not recover for hours."

As the foregoing story was narrated to our young friends, their eyes,
too, were moist, and so were those of Dr. Whitney, who was sitting close
by them. Silence prevailed for several minutes, and then the
conversation turned to other subjects.

The gentleman explained that the northern terminus of the telegraph
line was at Port Darwin, where connection was made with the telegraph
cable to Singapore, and thence to Europe. "I suppose, in time," said he,
"there will be other telegraph connections, but for the present this is
the only one that Australia has with the rest of the world. Undoubtedly
we shall one day have a cable to the United States, and that will
certainly greatly facilitate commerce. At present, telegrams coming from
your country to this must come by a very roundabout journey."

Harry asked what course a telegram would be obliged to take in coming
from San Francisco to Adelaide.

"Let me see," said the gentleman; "in the first place, it would be
telegraphed overland from San Francisco to New York, and then it would
go under the Atlantic Ocean through one of the transatlantic cables, and
then there would be two or three routes by which it could be sent. It
could go by submarine cable to the Straits of Gibraltar, thence under
the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the Indian Ocean to Bombay, or it
could cross Europe by one of the land lines, and then go through Russia
and Persia to the north of India, reaching Bombay by the land route.
From Bombay it would be telegraphed across India to Madras, and thence
by submarine cable to Singapore, and from Singapore it would be sent by
cable to Port Darwin, and thence by the Australian overland line to
Adelaide. The message would be repeated six or seven times in the course
of its journey, and the fact that so few mistakes are made in the
numerous repetitions, many of them by people having an imperfect
knowledge of English, speaks volumes in praise of the telegraph system."

Both of our young friends heartily indorsed this remark, and agreed with
their informant that the telegraph certainly performed excellent work.

Our friends made the journey along the line of railway to which they had
been invited. They found it interesting though not altogether free from
monotony, as there was an excessive amount of sameness in the country
through which they traveled. They passed through a range of low
mountains which were not sufficiently broken to be pic