A US TRA LA SI A IL L US TRA TED. 



Bendemeer and Salisbury Plains, runs a few miles west of \\~alcha and through Uralla. 

 For a space of about ten miles across the Moonbi a vast breadth of some of the 

 grandest and most characteristic of Australian scenery is seen from the railway : great 

 round hills, forest-clothed to their summit ; crag-fronted mountains with deep-ploughed 

 ravines in their sides ; giant tree-ferns, seen palm-like in the water-fed nooks below ; 

 and the lords of the forest, the great blue-gums of the mountains, towering (like the 

 serried lances of the Mil tonic host) above the bright blossomed odorous scrub-growth. 

 Occasionally the glint of a brook or the flash of a waterfall is seen, the black cockatoo 

 shrieks as he flies disturbed from his lofty eyrie, and the eagle floats along the sky, 

 apparently regarding even this most stupendous innovation 'of the human race with 

 supreme contempt. 



Uralla is situated on the Rocky River, and good gold has been found in the 

 beds of ancient 'streams covered in many places by eruptive volcanic matter or the 

 detritus of ages, so that the town has been largely supported by miners. Fifteen miles 

 beyond is the city of Armidale, at an elevation of over three thousand three hundred 

 feet. This is the cathedral town of the Anglican bishop of the North, and sometimes 

 his residence. The cathedral church of St. Peter's is one of the finest brick structures 

 in the place. The city, also the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, is the centre of 

 a district of large and varied resources. The open downs invite the plough, and miners 

 have found profitable scope for their labour within an easy distance. The soil and 

 climate are especially adapted for orchards, the European fruit produced here being of 

 first-class quality. Antimony exists in considerable quantities, and the ore is rich. 

 Churches, schools, official and commercial buildings give indications of a rich, prosperous 



city. The Post Office is a large 

 and handsome structure, while the 

 banks are built in a style showing 

 unmistakably faith in permanent 

 and profitable business. Armidale 

 is also the centre of a district rich 

 in natural beauty. A few miles 

 from the town the mountain chain 

 rises wild and picturesque, with 

 precipitous heights and deep 

 gorges, down which after summer 

 storms and winter rains great 

 bodies of water rush, producing 

 the Uangar, Wallamumbi and 

 many other lesser and unnamed 

 cataracts. The Wallamumbi Falls 

 are of peculiar beauty, especially 

 at that hour when the slanting 



sun-rays, playing on the water-mist, spans the twin torrents with a bow of prism tints. 

 In ordinary seasons, however, water is scarce here, and only rivulets trickle through 

 the ferns and fall in spray-showers over the bare faces of the rocks. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL AT ARMIDALE. 



