to Ballarat.
Buninyong is properly the name of the mountain there, an extinct
volcano, which forms a prominent object in the landscape. The
small town takes the same name. It is remarkable chiefly for the
fertility of the land in the immediate neighbourhood. It is older
than Ballarat, which previous to the discovery of the gold there
in 1851 did not exist. There are gold mines, too, at Buninyong,
both alluvial and quartz, but chiefly the latter. The Salvation
Army flourishes at Buninyong as well as at most places in the
Colonies. I have since read in a paper that General Booth has
given out that the Salvation Army is likely to become the State
church of Victoria, and that Parliament will make it an annual
grant of L1,000; or, if not, that Mr. Service will probably do so
himself!

Ballarat is a busy town, and here Victorian energy is seen to its
best advantage. It is, too, the centre of a large and fertile
agricultural district. Gold mining is not now what it once was
there. On all sides are the ruins of abandoned "claims," which give
a most desolate appearance to the immediate neighbourhood. There is
now more gold found at Sandhurst, further north. During the gold
fever of 1851, and before there was a line from Geelong, as much as
L70 per ton was paid for carriage from that town. The distance is
about 60 miles, and the transit occupied ten days for heavy goods.
"Until last year," said my friend, "there was a man walking the
streets of Ballarat who was known by no other name than Jimmy. He
would never beg and never lie down twice in the same spot to sleep
if others got to know of it. People gave him food at the door, or,
if not, he went to the Asylum for it. I used to see him taking a
zig-zag path about the same time each day. When spoken to he would
never reply. He had been in this condition since thirty years ago.
Then he was a prosperous digger, but some others drugged him, and
took away all his money. The drug spared his life, but took away his
brains; and so he wandered about, always looking for something, he
did not know what." There must be many similar tales of violence
perpetrated during that wild time. Ballarat contains the widest
street in the Colonies--one of the widest in the world--viz.,
Sturt-street, which is three chains wide, but its width is rather
concealed by a line of trees in the middle. There are some fair
buildings in it too. Lake Wendouree, formerly a swamp, now forms a
pleasant resort for th