The kangaroo, the dingo, or native dog, the opossum, and the

duck-billed platypus, are the most characteristic native animals.

13. The birds are numerous, and many of them have very beautiful plumage. Emus, parrots, the lyre-bird, the black swan, bower-birds, and the gigantic kingfisher, are the most striking kinds. Reptiles are abundant, and some of the snakes are poisonous. The black snake, one of the commonest and most dangerous, is from five to eight feet long.

LESSON

LXXV.

AUSTRALIA.- -NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA.

1. New South Wales is the mother colony of Australia. In 1850 the southern part was erected into the separate colony of Victoria, and in 1859 the northern part Queensland-was separated. Its area is now about 310,000 square miles, or more than five times as large as England and Wales; and the population between six and seven hundred thousand.

2. The natural divisions of the colony are the eastern sea-board territory, the central range of mountains, and the western plains. The sea-board territory consists of undulating hill and valley, interspersed with fertile alluvial tracts, and underlain with great beds of coal. In the central region gold, copper, lead, tin, and other metals, abound. The western plains, on the inland side of the mountains, constitute the pastoral region of the colony. Here are the great sheep walks, on which graze the millions of sheep and cattle which constitute the chief wealth of the colony.

3. The great dividing range of mountains forms the "back-bone of the colony. It runs from NNE. to SSW. in a direction parallel with the coast, and on an average about eighty or ninety miles from it. It is not one range of mountains, but many—a broad, mountainous region, with table-lands and deep valleys and minor ranges of hills running in different directions. The chief ranges commencing in the north-east are-The New England Range, the Liverpool Range, the Blue Mountain Range, and the Warragong Range. The latter forms the northern extension of the Australian Alps of Victoria, and includes Mount Kosciusko, the highest summit in Australia.

4. The great dividing range rests on a plateau, and the eastern ledge of this plateau forms the coast ranges of mountains. These coast ranges, like the great dividing

range, run parallel with the coast, and at about thirty miles from it. Numerous rivers run east from the vast mountain territory, and, periodically overflowing their banks, render the coast plains so exceedingly fertile that crops can be produced year after year without the application of manure. It is in these fertile plains that the 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 tablelands.

5. 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 Maneroo 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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,