ts. Over four
million acres of land are under the plough. Though gold is found here,
it is not so abundant as in other sections of the country. Good wages
equalling those realized by the average miners are earned by a dozen
easier and more legitimate occupations than that of gold-digging. "Let
us cherish no delusions," said a San Francisco preacher on a certain
occasion; "no society has ever been able to organize itself in a
satisfactory manner on gold-bearing soil. Even Nature herself is
deceitful; she corrupts, seduces, and betrays man; she laughs at his
labor, she turns his toil into gambling, and his word into a lie!" The
preacher's deductions have proved true as regards bodies of miners in
California, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. And yet the
finding of gold mines has stimulated labor, immigration, and manly
activity in many directions, and has thus been the agent of undoubted
good in other fields than its own.

Adelaide, with a population of a hundred and fifty thousand, has a noble
university, quite equal in standing to that of any city in the country.
When we remember how youthful she is, it becomes a matter of surprise
that such a condition has been achieved in all the appointments which go
to make up a great city in modern times. The same remark applies to all
of the Australian capitals, none of which are deficient in hospitals,
libraries, schools, asylums, art galleries, and charitable institutions
generally. Few European cities of twice the size of these in Australia
can boast a more complete organization in all that goes to promote true
civilization.

The city proper is separated from its suburbs by a belt of park-lands,
and the approaches are lined with thrifty ornamental trees. Great
liberality and good judgment presided over the laying out of Adelaide.
All the streets are broad and regular, running north and south, east and
west. There are no mysterious labyrinths, dark lanes, or blind alleys in
the city; the avenues are all uniform in width. It is believed that the
interior of the continent, which is largely embraced within this
province, was at a comparatively recent period covered by a great inland
sea. Here are still found mammoth bones of animals, now extinct, which
have become an object of careful study to scientists. Africa's interior
is scarcely less explored than is Central Australia. There are thousands
of square miles upon which the foot of a white man has never trod.
Tartary has