AUSTRALIA 
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origin of its population might lead one to expect. The typical faces of England, Ireland, and 
Scotland, which the visitor meets at every step, would remind him of the fact that he is in 
a British colony, even if the hospitality extended on all sides had not already emphatically 
told him so. The handsome public and private buildings which adorn this newly-founded 
city of the Antipodes have been rendered familiar to the home reader by the illustrated 
press of Melbourne ; nor are the 
charming grounds of the Botanical 
Gardens, the winding banks of the 
Yarra-Yarra, as well as the many 
picturesque sites to be found in 
Victoria, less well known to those 
who take an interest in this land 
of gold-mines, sheep-runs, and 
gum-tree forests. It would be 
impossible within the limits here 
available to give any adequate idea 
of the history and present status 
of Victoria—of its commerce, its 
educational and benevolent insti¬ 
tutions, its government, and its 
social life. Those who seek such 
information may find in many 
recent works by observant travel¬ 
lers, as well as natives, abundant 
evidence of the rapid growth and 
importance of one of England s 
most promising daughters. 
In striking contrast with 
the somewhat tame surroundings 
of Hobson’s Bay is the scenery of 
the Australian Alps, a westerly 
extension of which divides Mel¬ 
bourne from the basin of the 
Murray River. Here, in many a 
sheltered gully watered by mountain 1 fernshaw, north-east of Melbourne. 
torrents, the Characteristic vegetation of Australia may be seen in all its splendour—the fern tree, 
with its exquisitely tender and fresh green foliage, and the white gum tree, whose stupendous 
trunk rises straight and gradually tapering from its forest bed to a he.ght of several hundred feet 
-the first the most graceful, the latter the most gigantic representative of the vegetable king om. 
The white gum, known to the botanist under the name of Eucalyptus Amygdalma, rs 
