178 



A US TRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



one of the curious features of this part of Sydney. Victoria Street North runs along 

 the top of the old cliff, the back windows of the houses on its western side looking 

 down upon the mass of dwellings in the valley 

 below. Streets up this steep cliff there are none, 

 but flights of stone steps give a pathway for 

 foot-passengers. From the top of these stairs a 

 good view is obtained of a portion of the city, 

 for the eye ranges over the whole of Woolloo- 

 mooloo Bay, up the western slope of the Domain 

 to Hyde Park and the lofty buildings beyond. 

 The valley of YVoolloomooloo itself is the 

 least pleasing part of the prospect, for it is a 

 poor quarter, though not one of the poorest. 

 The main streets are laid out straight, and of a 

 fair width, but subdivisions, carried out by private 



.*< 



PITT STREET LOOK INC SOUTH. 



individuals before the present stringent law regulated such matters, have multiplied narrow 

 streets and lanes, in which rows of squalid tenements are huddled together. On the elevated 

 ridge of Darlinghurst the houses are generally of a superior class, and the principal street 

 on the summit, Macleay Street, leading to Pott's Point, contains several terraces of fair- 

 sized houses, and many handsome detached residences surrounded with beautiful gardens 

 and well-kept grounds. To the south Victoria Street leads past St. John's Church the 

 graceful spired tower of which is a really fine specimen of Gothic architecture on to the 

 Gaol, whose grim bleak walls are scored and scarred with the cyphers of their convict hewers. 



