Of a

stock. The capital is Perth, on the Swan River. great part of Western Australia very little is known, for it has not been surveyed. As far as can be ascertained there are no very high mountains, nor large rivers; but perhaps some of you boys who like to find your own way about the country, and enjoy long walks through thick woods, may some day make discoveries in West Australia, penetrating into regions where mortal foot has never yet been planted.

The inhabited portion is called the Swan River settlement. Here the colonists petitioned for convicts to be sent out, for the sake of the labour they expected to get out of them.

This story of what may happen in the bush is taken from the Sydney Morning Herald of the year 1869. A child two years and a half old, son of a shepherd named Woods, was missing one morning. All the spare hands of the station, Mr. Plunket, to whom it belonged, and the town police from Dennison, began an active search; but the first track of him was not observed till sunset. There were then found marks of his having tried to drink at a small creek, and prints of his hands and knees were to be seen in the mud. It was too dark to hunt further, so By daylight they found

they all camped out for the night. that the poor child, after crossing the creek, must have made his way for three miles into an open forest, and here all trace was lost. After several hours' search, fresh tracks were found, which showed he had been going round in a circle, which persons who lose their way almost always do. His hood was now picked up, then a tiny footmark upon a cattle-track was eagerly followed for two miles. Then

it was lost, but next a pebble was seen that had lately been moved; the child's legs were clearly tired, and he could not lift them above the stones. Then a wild flower had been gathered, and the fresh leaves were lying on his path; they were not withered, so the sun could not have yet shone on them. Next there were marks of his having trailed a stick after him. The little footsteps were now to be seen towards a bullock-track containing some muddy water. Filthy, as it was, he had tried to drink it, for the mark of his forehead was printed in the mud where he leant down, and one fair hair was left sticking there. Next he must have made for the plains, but these being hard black earth all traces were lost. Hours were spent in hunting for him, every one feeling sure that such a little child could not have gone much longer under a broiling sun without a covering for his head, and nothing to eat for thirty hours. They went on, trusting to Providence and their keen eyesight; at length he was found lying by a log, sound asleep, and holding in his arms a pickle-bottle, partly filled with leaves, pebbles, and flowers. His legs and feet were swelled and cut, and he could hardly speak, but after he was fed and bathed and had on clean clothes he became quite cheerful. When asked where he had slept, he said "With the stars." He must have walked in a circle at least fifteen miles. He will not run away again I should think.

QUEENSLAND.

This is the northern part of Australia.

Its chief

rivers are the Brisbane, flowing into Moreton Bay, and the Albert, flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria. It

is warmer than New South Wales, being more northerly; but if you know where the sun's rays come most directly on the head of the people, you will perceive why the north is warm and the south cold. It seems as if everything there was topsy-turvy.

Queensland can grow everything that will do well in any part of Australia, and many of the productions of India also. When we could not get cotton from America, they tried to plant it, and succeeded. There are still millions of acres of uncultivated ground there, and immense quantities of timber, and what perhaps signifies more still, coal is to be found there. You will wonder what they want with it when there is no cold weather, but if you think, you will remember what use is made of coal here, in enabling you to go and see your friends whenever you choose, for a penny a mile.

It is a rough life that you would lead at present in Queensland; but there are fewer people there in proportion to its size than elsewhere, and a strong hearty boy who is not afraid of work, and has a few pounds saved up, would have an excellent chance of becoming a rich man.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

South Australia is about half as large again as France, has large mines of copper and iron, silver and lead. The Burra-Burra copper is famous through the world. The mines are ninety miles from Adelaide, the capital. Unfortunately their chief river, the Murray, is unlike any other river draining the same extent of country. For

the last 550 miles of its course, it does not receive any addition to its stream, and where it falls into the sea, the breakers make it nearly impossible to enter. If you consider the difficulty of carrying minerals by land, compared to letting the winds and the waves carry them for you, you will see what a disadvantage it is to have no water transport.

It seems strange that South Australia is not more of a corn-growing country, for at the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851, a prize was obtained for some wheat from thence, which was thought to be the finest the world ever yet produced. If any of you are hereafter proud of your farming, why should not you go there and raise some like it? We import corn now from Australia, and good wheat is always certain of a good sale.

VICTORIA.

Victoria is the smallest and the richest, and the most like old England, of all the divisions of Australia. Melbourne is the chief city, it is built on the River YarraYarra. It is a very handsome town, rather like Belgravia, and you might easily fancy yourself in London when driving through it, except from all the houses being new, and the countless parrots and cockatoos in cages outside the windows. To obtain fresh water is the great difficulty in Australia; but at Melbourne they have laid down eighty miles of pipes, and they have tanks that contain enough to last for seven years; at least they can be clean.

Many years ago, before all this was done, a lady and gentleman went there from London. He was a lawyer;

she had never thought of doing anything for her livelihood. But in that rough place, as it was then, nobody wanted to go to law; but they did want to have their clothes washed, and water cost 6d. or 8d. a pail. So this lady took to washing, and people were glad to pay her as much for washing a shirt as that shirt had cost when new in London. Her husband drove a water-cart and fetched the clothes, and they have become very rich and influential people in Melbourne. Often for four months together not one drop of rain falls, the rivers are dried up, and people who have not made tanks for holding a supply, must pay dear for what they want.

The first settlers on the Yarra made a bargain with some of the natives they found roaming about. They undertook to sell the squatters about as much land as the county of Sussex for 20 pair of blankets, 20 tomahawks, 700 knives, 30 pair of scissors, 30 looking-glasses, 200 pocket-handkerchiefs, and a small bag of flour; and a very good bargain it was for the squatters; as people are called who settle down on uninhabited land, build a hut, and either cultivate the ground or get cattle, and have a run, as the portion of land is named of which they take possession. Now the squatters must buy the ground of the Queen of England to whom it all belongs; but at first they asked no leave of any one unless it was of the natives. Then gardens were never thought of, vegetables were unknown; but lately a squatter who would then have lived in a wooden hut, was able to receive the Duke of Edinburgh in a splendid house built in the bush.

The variations in the weather make farming very uncertain. When there was no grass, the settlers boiled down