416 AUSTRALASIA. 



colonial empire. Melbourne, the "Magnificent," claims, like Rome, to be built 

 on seven hills, and in the Yarra-Yarra it may also boast of a modest Tiber with 

 muddy or yellowish waters. Although founded at some distance inland it has 

 grown rapidly seawards, and has already lined the beach with monumental quays 

 and façades. The numerous suburbs, each with a town hall and municipality, and 

 each forming a chess-board of streets and squares distinct from the central paral- 

 lelogram, stretch to great distances in all directions, and collectively comprise 

 a population of about four hundred thousand, or rather more than one third of all 

 the inhabitants of the colony. 



Far more regularly constructed than Sydney, Melbourne claims also to possess 

 in the Houses of Parliament, the Grovernor's Palace, the University, museums, 

 churches, and banks, a number of superb monuments, on which no expense has 

 been spared. The libraries already rival in importance the secondary collections 

 in Europe, and the Observatory, established in the midst of extensive gardens east 

 of the city, is provided with the most costly instruments by the best constructors. 

 The local savants have even largely contributed to the study of the Austral heavens, 

 as well as to the geological exploration of the continent. In Melbourne has been 

 projected that expedition of discovery in the Antarctic seas, which the parsimony 

 of the Central Government has hitherto prevented from being equipped and 

 despatched. Here also has been founded the Australasian Geographical Society. 



The port of Melbourne, discovered by Murray in 1802 and more specially de- 

 signated by the name of Hobson's Bay, is crowded with shipping, amid which 

 hundreds of steamers ply from shore to shore of the roadstead. The ocean packets 

 stop seven or eight miles below the city proper, near the quays of Sandridge, or 

 Port Melbourne, and in the WiUia)mtou-n docks at the extremity of a tongue of 

 land near the head of the bay. To the same commercial centre belong also the 

 towns which follow round the vast triangular inlet, the head of which forms the 

 port of Melbourne. One of these satellites of the capital is the town of Geelong, 

 a busy centre of numerous industries, such as tanneries, spinning-mills, preserving 

 establishments, and the like. The founders of Geelong hoped that, being situated 

 nearer the sea, this place would soon outstrip Melbourne as a commercial mart. 

 Queensc/if, on the west side of the strait or " Rip," giving access to Port Fhili/p, 

 is also a dependency of Melbourne, its watch-tower and chief bulwark towards the 

 southern ocean ; east of this gully Nepean Point marks the site of the buildings 

 connected with the quarantine station. 



The small watering-places dotted round the shores of the inlet and along the 

 adjacent coast are all indebted for their prosperity to the visitors from the neigh- 

 bouring capital. Innumerable villas and little rural retreats are also connected with 

 Melbourne by the twelve railways radiating in all directions from this great centre 

 of Australasian life. Some ten miles to the north-east lies the artificial lake Yan- 

 Yean, 14,000 acres in extent, which is formed by the River Plenty, a tributary of 

 the Yarra-Yarra. This great reservoir contains about 6,380,000,000 gallons of 

 water, or sufficient to supply the city for a twelvemonth at the daily rate of forty 

 gallons per head. 



