i+6 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



to the breeding of high-class sheep, which have served to make the colony 

 famous throughout Australia, because the flocks which now supply a vast 

 proportion of the world's wool have been bred from studs imported from these 

 areas. 



The train passes through glades and over plains, round mountain 

 sides and over streams ; and at Deloraine the traveller is delighted by the 

 bold appearance of Quamby Bluff, jutting from the end of a long range 

 against the blue sky. The Mersey has beauties, and so have the Don, the 

 Cam, the Forth, and numberless other limpid streams which ' bring down 

 music from the mountains to the sea ' — this music being particularly grateful 

 to the visitor who, it may be, has just left the parched plains of Central 

 Australia. 



Back from this coast, through wild country to wilder, lies Mount Bischoff, 

 the richest tin mine in the world. This prize was secured, unhappily not for 

 himself, by an old gentleman voted eccentric by his neighbours, but so 

 strongly inspired with the belief that rich tin' deposits must exist in the 

 interior that for months and months he would wander through the bush 

 prospecting under conditions of hardship scarcely conceivable-- a long way 

 from the tracks of humanity, absolutely self-reliant and thoroughly confident. 

 At last, where a pretty river, the Waratah, turns a prominent hill and runs 

 over a high precipice, he found the long sought-for treasure. He also found 

 on his return to the haunts of men that his story was not believed, that 

 ' Philosopher Smith,' as he was designated, was not able to easily secure the 

 assistance requisite for the development of his discovery. In time, however, 

 he succeeded, and the Mount Bischoff Company was formed, and started 

 upon its career. Mr. Smith held his allotment of stock through the early 

 years of work, but gradually he was compelled to realise in the market at 

 ridiculously low rates. Twelve years ago the shares went almost begging at 

 thirty shillings each, and they have since ruled as high as eighty pounds. It is 

 difficult, on looking at the mine, to conjecture when the lode will be exhausted. 

 The ' faces ' being worked from part of the mountain, and as the material is 

 brought under treatment, of course, the picturesqueness of the scene has to 

 suffer. 



When ' Philosopher Smith ' broke upon it he must, if he was anything 

 of a philosopher, have been greatly impressed with its magnificence, for 

 then not only were the mountains lofty, but they bore magnificent forests, 

 and the babbling streams were delightfully pure. Now the traveller can only 

 admire the mountains, which are still high, unless, of course, he is also im- 

 pressed by the enterprise which has drawn the wealth from the hillside, 

 albeit that in so doine the forests have suffered and the waters have been 

 stained. 



Beyond Mount Bischoff the woods grow denser, and traffic through them 

 to newer tin-fields on the west coast is infrequent and hazardous. Twelve 



