n and say nothing more about it.
South Australia is a great wheat-growing country, and ships an immense
quantity of wheat to England. In good years it produces fully fifteen
millions of bushels for export, in addition to the quantity required for
home consumption.

"Next in importance to the wheat crop in South Australia is the crop of
wool. There are nearly seven millions of sheep in the colony, and
between the wool and bread-stuffs, the income to the country is very
considerable. We now understand the uses of the immense sheds, and the
grain elevators that we saw when we landed at Port Adelaide. Large as
they are, the capacities of these places of storage must be taxed to
their utmost in busy times.

"They have given considerable attention to the cultivation of the grape.
Grapes, apricots, peaches, and other fruits grow in great abundance, so
much so that in the fruit season they are retailed in the market of
Adelaide at a penny a pound, and all of them are delicious. Quite an
industry is being developed in canning fruits for exportation, and it
will probably increase gradually as the years go on."

Our friends were invited to make a journey on the line of the Great
Northern Railway, which is ultimately intended to reach the northern
coast of Australia. The distance across Australia, from north to south,
is about seventeen hundred miles; about four hundred miles of the line
are completed, leaving thirteen hundred miles yet to be built. It will
cost a great deal of money to finish the railway, but the people are
ambitious, and will probably accomplish it in the course of time.

They already have a telegraph line, running for the greater part of the
way through a very desolate region. For hundreds of miles there are no
white people, except the operators and repairers at the stations, and in
many places it is unlikely that there will ever be any inhabitants, as
the country is a treeless waste, and, at some of the stations, water has
to be brought from a considerable distance. Artesian wells have been
bored at many of the stations; at some of them successfully, while at
others it was impossible to find water.

The railway official who invited our friends to make the journey, told
them that he was connected with the telegraph company at the time of its
construction, and he gave an interesting account of some of the
difficulties they encountered.

"The desert character of the country," said the gentleman, "caused us a