SYDNEY AND PRINCIPAL TOWNS. 265 



and sees tlic bows of tall iiiei-cliantineii from all quarters of the globe 

 projecting- across the very footway, so that passers-by walk under 

 tlieui as they go to and fro about tbc city^s busy affairs. Sometimes 

 i t frames a block of buildings like the Joint Stock liank, or a quiet 

 church, or a space of green grass and trees in one of the public parks. 

 Looking citywards from the Domain entrance at Jient-street, the view 

 is made up of massive buildings outlined against the sky; and as the 

 observer looks up Bridge-street from the Kxchange, the trees and 

 public offices lead the eye until the view is closed by Government 

 House gates. From Flagstaff Hill, near the Obsei-vatory, the prospect 

 is of a different character. It takes us away from the city across the 

 near arm of the harbour to where the two rivers thread their silver 

 way among the trees towards the folded hills that bound the blue 

 horizon; just as from the corresponding elevation near Governor 

 Bourke's statue the eye follows the windings of the harbour until tliey 

 reach the imposing water-gates of the Heads, seven miles away. 

 Perhaps no city in the world has a fairer outlook. For mile after 

 mile on either side the shore-line winds in and out in sweeping curves 

 round an endless succession of bays and small peninsulas, where green 

 lawns slope down to the waterside from pleasant residences, and where 

 the native trees groAV up to the very houses of the city. The blue 

 water sparkles in the sun as the moi'ning mists rise and disclose new 

 vistas of beauty. Here and there a green islet breaks the expanse of 

 water, and the ships of war ride at anchor near at hand. From the 

 Palace Garden the view is one not to be lightly paralleled. Just below 

 the eye falls on the mass of green of the Botanical Gardens, and then 

 on the bright waters of the bay^ where the sunlight plays in silver 

 beyond the dead white of a gliding sail. Perhaps an ocean-liner is 

 going down the harbour, delivering the first deliberate half-power 

 strokes of those that are to drive her round the world. On the 

 northern side the eye follows the sinuous coast-line, tracing its cool 

 bays and leafy shades until the point is reached which conceals the 

 entrance of Middle Harbour, another arm of Port Jackson Avith a 

 beauty all its own. The beaches curve against the blue " like sickles 

 of white sand," and all the added charm that long distances and 

 hidden mazes can give are here to enhance the atti-activeness of the 

 harbour and beautify it. This much-lauded charm and beauty of 

 Sydney Harbour are unique in their way. Other places have beaut}- 

 and many have charm. The Ba)^ of Naples is seen at its best at the 

 close of a summer evening from the Capri terraces some miles away. 

 The whole sweep of the bay is before the observer, from the tomb of 

 Virgil at one side to Sorrento on the other. The soft sky, the rosy 

 air, the strange blue of the Mediterranean, the outline of distant 

 Vesuvius with its cloud-wreath of smoke vanishing lightly into the 

 dim azure, the castle of St. Elmo overlooking the town, the ruins of 

 the buried cities and of the pillars of Pa3stum near at hand, make up 

 a picture as enchanting by its beauty as it is fascinating by its historic 

 and classic interest. From the heights above Hongkong the windings 

 of the Ly-ee-Moon Pass, the harbour with its merchant fleets of all 

 nations, and the stretch of the China Sea behind dotted far and near 

 with the junks of Chinese fishermen, picturesque in the distance, and 

 deluding the eye and the fancy together with their suggestion of the 



