sifting the sand. The mixed quartz, sand, and gold are made to pass over quicksilver, which unites with and retains the gold, allowing the sand to be washed away. The quicksilver is afterwards driven off from the gold by being heated in a retort. An ounce of gold (worth about £4) in a ton of quartz pays very well.

8. Australia is rich in other minerals. Copper, tin, iron, coal, lead, precious stones-in fact all the valuable minerals have been found, and there are mines where most of them are worked.

LESSON 69.-SOME AUSTRALIAN QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS.

1. Of the kangaroo it is unnecessary to say much. Every one is well acquainted nowadays with the principal characteristics of these curious animals, which afford so many days' sport every season to those fond of the chase. They are everywhere to be met with and are usually of the ordinary dull brown.

2. The flying-foxes (a kind of large bats) are a great nuisance to the fruit-grower. These animals will sometimes invade a garden in such numbers as almost to destroy everything green in the shape of a tree. About sunset heavy clouds of them may sometimes be seen darkening the air, continuing their flight in one direction for an hour or two until one is led to wonder where such myriads can bestow themselves by day, or where they can feed at night.

3. The flying-squirrel is a pretty little animal, with beautiful fur, which, unlike the flying-fox, makes an excellent dish. They can be easily tamed and make very amusing pets. Like the flying-foxes, these little

creatures prey on the fruit-trees and gardens of the settlers.

4. The dingo or native dog is the only carnivorous animal. Their numbers are very large and the depredations they commit among sheep and calves are often very serious.

5. The bandicoot and kangaroo-rat are two pretty little animals, which hide in hollow logs and feed principally at night. Like the kangaroo, flying-fox, and flyingsquirrel, they are marsupials, carrying their young in a natural pocket. The bandicoot is plump and fat, about the size of a rabbit and better eating.

6. The kangaroo-rat is simply a miniature kangaroo, and the name rat is a misnomer. It runs, or rather leaps, remarkably fast, and doubles in its track without slackening its speed. Very few dogs are swift enough to catch one.

1

7. There are many birds which always live on friendly terms with mankind. Chief among these is that earlyrising, merry old chap, the laughing jack-ass. Like many another person of sterling merit, both his name and appearance are against this bird; and certainly his gray speckled plumage, big head, and monstrous beak forbid his being looked on as a beauty. But he is a deadly enemy of the snake, which he kills with his powerful beak, and for this reason he is specially protected and petted.

8. He seems to look on it as a capital joke that he is up before everybody else, and he sits on a tall tree to see the sun rise chuckling and laughing in the jolliest way. But he comes out strongest when he happens to light on the camp of some traveller and spies him asleep, rolled in his blanket, or perchance just awoke, sitting up to light his pipe in the embers at his feet.

9. Every laughing jackass appears to think this the

1 This bird is a kind of kingfisher, about as large as a rook.

most ludicrous sight in the world; it is to him a neverfailing source of the most explosive and violent mirth. His harsh yet funny laughter now breaks out in peal after peal; all the rest of the family in that part of the bush

hasten to join in the fun, and soon the camp is enlivened with their united laughter, breaking out overhead in all directions.

10. The only time when our jocose friend feels dejected is during wet weather or on its approach. He may now be seen sitting on a branch or fence in the most abject state of melancholy. His head is buried deep between

his shoulders, his feathers are rough and dishevelled, and you are inclined to believe that he will never laugh at anybody again.

11. Less known than this are some other very merry birds which enliven the camp of the solitary bushmen. In some parts of the country we have been startled when lying in the tent half awake by hearing one of these pert rascals shout "Get up, get up!" whilst another, as if to put a finishing stroke to the insult, would say in a deeper tone "You lazy rascal!" Perhaps it may be the same bird that makes both these little speeches, as they are usually to be heard in the same place.

12. There is a bird in the Barcoo district which urgently advises the traveller or stockman to "quit the Barcoo;" and in many places one is startled, when perhaps resting for a few minutes under the shade of a tree, at hearing a bird overhead threaten "to tell your father." Many of them have harsh and grating voices, but others have very

sweet notes.

13. There are plenty of ducks, gray, black, and black and white. Some of these roost on trees, having claws to enable them to make good their hold. There is something very queer to an Englishman in seeing a covey of ducks rise from a water-hole and perch among the trees, but one soon gets used to this as well as other novelties. The Queen of the Colonies.

LESSON 70.-DIVISIONS AND TOWNS.-I.

1. The Australian colonies are six in number-New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania. Each of these has a governor appointed by the Queen, and a parliament of its own.

2. New South Wales is five times as large as England and Wales. Its principal products are wool, gold, and coal. The wool is of very fine quality, and the gold mines yield 300,000 ounces annually. Being the oldest colony its manufactures are larger than those of its neighbours, and it is able to supply them with tobacco, sugar, silk, mineral-oil (distilled from coal), and metal goods. The coal town and port has received the appropriate name of Newcastle.

3. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is the oldest city in Australia. It is prettily situated on Port Jackson, one of the safest, deepest, and most picturesque harbours in the world; the roads and harbour works, due to convict labour, are good, and the public buildings are handsome. All the large cities of the continent have public gardens for pleasure and for cultivating foreign plants.

4. It would be difficult to find more delightful gardens. than those of Sydney, their natural beauty of situation upon the sloping shores of the bay being enhanced by the sub-tropical vegetation. The population, including suburbs, is over 220,000. Paramatta (Pa-ra-mat'-ta), in the suburbs, where a female convict establishment formerly existed, is the centre of a fruit-growing districtof orangeries, orchards, and vineyards.

5. Victoria is the smallest, but the most populous and wealthy of the colonies; it was separated from New South Wales in 1851. Gold to the value of £200,000,000 has been raised in this colony since 1851. The mines of Sandhurst and Ballarat are the most productive. Other metals exist, but even in Victoria the yield of wool exceeds that of gold and metals in value.

6. Melbourne is the largest city in Australia; fifty years ago no white man had ever trod upon the site now