iggings
along the river courses and valley from which "good color," as miners
express it, can be got from the sand almost anywhere. Already diggers
have gone to work successfully in this region, where it seems the
country is well-watered most of the year, and where the Government
surveyors say there is no trouble in storing water against possible
drought. All these facts simply signify that Perth, the western capital
of the colonies, is in the near future to go through the same experience
as have Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballarat, and Brisbane, and that she is
sure by and by to become like them a great and prosperous city. What is
called a "rush" in the colonies has not yet taken place in the Kimberly
district, but there is a steady trend of gold-miners thither, and one or
two extraordinary "finds" would draw to this part of the country as
eager a throng as ever swarmed in New South Wales or Victoria bent upon
the same errand.

Were we to write more in detail of West Australia it would be simply
from what we learned through intelligent persons at Melbourne, Sydney,
and Adelaide. We did not visit Perth. A glance at the map will show the
reader how great are the distances between the capitals of Australia,
over which we traversed hither and thither three thousand miles and
more. From Adelaide to Perth, overland, would be a distance of fifteen
hundred miles, which would require to be accomplished mostly on
horseback. By water across the Australian Bight and Indian Ocean, it
would be a voyage of about the same length.

The climate of West Australia was represented to us as being extremely
fine; and one great pride of the people there is the variety and
abundance of the wild-flowers which cover hill and dale near the
coast-line of the entire colony. The pearl-fisheries to which we have
alluded produce some of the most valuable gems that find their way to
the markets of the world; for though by general consent the choicest
pearls come from Ceylon and the Persian Gulf, those found on the west
coast of Australia are deemed by many equal to the best. Beautiful
specimens were shown to us in Melbourne which we could not recognize as
in any way inferior to the Oriental gems that bring such fabulous prices
in Paris and London. In a jeweller's shop on Collins Street we saw
several which had come from the region near Torres Strait, and which
were valued at a hundred pounds sterling each, and one which on account
of its size was prized a