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bridge of three arches, with two dry arches at each end, is about to be constructed at a cost of £100,000. Our readers must not suppose that the Yarra is a conspicuous feature of Melbourne. It is pretty, tortuous, and rapid, with varied banks, but, as Mr. Trollope remarks, "it seems to have little to do with the city. It furnishes the means of rowing to young men, and waters the Botanical Gardens. But it is not a 'joy for ever' to the Melbournites as the Seine is to the people of Paris, or as the Inn is to the people of Innsbruck. You might live in Melbourne all your life and not know that the Yarra-yarra was running by your door." Yet the scenery of the Yarra-yarra is very pleasant just outside the city. Studley

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Park is one of the best places to view its picturesque and intricate windings. Studley Park is a large hilly recreation-ground of over 200 acres, by which the Yarra flows in loops, and curves sometimes between steep banks clad with vines and fruit-trees. There are some rapids here locally called the "Falls," close by the spot where the little Meri-meri brings down all tributary waters. The walk along the Studley Park banks, 100 feet above the little river below, is a very pleasing one. The stream, generally so peaceful, has swelled at times to a great river. In 1863 it rose forty feet, and overflowed the lower parts of Melbourne and the lowlands between it and Sandridge. Great damage was done to vineyards and other cultivated grounds on its banks. The destruction of rare trees and plants in the Botanical Gardens was very lamentable.

There are several markets in Melbourne. One of the principal, and perhaps the most

Melbourne ]

"PADDY'S MARKET."

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interesting, is the Eastern, familiarly known as "Paddy's Market," built at a cost of £77,223. Early in the morning on Wednesdays and Saturdays this market presents an animated scene. The abundant stores of potatoes, cabbages, pineapples, peaches, apricots, plums, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables, attract a goodly concourse of buyers. But it is on Saturday night that this market bursts forth in its full glory, when the stalls are lit up with gas-light. Along the passages an immense crowd of men and women and boys and girls passes continuously, gazing, buying, talking, laughing, whilst the dealers shout the merits of their wares. Everything that can be eaten or drunk, or worn, or worked with or played with seems on sale here. Oysters, stockings, crockery, chisels, Bibles, song-books, old clothes, opossums, tinware, black swans, and innumerable other things are

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A red-faced Around him

The mutton

all near at hand; fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables of every sort are cheap and plentiful. "Cheap Jack" shouts his bargains, and Punch and Judy and Dog Toby attract their crowd as in the old country. Mutton is a very abundant article. "I was attracted by a loud voice," says an eye-witness, "calling out, "This way for cheap mutton!' man in butcher's garb was standing on a barrow in the midst of the crowd. were piled a number of half-carcases of sheep, ready dressed for cooking. was sweet, and of fair average quality. The salesman was holding up his half-sheep (cut lengthways through the middle), while he waved the other hand with animated gestures towards his audience. Cheap mutton here! come along, now's your time; who'll buy cheap mutton?' A pause ensues; the mutton is lowered for a moment to ease the arm; up it goes once more, and then I hear him sing out, Sold again and got the sugar!' (colonial slang for ready money). 'Half a sheep for a shilling!' The purchaser was a little girl, who tottered along with her load as if she held a little brother upside down.

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A young man took another at the same price. But there were few bidders; the supply was evidently greater than the demand; and it was certain that the salesman would have several half-carcases unsold. . What, I thought, would the starving poor, the employed and the unemployed classes of London and Manchester, and of the other great towns and cities of England, Ireland, and Scotland, think of this-half a sheep for a shilling, and scarcely any bidders!"

In Little Bourke Street there is a Chinese quarter. In the dull, dark, and not very clean shops, tea, rice, opium, and various articles specially required by the Chinese are the chief commodities sold. The adjacent houses are tenanted by swarms of Celestials. Of these Chinese immigrants, numbers are hawkers in the streets of Melbourne, carrying about various fancy wares in baskets suspended from the ends of stout bamboo-canes laid across their shoulders. The Melbourne Chinese destroy their picturesqueness by trying to resemble other colonists. "When you have seen one," says the Marquis De Beauvoir, "you have seen five hundred yellow as tobacco-juice, screaming like cockatoos, with a smell that would frighten the rats away, they dress themselves up as Europeans and dandies, and hide their long pig-tails under the collars of their waistcoats, thereby destroying all their charm." The Chinese immigrants appear to be for the most part a law-abiding and very industrious race, but it would be impossible to enter here into any consideration of the various phases of the "Chinese question." At Emerald Hill there is a Chinese joss-house, or place of worship, with all appurtenances for the due celebration of religious rites.

The city of Melbourne proper has no open spaces, but in the contiguous municipalities which unite in forming Melbourne-as Finsbury, Chelsea, and other places unite to form London-there are numerous parks, gardens, and reserves. The most extensive are the Botanical Gardens, on the south of the Yarra, excellent as specimens of landscape gardening, and stocked with a valuable collection of choice plants and trees. They rise in a succession of terraces from a bend in the river, and enclose what was once a swamp, but is now a lake, with its mimic islands-the haunts of water-fowl innumerable. Upon the banks the tall Indian bamboo and the Nile papyrus are seen flourishing. About the gardens are plots of olive, tea-plant, tobacco, cotton, and so forth; terraces of aloes; hedge-rows of the beautiful cupressus; and, in short, collections of trees and plants and flowers from almost every clime. The various walks make up an aggregate of twenty-two and a half miles. The conservatories for delicate plants, the aviary, the playground, the shrubberies peopled by the English thrush and other songsters, the secluded bowers, the museum, with its 350,000 specimens: all these and other attractions combine to render the gardens a spot of great interest to the naturalist and tourist, and a very favourite resort of the citizens of Melbourne. There are numerous other gardens and parks, and reserves and squares round about Melbourne, as, for instance, the Carlton Gardens, in which stands the International Exhibition Building, and the Fitzroy Gardens, a really beautiful spot in the midst of a dense population.

Surrounding the city proper are several townships, each with its own Mayor, Town Council, and prominent Town Hall. These suburbs, though only helping to form the great aggregate generally known as Melbourne, would be very respectable towns by themselves. Thus, Collingwood has over 18,000 inhabitants, Emerald Hill 17,000, Richmond 16,000, Fitzroy 15,000, and so on. Three of these suburbs North Melbourne, East Melbourne, and

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GEELONG.

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Collingwood-are contiguous to the city proper. Collingwood, with its abundant taverns and pleasure-gardens, and long rows of dwelling-houses, is the popular quarter, forming a striking contrast with the elegantly-built adjacent suburb of Fitzroy, where the tranquil streets and houses and inhabitants seem ever to wear the aspect of aristocratic calmness. At Richmond, beyond Fitzroy, one is already in the country; the streets ascend and descend the hilly slopes, forming umbrageous avenues, and bordered by gardens, and elegant cottage residences scattered here and there in picturesque confusion. St. Kilda may not inaptly be termed the garden of Melbourne. Its beautiful villas are tenanted by the most affluent of the merchants, lawyers, and public officials of Melbourne. It is a sea-side resort, as are also Brighton and Queenscliffe. To all the outlying suburbs a good service of railways conveys the citizens from their places of business to their semi-rural homes. On the south and east, outside the suburbs named, the metropolis of Victoria is surrounded for miles with scattered villa residences.

Melbourne is supplied with water from the celebrated Yan Yean reservoir, an artificial lake nine miles in circumference, situated twenty miles from the city. The site is at the base of the Plenty Ranges, and looks as if formed by nature for its present purpose, being hemmed in by sloping elevations on the north, east, and west, so that it only required to be enclosed on the south to form one of the finest reservoirs in the world. The artificial barrier is a magnificent embankment, 3,159 feet in length, and thirty-one feet high, 170 feet wide at the base, and twenty feet at the top. But in the centre of this embankment is a solid wall of puddle, with foundations ten feet below the natural surface of the ground. This wall is thirty feet thick at the base, and ten feet at the top. By thus damming up the accumulation of water flowing down from the adjacent hills, the valley has been transformed into a lake holding 6,500,000,000 gallons of water, and consequently able to supply unfailingly the 10,000,000 gallons required by Melbourne daily. A million of money has been spent on this great work, on which Melbourne people look with no little pride.

Besides Melbourne there are three other towns in Victoria of considerable importanceGeelong, Ballarat, and Sandhurst. Geelong dates its rise from the same period as Melbourne, and at one time rejoiced in the hope of becoming the capital of the growing colony. It was incorporated as a town in 1849. It is situated forty-five miles to the south-west of Melbourne, on Corio Bay, the western arm of Port Philip. The town is well laid out; on the northern side it slopes down to the bay, and on the south towards the river Barwon; it is sheltered by the Ballarine range, and is considered to be the healthiest town in the colony. The country around is very fertile, abounding in farms, vineyards and orchards, and Geelong itself much resembles a quiet English seaport town. In the sheltered bay there are four very capacious bathing establishments, which are well supported, not only by the residents of the locality, but by large numbers of up-country residents, who stay here as visitors for many weeks during the summer season. The streets of Geelong are wide, and are mostly built at right angles, and abound with attractive shops and well-filled stores. The public buildings are numerous and handsome; amongst the most important being the Town Hall, Hospital, Chamber of Commerce, and the numerous banks and churches.

Geelong is an important commercial centre. It had become famous in the wool trade before Victoria was revolutionised by the gold discoveries. Here was established the first

woollen mill in the colony. The looms of Geelong send their products throughout Australia, these products consisting mainly of excellent tweeds, and to some extent shawls and blankets. But an immense quantity of Australian wool is shipped from Geelong direct to England for manufacture. The harbour is large and deep, and since the bar was cut, at a considerable cost, the largest wool ships have been able to take in their lading at the wharves. On the Barwon river there are some immense tanneries. The extensive works of the Meat Preserving Company, which once did an enormous trade, are now closed. Geelong has been connected by rail with Melbourne since 1855; the result has been more advantageous to the latter city than the former. The present population of Geelong is 23,200.

The city of Geelong stands for the most part on a ridge extending along the edge of Corio Bay, the principal streets running up to the summit or crest, but the ascent is so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible. The top of the ledge is level for a considerable extent, and here are situated most of the churches and public buildings, within large enclosures. Many of the more beautiful forest trees have been allowed to remain, so that the whole effect is very pleasing and picturesque. On the opposite side is a gradual descent through the public pleasure-ground, bordered by well-built streets, to the Barwon river.

Next to Melbourne in population and importance is Ballarat, the great city of the gold-fields, standing upon the southern side of the Great Dividing Range, 104 miles W.N.W. of Melbourne, with which city it is connected by a railway vid Geelong. Nearly 48,000 inhabitants reside in this spacious and well-built town, which had no existence prior to the gold discoveries. It is situated in the midst of a fine undulating country, 1,437 feet above the level of the sea, and is rich in social advantages and civic institutions, schools, hospitals, public gardens, free libraries, and so forth, abounding here. It is the gold-mines which have created and still largely support the town; but in addition to this source of wealth, the district around Ballarat is well suited to agriculture. Large crops of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes are gathered in, and the pasturage is so excellent that the wool from the neighbourhood of Ballarat commands the highest price in the market.

The streets of Ballarat display the usual features of a metropolitan city, with plenty of handsome shops and public buildings, also a theatre and various places of amusement. The city consists of two townships, called East and West Ballarat, divided by a small stream known as the Yarrowce Creek. Each township has its own Mayor and Councillors. East Ballarat, which lies the lowest, is the oldest portion of the town. The chief thoroughfare here is Bridge Street, a narrow roadway, both sides closely packed with shops for the sale of all sorts of ware and commodities. In local parlance East Ballarat is known as "the Old Town," yet its site was wild forest before 1851. Ballarat West is now the principal part of the town for banks, hotels, and mercantile establishments. The main thoroughfare is Sturt Street, a noble centre roadway, about 200 feet wide, bordered by rows of substantial brick and stone-built houses, handsome banks and other public edifices, and a spacious public garden. Here, too, is situated the famous Ballarat Mining Exchange, with its motley group of stock-jobbers, shareholders, and speculators.

The immediate suburbs of Ballarat are exceedingly unprepossessing in appearance; the digger has set his mark everywhere; immense trees lie scattered about; the ground is disfigured by huge chasms; everywhere it has been dug up, scoured, and deformed. Indeed,

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