AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



and a railway which is about to be constructed to the present mineral centre 

 is expected to effect a revolution, as the want of carriage has hitherto 

 checked mining progress. 



Residents in the Northern Territory speak hopefully about the climate. 

 That' the white man cannot perform the same amount of constant work in 

 tropical Australia that he can in his own climes and countries is admitted, but 

 still, it is contended, he can work and be healthy and happy. There is an 

 absence amongst the population of the enervation so conspicuous in India, Java, 



Sheep in the shade of a Gum-tree. 



Singapore, and Ceylon. Artisans ply their callings on the eight hours system, 

 as elsewhere in Australia, without special precautions against the sun. The 

 climate is, in fact, more Australian than it is tropical. But at Port Darwin itself 

 there is much to remind the traveller that he is in the tropics, and is nearer 

 to the equator than to Capricorn. Mingled with the characteristic flora of 

 Australia are the palms, bamboos, rattan canes, and wild nutmeg-trees, and 

 other flora of the adjacent Spice Islands. The ground, the vegetation, and 

 the atmosphere are alive with insect life. Linnaeus has eleven orders of 

 insects, but, as one settler facetiously remarks, had the eminent naturalist in 



