124 



AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



be a very fine city ; and, although it is too new a settlement to contain 

 many buildings of special note, it will not long be without them. 



Still following the coast, and passing the little mountain-bound port of 

 Cardwell, which nestles at the feet of great hills which, by cutting it off from 

 inland traffic, have stunted its growth, and by the ports of Cairns and Port 

 Douglas, which dispute between them the lucrative position of outlet for the 

 mineral fields on the elevated mountain plateau lying just behind them, we 

 come to Cooktown. This town, built at the mouth of the Endeavour River, 

 on the spot where Captain Cook careened his vessel after the discovery of 

 Australia, was called into existence by the great gold rush of the Palmer, 

 described elsewhere. Its fortunes waxed with the rush, and waned as the 





Townsville, North Queensland. 



alluvial field became exhausted ; so that its population, Chinese and European, 

 is now probably not more than two thousand souls. There is, however, a 

 future before it, because a railway, now in course of construction, will soon 

 link it with the Palmer gold-field, where there are hundreds of gold-reefs 

 awaiting cheaper carriage and more certain communication with the coast for 

 their full development. In the meantime Cooktown is becoming a centre for 

 the nascent New Guinea trade, and a certain amount of settlement is taking 

 place in its vicinity. This is the best port on the mainland of the Cape 

 York peninsula, but at its extremity there is the port of Thursday Island, a 

 shipping centre, and the northern outpost of Australia. At Thursday Island 

 there is a Government resident, charged with the control of the pearling fleet, 



