3S6 .IUSTR.-U..IM.-1 ILLUSTRATED. 



a most mysterious manner. Their boat was found, but no trace of their bodies. The 

 occurrence is known to this day as "The Bermagui Mystery." 



r-x.i. our of the most prosperous districts of the coast, next claims attention. The 

 town is placed on a well-chosen site, and being the mart of the district, is a thriving 

 centre. The sea-port, Tathra, is ten miles off, but farther south is a more reliable outlet 

 at Eden. The principal industries of the district are maize-growing, cheese-making and 

 pig-slaughtering; Hega bacon commanding the highest price in the metropolitan markets. 

 On the road inland stands Candelo, a town romantically situated, and the centre of one 

 of the best areas of the many good portions of the district. Twofold Bay, however, is 

 not so much used as the founders of the town expected, steamers of small draught 

 being able to make Tathra and Merimbula, which are nearer by road to the chief town. 

 Shipments of cattle, however, are frequently made to Tasmania, and vessels bound for 

 Victoria occasionally make it a port of call. 



From the coast to the cooler regions of the table-land two roads are open for 

 choice. For a journey in the saddle the rugged picturesque track, known by the team- 

 sters as " The Big Jack," may be taken ; but if coaching or buggy-driving is preferred 

 Tantawanglo Road is the easier. A day's ride from Bega can be made to cover the 

 intervening space, but it is pleasanter to travel slowly and tarry for a day at Candelo, 

 distant fourteen miles. Prior to 1885, the last year of what may be, without exaggeration, 

 termed the " Great Drought," Candelo was justly considered one of the most prosperous 

 farming centres of the colony. Luxuriant pastures and never-failing creeks, aided by a 

 climate with which no fault could be found, furnished advantages which industrious 

 farmers were not slow in appreciating. But when, after years of prosperity, drought 

 came, its results were disastrous in the extreme. There were no stores of fodder to meet 

 the emergency, and immense sums were spent in purchasing hay and corn to save the 

 valuable dairy-herds. In too many cases the drought outlasted the bank accounts, and 

 many of the farmers had to face what they had never even dreamt of ruin. The frowns of 

 adverse fortune have now disappeared ; prosperity again crowns the efforts of the farmer, and 

 Candelo, with its many picturesque homesteads and cheerful gardens, is once more gay. 



It is necessary to rise about two thousand feet before the edge of the great 

 pastoral country, Monaro, is reached. To the west, not many miles off, are the Gipps- 

 land Ranges, and closer still the boundary line which divides the mother-colony from 

 Victoria. In front is the cozy town of Bombala, surrounded by grazing estates and farms, 

 the soil of which is as good as any in the colony. Such country as this is admirably 

 suited for farmers in all but one particular its distance from profitable markets. Hops, 

 equal to the best Kentish, and fruits of almost all kinds may here be grown. In years 

 to come, and as population increases, the land may be put to its most profitable uses 

 and large quantities of produce shipped from Eden. There are, too ; lodes of valuable 

 ore gold, silver and lead which may materially assist the district's exports. The late 

 Rev. \\ . B. Clarke, an eminent geologist, who carefully examined this part of the 

 country, used to say that some day Bombala would be a place of big chimneys. But 

 though promising indications abound, no profitable mine has as yet established the 

 popular belief in the treasures under-ground. The geological formation of the locality is 

 silurian, and some of the organic remains found embedded in the slate are believed to 



