y and Melbourne so uncomfortable. Leaving
out West Australia, which is yet so little developed, the country may be
divided thus: Queensland is the best and most extensive grazing section;
in this respect New South Wales comes next. South Australia is
characterized by its prolific grain-fields, and Victoria is richest in
auriferous deposits; but there is gold enough in all of these colonies
to afford constant stimulus to mining enterprise, fresh discoveries in
this line being made every month. It is proposed to separate the north
of Queensland from the south, at the twenty-second parallel of latitude,
and to form the northern portion into a separate colony. As Queensland
is larger than England, France, and Belgium with Holland and Denmark
combined, there can be no want of territory for such a political
division: population, however, is needed.

We will now turn our steps southward, by the way of Sydney and
Melbourne, to Tasmania. At the last-named city we take a coasting
steamer passing down the river Yarra-Yarra, the muddiest of water-ways,
until Bass's Strait is reached, across which the course is due-south for
a hundred and twenty miles. This is a reach of ocean travel which for
boisterousness and discomfort can be said to rival the English Channel,
between Calais and Dover. As the coast of Tasmania is approached, a tall
lighthouse, one hundred and forty feet above sea-level, first attracts
the attention, designating the mouth of the Tamar River. While crossing
the Strait we are surrounded by a great variety of sea-birds, among
which are the cape-pigeon, the stormy petrel, and the gannet, which last
is the largest of ocean birds next to the albatross.

On drawing still nearer to the shore, flocks of pelicans are observed
upon the rocks, and that most awkward of birds, the penguin, is seen in
idle groups. He is a good swimmer, but his apologetic wings are not
intended for flying.

We pass up the Tamar River, through a narrow, winding channel for a
distance of forty miles before coming to the harbor and town of
Launceston. The many tall, smoking chimney-shafts which meet the eye
indicate that the town is busy smelting ores, dug from the neighboring
mineral hills and valleys. It is a pleasant and thrifty little city,
somewhat liable to earthquakes and their attendant inconveniencies. The
place has a population of ten or twelve thousand, and is named after a
town in Cornwall, England. We have left Australia proper far b