ADELAIDE--BRIDGES OVER THE TORRENS--SITE OF
ADELAIDE--GOVERNMENT HOUSE BUILDINGS AND
CHURCHES--SCHOOLS--POLICE--ROADS--THE GAWLER--BAROSSA RANGE--THE MURRAY
BELT--MOORUNDI--NATIVES ON THE MURRAY--DISTANT STOCK STATIONS--MOUNT
GAMBIER DISTRICT--ITS RICHNESS--ASCENT TO MOUNT LOFTY--MOUNT BARKER
DISTRICT--SCENE IN HINDMARSH VALLEY--PROPORTION OF SOIL IN THE
PROVINCE--PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL--PORT LINCOLN--CLIMATE OF SOUTH
AUSTRALIA--RANGE OF THE THERMOMETER--SALUBRITY.

Having, in the preceding chapter, run along the coast of South Australia,
and noticed such parts as have been sufficiently examined to justify our
observations, it remains for me to give an account of its interior
features, of its climate, soil, mineral, and other sources of wealth, and
lastly of its fitness as a colony for the peculiar habits of an English
population.

The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, stands on the
eastern shore of St. Vincent's Gulf, and is about six miles from the
coast. Any one landing either at the old or new port, and proceeding to
the capital for the first time, would perhaps be disappointed at the
description of country through which he would pass. It consists indeed of
extensive level plains, over the eastern extremity of which the Mount
Lofty Range is visible. They are bounded southwards by a line of trees,
marking the course of the river Torrens across them, but extend
northwards for many miles without any visible termination. Their monotony
however, is, at the present date, in some measure broken by belts of
wood, and the numerous cottages that have been built upon them, with
their adjoining corn-fields, have changed their aspect, and removed the
appearance of loneliness which they first exhibited. Still neither the
gloomy swamp over which the stranger has in the first instance to travel,
on landing at the Port--or the character of the plains themselves, are
calculated to raise his anticipations, as to the beauty or fertility of
the interior. The first town through which he will pass after leaving the
Port, is Albert Town, which has been laid out on the first available
ground near the swamp. When I left the colony in May last, several
tolerable buildings had been erected in Albert Town, but it was
nevertheless a wretched looking and straggling place, and will never
perhaps advance beyond its present state.

On his nearer approach to the capital the traveller will pass between the
villages of Boden an