THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



As the sun goes down in a blaze of splendour, its horizontal light, smiting the 

 houses that line the esplanade at St. Kilda, kindles a fiery reflection upon every window 

 facing the west, so that the general effect is that of a great conflagration without its 

 attendant volumes of smoke. On the opposite side of the Bay the revolving light flashes 

 out above the indistinct mass of buildings which are already enveloped in shadow, while 

 the tall spars of the great three-masters lying at anchor in the centre of the Bay stand 

 out in clear and delicate relief with all their cordage, and rest on a noble background 

 of crimson and amber, that shade off into an indescribable demi-tint of bluish green, 

 above which the new moon hangs her silver crescent in the deeper azure overhead. 



PORT MELBOURNE. 



In the early days of Victoria, St. Kilda which certainly presents no resemblance 

 whatever to the lonely and rock-girdled island in northern seas whence it derives its 

 name was a pretty little straggling village, with an unpretending inn or two, and a 

 number of equally unpretending cottages, scattered over a large area of ground, accessible 

 by devious tracks which had been formed through the dense and all-prevailing ti-tree 

 scrub. At this moment it is a compact borough containing fifteen thousand inhabitants, 

 and a place of residence favoured by the professional and mercantile classes of the city ; 

 and although it contains many stately houses encircled with ample pleasure grounds, yet 

 numerous terraces have replaced the detached abodes which formerly stood in the centre 

 of spacious gardens ; large hotels have supplanted the simpler hostelries of a more 

 primitive epoch ; and the salubrity of the air has also promoted the establishment of 

 private schools of a superior character. 



