THE FOUNDING OF MELBOURNE.--BATMAN AND FAWKNER.--GROWTH OF MELBOURNE,
CHICAGO, AND SAN FRANCISCO COMPARED.--SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE
AUSTRALIAN METROPOLIS.--COLLINS STREET, BOURKE STREET, AND OTHER
THOROUGHFARES.--A GENERAL DESCRIPTION.--THE YARRA RIVER.--BOTANICAL
GARDENS.--DINING AT A SUBURBAN RESIDENCE.--THE SUBURBS OF
MELBOURNE.--HOW ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS BECAME ONE MILLION IN FIFTY
YEARS.--SANDRIDGE (PORT MELBOURNE).--SCENES IN THE
HARBOR.--REMINISCENCES OF THE GOLD RUSH OF 1851.--BUSH-RANGERS AND THEIR
PERFORMANCES.--PLUNDERING A SHIP IN PORT.--HOBSON'S BAY AND PORT PHILLIP
BAY.--WILLIAMSTOWN AND ST. KILDA.--SHARK FENCES.--QUEENSCLIFF.--CURIOUS
ROCKS ON THE COAST.--GEELONG.--MELBOURNE NEWSPAPERS.
Frank and Fred were impatient to see Melbourne, the city of which they
had heard so much, and whose praises are loudly chanted by every
resident of the colony of Victoria. As they rode from the
railway-station to their hotel they could hardly believe that they were
in a city where half a century ago there was little more than a clearing
in the forest on the banks of the Yarra.
Yet so it was. On June 2, 1835, John Batman ascended the Yarra and
Salt-water rivers, and made a bargain with the native chiefs of the
locality to purchase a large area of ground, more than one thousand two
hundred square miles, for which he paid a few shirts and blankets, some
sugar, flour, and other trifles--probably not a hundred dollars' worth
altogether. The Government afterwards set aside his purchase, but paid
to Batman and his partners the sum of £7000 for the relinquishment of
their claim.
Batman returned immediately to Tasmania to procure a fresh supply of
provisions, and near the end of August, 1835, during his absence,
another adventurer, John Fawkner, landed on the banks of the Yarra from
the schooner _Enterprise_, and made his camp in the forest on the bank
of the stream. He brought five men, two horses, two pigs, one cat, and
three kangaroo-dogs; and this was the colony that founded the present
city of Melbourne. Fawkner may be fairly considered the founder of
Melbourne, as the permanent occupation of the site dates from the day
he landed from his schooner. But Batman's part of the affair should not
be forgotten; he returned in the following April, and settled on what is
now a part of the city. As might be expected, there was a bitter quarrel
between Batman and Fawkner as long as both survived, and it was
continued by their descendants.
[Illustration: THE FOUNDING OF MELBOURNE, AUGUST, 1835.]
The inhabitants of Melbourne have duly honored Batman by erecting in the
old cemetery of that city an appropriate monument to his memory. He died
in 1839, before the city had grown to much importance though it was
giving good promise for the future. At the time of Batman's death there
were four hundred and fifty houses, seventy shops, and three thousand
inhabitants in Melbourne, and the first ship had sailed for London with
a cargo of four hundred bales of wool.
Frank and Fred learned all this before taking their first stroll along
the streets of Melbourne on the morning after their arrival. They also
learned that the city took its name in honor of Lord Melbourne, who was
then Premier of Great Britain. Frank suggested that perhaps Shakespeare
had Melbourne in mind as the "bourne whence no traveller returns," since
a great many deaths occurred there during the gold rush. Fred reproved
his cousin for using this antiquated "chestnut," and the topic was
indefinitely postponed.
The first thing to attract the attention of the youths was the width of
the streets (ninety-nine feet, or a chain and a half) in contrast with
the narrow streets of Sydney. Then the situation is pleasing, as it is
on some rolling hills something like those on which Moscow, the ancient
capital of Russia, stands. The hills afford good drainage to the central
part of the city, and as one goes about he finds himself occasionally
upon an elevation from which he can look away for a considerable
distance. The city itself is about a mile and a half square, and is
regularly laid out; it is surrounded by parks and gardens, and its
suburbs include a radius of not far from ten miles, and are steadily
extending. Within this radius it is claimed that there are fully 360,000
inhabitants, and the number is increasing year by year.
[Illustration: PUBLIC LIBRARY, MELBOURNE.]
"Three hundred and sixty thousand people in a city which was first
settled in 1835!" said Fred. "Chicago and San Francisco must look sharp
for their laurels."
"They may look, but they won't find them," replied Frank.
"Are you not mistaken?" queried his cousin. "Did not each of them have
as many inhabitants as Melbourne within fifty years after its
settlement?"
"We will see," was the reply. "Chicago was practically founded in 1816,
when Fort Dearborn, which had been destroyed in 1812, was rebuilt. In
1870, fifty-four years later, it had, according to the census, 298,997
inhabitants.
[Illustration: MELBOURNE POST-OFFICE.]
"San Francisco was begun in 1776, when the Mission of San Francisco de
Asis, more commonly called the Mission Dolores, was established there;
but some people claim that the city was not really founded until 1835,
when the village of Yerba Buena was built, and to please them we'll
start from that date, which is the year in which Melbourne was founded.
By the census of 1880, forty-five years from its foundation, it had
233,959 inhabitants, and at its fiftieth anniversary was doubtless
considerably behind Melbourne. But Chicago has gone ahead of both of the
other cities in question, as it contained more than half a million
people in 1880, and was still growing as fast as the extensions on the
prairie would permit. Perhaps in time it will cover the whole State of
Illinois."
[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, MELBOURNE.]
"Melbourne, Chicago, and San Francisco are the marvels of the world in
their growth," responded Fred, "and they've no reason to be jealous of
one another." Frank echoed this opinion, and then the figures of
populations were dropped from discussion.
Their walk took them along Collins Street, which is the Broadway or the
Regent Street of the city; they traversed its entire length from west to
east, and then turned their attention to Bourke Street, which runs
parallel to Collins Street. To enumerate all the fine buildings they saw
in their promenade would make a list altogether too tedious for anything
less than a guide-book. As they took no notes of what they saw, it is
safe to say that neither of the youths could at this moment write a
connected account of the sights of the morning.
"If we had been skeptical about the wealth and prosperity of Melbourne,"
wrote Fred in his journal, "all our doubts were removed by what we saw
during our first tour through the city. One after another magnificent
piles of buildings came before us, the banks and other private edifices
rivalling the public ones for extent and solidity. The highest structure
in Melbourne is known as Robb's Buildings, and was built by a wealthy
speculator, on the same general plan as the Mills, Field, and similar
buildings in New York. There are many banks, office buildings, stores,
warehouses, and other private edifices that would do honor to London,
Paris, or New York; and the same is the case with the Post-office,
Houses of Parliament, Law Courts, Public Library, National Gallery,
Government House, Ormond College, and other public structures.
"We turned down Swanston Street in the direction of the river, the
Yarra, or, to speak more properly, the Yarra-Yarra, as it was originally
known, though few now call it by the double name. Anybody who comes here
expecting a great river will be disappointed, as the Yarra isn't much of
a stream on which to build a city like Melbourne. It answers well enough
for people to row upon with pleasure-boats and for occasionally drowning
somebody, but is altogether too small and shallow for large vessels.
Steamers and sailing-craft drawing not more than sixteen feet can come
up to the city, but large vessels must stop at Sandridge, or Port
Melbourne, two and a half miles away. The Yarra supplies water for the
Botanical Gardens, but not for the city generally.
[Illustration: COLLINS STREET IN 1870.]
"We reached the river at Prince's Bridge, where a fine viaduct of three
arches replaces the former one of a single arch. There are several
bridges across the Yarra, which separates Melbourne proper from South
Melbourne and other suburbs, and we were told that new bridges are under
consideration, and will be built as the necessity for them becomes more
pressing. A great deal of money has been expended in deepening and
straightening the river, and it is certainly vastly improved upon the
stream which Batman and Fawkner ascended in 1835, when they made the
settlements from which Melbourne has grown. Since 1877 the river has
been deepened three feet, and the minimum low-water depth is said to be
fourteen feet six inches at spring-tides.
[Illustration: PUBLIC OFFICES AND TREASURY GARDENS.]
"Street-cars, or 'trams,' some drawn by horses and others by cables, run
in every direction; and there are omnibuses, cabs, and other
conveyances; so that one can go pretty nearly anywhere he chooses for a
small amount of money. Some of the omnibuses remind us of the new ones
in Paris, as they have three horses abreast, and dash along in fine
style. Hansom and other cabs are numerous, and the fares are about a
third more than in London; this is a great change from the days of the
gold rush, when the most ordinary carriage could not be hired for less
than £3 a day, and very often the drivers obtained twice or three times
that amount. We have been told of a gold-digger just down from the mines
of whom £12 was demanded one day for an afternoon's drive; he handed the
driver a ten-pound note, and told him he would have to be satisfied with
that--and he was.
[Illustration: TOWN-HALL, MELBOURNE.]
"We went into three or four arcades, which form pleasant lounging and
shopping places, like the famous 'passages' of Paris and the arcades of
London. One of them is called the 'Book Arcade,' and is principally
devoted to the sale of books; and if we may judge by the number of
volumes we saw there, the people of Melbourne are liberal patrons of
literature. No matter what the taste of a person might be in books,
whether he desired a work of fiction or a treatise on science, a volume
of travels or an exposition of Hindoo philosophy, he could be
accommodated without delay. They have a public library here containing
nearly one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, all of which can be read
without charge.
"When we got back to the hotel and met the Doctor, it was time to sit
down to breakfast. He had already received two invitations to dinner
from gentlemen to whom he brought letters; they had heard of our
arrival, and knowing we had been hospitably received in Sydney, were
determined that we should be initiated at once into the courtesies of
Melbourne, and start off with a favorable impression of the place.
[Illustration: VIEW FROM SOUTH MELBOURNE, 1868.]
"A few minutes after we were through with breakfast a gentleman called
for us and gave us a carriage-drive, in which we saw more than we can
begin to describe. We visited the Botanical Gardens, which are about a
mile from the city, and on the south bank of the Yarra; they cover an
area of not far from a hundred acres, and do great credit to the
gentlemen who designed and perfected them. The collection of plants and
trees is very large, and everything is labelled, so that the scientific
student can know at once its history and character. We strolled along a
winding walk among the ferns, and could easily imagine ourselves in the
heart of a tropical forest. We also visited the Fitzroy, Carlton,
Treasury, and other gardens and parks, of which Melbourne has an
abundant supply.
"On many of the streets trees have been planted, and they add much to
the attractions of the city. The water-supply of Melbourne comes from an
artificial lake nineteen miles from the city, and is brought in by the
Yan Yean Water-works, which are not altogether unlike the Croton works
of New York or the Cochituate of Boston. Water seems to be abundant in
all the houses, and we are told that there are more bath-tubs in
Melbourne than in any other city of its size in the world.
"We can't begin to name all the churches we have seen in our rides and
walks along the streets. Suffice it to say there are no finer modern
churches anywhere than here, and the inhabitants of Melbourne have shown
great liberality in their contributions for building these religious
edifices. There is no State Church in the colony, but the Church of
England is the fashionable one, and has a greater number of adherents
than any other church.
[Illustration: PART OF MELBOURNE IN 1838.]
"In their order, and omitting the smaller figures, there were by the
last census of the colony 311,000 Episcopalians, 203,000 Catholics,
132,000 Presbyterians, 108,000 Methodists, 20,000 Independents, or
Congregationalists, 20,000 Baptists, and 11,000 Lutherans and German
Protestants. On the first of January, 1886, there were 2150 churches and
chapels in Victoria, and about the same number of public buildings and
dwellings used for public worship, or more than 4000 in all.
"While we were riding about the city we asked our host whence came the
names of the streets.
"'The principal ones commemorate men who were connected with the early
history of the colony,' was his reply. 'Collins Street is named for
Colonel Collins, who established a convict settlement on the shores of
Port Phillip Bay in 1803, but soon gave it up and removed the settlement
to Tasmania. Bourke Street is named after the governor of New South
Wales in 1836; Flinders Street after Captain Flinders, of whose
explorations you are doubtless aware; Lonsdale Street after Captain
Lonsdale, who was in command here about that time; and Swanston Street
after one of Batman's companions. King, Queen, William, and Elizabeth
Streets are tokens of our loyalty to the royal family of Great Britain,
the same as are the streets of like names in Sydney and Brisbane.'
"I should have said, in speaking of the streets, that between every two
wide streets there are narrow ones which were originally intended as
back entrances, and were known by the prefix of 'little.' Thus we have
Little Collins Street between Collins and Bourke Streets; Little Bourke
Street between Bourke and Latrobe, and so on through the list. Most of
these 'little' streets have become known as lanes, and are spoken of as
Collins Lane, Bourke Lane, etc. Bourke Lane is largely occupied by
Chinese, and Flinders Lane, between Flinders and Collins Streets, is
generally known as 'The Lane,' especially among the dealers in clothing
throughout Australia, as it is the peculiar haunt of the importers of
wearing apparel, or 'soft goods.'
"Elizabeth Street runs in the valley between the two principal hills on
which the city is built, and divides it into East and West, just as
Fifth Avenue divides the numbered streets of New York. As Melbourne is
on the other side of the world from New York, it is quite in the nature
of things that the custom of designating the portions of a street should
be the reverse of ours. In New York we say 'East Fourteenth Street,' or
'West Twenty-third Street.' Here they say 'Collins Street East,' or
'Bourke Street West,' according as the designated locality is east or
west from Elizabeth Street.
"We returned to the hotel in good season to dress for dinner," continued
Fred, "and at the appointed time went to the place where we were to
dine. It was several miles out of town, and our journey thither was by
railway, our host sending a carriage to meet us at the station.
Melbourne resembles London in having a net-work of suburban railways,
and resembles it further in having a great rush of people to the city in
the morning, and out of it in the afternoon. Ordinarily the facilities
of travel are fairly equal to the demand, but if a heavy shower of rain
falls about 6 P.M., the supply of vehicles is insufficient.
[Illustration: A SUBURBAN RESIDENCE.]
"The house of our host is well built and well furnished, and has plenty
of ground surrounding it for garden, lawn, and shrubbery. English trees
grow in the grounds. Much of the furniture came from the old country,
but the portion of it that was made in Melbourne is by no means inferior
to the imported part. Prosperous people in Melbourne know how to live
well, and some of the wealthier inhabitants spend a great deal of money
on the support of their establishments. We dined as well as we could
have dined in London or New York, the local luxuries of those cities
that were wanting here being fully atoned for by the products of the
colony.
"It was late in the evening when we got back to our hotel in the city,
after listening to stories of colonial life in general, and of life in
Melbourne in particular, until our heads were nearly giddy with what had
been poured into them. Anthony Trollope intimates that the Melbournites
are given to 'blowing' about the wonders of their city, and he excuses
them on the ground that they have something worth 'blowing' about. If
we were to make any remark on this subject, it would be to agree with
him on both points. But as one hears the same kind of talk in Chicago,
St. Louis, San Francisco, and other American cities, and also in the
other colonial centres of Australasia, we have ceased to wonder at it,
and set it down as a matter of course."
In the next day or two our friends visited some of the suburbs of
Melbourne, including Notham, Carlton, Fitzroy, Collingwood, and
Brunswick on the north, and Richmond, Prahran, Windsor, Malvern, and
Caulfield on the south. Frank noted that some of these suburbs were
prosperous and well populated, while others were much less so, and
seemed to base a goodly part of their hopes on the future. There is a
great deal of speculation in suburban land, just as in the neighborhood
of all large cities the world over; fortunes have been made in suburban
speculation, and still larger fortunes hoped for but not yet realized.
Melbourne was originally laid out in half-acre lots, but nearly all of
them have long since been divided and subdivided. One of the few that
have not been divided, but are held by the families of the purchasers,
is in a good part of Collins Street. The colonist who bought it paid £20
for the lot in 1837; it is now worth £100,000, and since the time of the
original purchase the holders have received at least £100,000 in rents.
One million dollars in fifty years from an investment of one hundred
dollars may be considered a fairly good return for one's money.
Doctor Bronson and his nephews were not neglectful of the harbor of
Melbourne any more than they had been of Sydney Cove when at the capital
of New South Wales. There are trains at short intervals from Melbourne
to Sandridge (Port Melbourne), and cars and omnibuses every fifteen
minutes. The fare is threepence, or six cents. This is a great reduction
from the days of the gold rush in 1851, when the omnibus charge between
Sandridge and Melbourne was two shillings and sixpence (sixty-two and
one-half cents) for each passenger, and a carriage for four persons cost
from five to twenty dollars for the single trip.
Mr. Manson, who was so attentive to our friends in Sydney, was equally
well acquainted with Melbourne; he called upon them shortly after their
arrival in the latter city, and proposed to accompany them in their
visit to the port. His offer was at once accepted. During the ride to
Sandridge the conversation turned upon the days of the gold rush, and
the incidents that long since passed into history.
"It was before I came to Australia," said he, "so that I cannot speak
from personal knowledge; but I have heard the stories from so many old
residents that I have no doubt of their correctness. The expense of
getting goods from Sandridge to Melbourne, three miles, was often as
much as to bring them from London to the harbor. William Howitt tells,
in his 'Two Years in Victoria,' that the cost of carrying his baggage
from the ship to his lodgings in Melbourne was more than that of
bringing them the previous thirteen thousand miles, including what he
paid for conveyance from his house to the London docks.
[Illustration: HARBOR SCENE IN THE MOONLIGHT.]
"When a ship arrived with passengers, the charge for taking them from
the anchorage to the beach was three shillings, and then came the
omnibus charge already mentioned. If a man was alone, the boatmen
charged him ten or perhaps twenty shillings; and if a person was obliged
to go out to a ship, and they knew his journey was important, they would
charge any price they pleased. A gentleman having occasion to visit a
ship that was about to sail, and manifesting some anxiety to do so, was
obliged to pay £12, or sixty dollars.
"After goods were landed they were loaded into carts for transportation
to Melbourne. A clerk looked at a load, and then said, glibly, 'These
things will be £3;' and if anybody demurred at the price, the
gate-keeper was ordered not to let the cart pass out of the yard till
the sum demanded was paid. People grumbled and denounced the charges as
outrageous, but they generally paid them and went on.
[Illustration: BOARDING-HOUSE OF 1851.]
"In the city the same high scale of prices prevailed. In the shops the
prices were about three hundred per cent. above the cost of goods.
Lodgings were in great demand; the meanest kind of an unfurnished room
was worth ten dollars a week, and two poorly furnished ones were from
twenty to thirty dollars a week. Hotel-keepers turned their stables into
sleeping-places, and a man paid five shillings a night for a third of a
horse's stall, good straw, a blanket, and a rug. One landlord had
seventy of these five-shilling lodgers in his stable nightly, in
addition to the occupants of the rooms in the legitimate portion of his
house."
"I wonder the people didn't live in tents till they could arrange to go
up country," one of the youths remarked.
"They did so," was the reply, "and so many tents were spread on the
waste ground outside the city that the place became known as Canvas
Town. The Government charged five shillings weekly for the privilege of
putting up tents on this waste ground, or at the rate of sixty dollars a
year. Of course all were anxious to get away as soon as possible, but
they were often detained three or four weeks, or even longer, waiting to
obtain their goods from the ships."
"Was there much security for life and property in those days?" Frank
asked.
"According to all accounts there was a great deal of disorder," Mr.
Manson responded. "There were many runaway convicts here from Tasmania
and New South Wales, together with other bad characters. Robberies along
the road were very common. One Saturday afternoon in broad daylight four
fellows armed with guns and pistols stopped some twenty or more people,
one after the other, tied them up to trees, and robbed them, on the road
from Melbourne to St. Kilda. The bush-rangers carried on their
performances up to the very edge of Melbourne, and sometimes they rode
through the streets and out again before they could be stopped.
"The coolest piece of robbery was performed in the harbor one night. A
ship was to sail for England at daylight, and she had several thousand
ounces of gold on board. About midnight a party of eight or ten went out
in a boat pretending to have business on board, and were admitted
without suspicion. Their real business was to plunder the ship, and they
succeeded; they 'stuck up' the officers and crew, bound them hand and
foot, loaded the gold into their boat, and escaped. No alarm was given
until some one went on board the next morning, as all the officers and
crew had been gagged and locked in below. The robbers got clean away;
nothing was ever learned about them, but it was suspected that they were
ex-convicts from Tasmania."
The carriage had by this time brought our friends to Sandridge, and they
alighted at the head of one of the piers. There are two piers at
Sandridge (to use its former name in place of its more modern
appellation of Port Melbourne). These piers run far out into the bay,
and ships of almost any tonnage may lie alongside to discharge or
receive cargoes. One is known as the town pier, and the other as the
railway pier; on the railway pier trains of cars may load or discharge
at the side of the ships, and thus effect a great saving in the handling
of freight.
[Illustration: A GOOD LOCATION FOR BUSINESS.]
It was a busy scene from one end of the pier to the other, and as the
strangers walked about they were obliged to be cautious lest they were
run over by moving cars or stumbled among the piles of goods that lay
about. Vessels from all parts of the world were lying at the piers; at
anchor in the bay were other vessels, steamers and sailing craft,
likewise hailing from the four quarters of the globe. All the great
companies known in the East, the "P. and O.," North German Lloyds,
Messageries Maritimes, Orient, and others, were represented, and the
ubiquitous "tramp" steamers were there in goodly numbers. Then there
were numerous "intercolonial" steamers engaged in the trade between
Melbourne and the ports of the Australian coast, and also with Tasmania,
New Zealand, Feejee, and other islands.
[Illustration: LOADING A SHIP FROM A LIGHTER.]
Some of the steamships have their docks at Williamstown, which is on the
other side of Hobson's Bay, directly opposite Sandridge, and connected
with Melbourne by railway. The business of Williamstown, like that of
Sandridge, is mostly connected with the shipping; a steam ferry carried
our friends across the bay, and they spent an hour or two in
Williamstown, the time being principally devoted to an inspection of
the ship building yards and the graving dock, which has accommodations
for the largest ships engaged in the Australian trade.
Hobson's Bay may be called the enlarging of the Yarra at its mouth, or
the narrowing of Port Phillip Bay at its head. But by whatever
description it is known it is an excellent harbor for Melbourne, as it
has good anchorage and abundance of space for the ships that congregate
there. Port Phillip Bay is about thirty-five miles long and the same in
width; its entrance is nearly two miles across, and, like Sydney harbor,
it has space for all the navies of the civilized world. No doubt the
Melbourne people would not object to such a visitation, provided it were
peaceful, for the same reason that the Sydneyite gave to Frank and Fred,
"that it would be a good thing for business."
On their return from Williamstown to Sandridge the party drove to St.
Kilda, the Coney Island of Melbourne, and a great resort for those who
are fond of salt-water bathing. Farther down the bay is Brighton Beach,
a familiar name whether the visitor be from New York or London, and if
he looks further he will find other names that will not be altogether
strange. All around the bay there are pleasure resorts, private
residences, business establishments, factories, and other evidences that
the region has long since been reclaimed from the possession of the
savage and become the permanent home of the white man.
Fred observed that there were fences far out in the water enclosing
areas where bathers were splashing and, to all appearances, having a
good time. He immediately asked what was the use of the fences.
"They are for protection against sharks," replied Mr. Manson, "which are
abundant in these waters and all along the Australian coast. You have
doubtless heard of them at other points."
The youth remembered the sharks at Queensland and New South Wales, and
the stories he had heard about them. He remarked that if the creatures
were as bad as they were farther north, he should not venture into the
water at St. Kilda until satisfied that the fence was thoroughly
shark-proof.
The carriage was sent back from St. Kilda, and on assurance that the
fence was strong the whole party indulged in the luxury of a sea-bath.
Then they strolled on the beach, dined at one of the restaurants for
which St. Kilda is famous, and returned in the evening by railway to
Melbourne. Frank and Fred thought it was very like an excursion to Coney
Island, and Doctor Bronson fully agreed with them, except that he missed
the broad ocean which spreads before the popular watering-place of New
York.
"There's a fine watering-place at Queenscliff, at the entrance of Port
Phillip Bay," said Mr. Manson, "where you can look out on the Pacific
and can see and hear the surf breaking on the shore. There's a fort
there to guard the entrance in case of war, and all ships are signalled
from that point on their arrival. As St. Kilda is the Coney Island of
Melbourne, Queenscliff may be called its Long Branch, as its distance is
about thirty-two miles, and it can be reached both by railway and
steamboat.
"Farther down the coast," said he, "there are other watering-places, and
what with the mountains and the sea Melbourneites are well provided with
retreats. Here is something interesting."
As he spoke he took from his pocket a photograph, which Doctor Bronson
examined attentively, and then passed it over to the youths. It
represented some rocks which resembled pieces of artillery, and were
overlooked by a head that reminded Frank of "The Old Man of the
Mountain," in Franconia, New Hampshire.
"The height to the crown of the head," said Mr. Manson, "is twenty-four
feet, and the tuft of coast scrub that has found sufficient soil to
cling to it in the cleft of the rock increases the resemblance to a head
by representing hair. The guns are more realistic when viewed from
another angle; near them are some spherical blocks of sandstone that
might almost serve as cannon-balls. The head has been named the
'Sentinel,' and is also called the Sphinx; it is on the southern coast
of Victoria, and about eight miles from Lorne, which has a growing
popularity as a watering-place. The rocks resembling cannon are known as
'The Artillery Rocks.'"
Frank and Fred hoped they would have an opportunity to visit this
natural curiosity, but circumstances did not favor them, as Lorne was
too far away from the route of travel to justify the detour.
The day after their visit to St. Kilda they were taken on a steamboat
excursion to Geelong, a pretty and well-built city on the shores of an
arm of Port Phillip Bay, and about forty-five miles from Melbourne. It
is famous for its woollen mills, tanneries, and other manufactories, and
at one time its inhabitants firmly believed that it would be a
successful rival of Melbourne on account of the superior advantages of
its harbor and its greater nearness to the ocean.
It is said that the Geelong people caused a railway to be built between
that city and Melbourne in the expectation that all the wool shipped at
Melbourne would be brought to their city, which would also be the
landing-place of all the goods destined for Melbourne. The result was
exactly the reverse, the railway serving to take from Geelong most of
the foreign trade it already possessed and carry it to Melbourne.
Cargoes of wool are shipped from there still, but they are few in number
when compared with those from Melbourne.
[Illustration: THE ARTILLERY ROCKS, NEAR LORNE, ON THE COAST OF
VICTORIA.]
Before the mail closed for America, Frank and Fred busied themselves
with a large number of papers, which they sent to friends at home. They
included the _Age_ and the _Argus_, dailies which reminded them of _The
London Times_ or _Daily News_, _The Illustrated Australian News_ and
_The Illustrated Sketcher_, pictorials making their appearance monthly,
a dozen or more weekly and monthly papers, some of them of
Brobdingnagian proportions, and representing all shades of religious,
social, and political feeling, and a quarterly called _The Imperial
Review_. In a letter to his mother Frank said they had visited the
office of _The Melbourne Age_ at the invitation of one of its
proprietors, and had come away with the belief that few people in the
northern hemisphere had a just appreciation of the journalistic skill
and enterprise of the antipodes.
[Illustration: WAITING TO SEE THE EDITOR.]
"The weekly edition of the _Age_ is called the _Leader_," said Frank, in
his letter, "and there isn't a daily paper in the United States that has
a weekly edition to rival it in size, quantity, and variety of matter;
and the same may be said of the _Australasian_, which is the weekly
edition of the _Argus_. The _Leader_ for this week, of which I send you
a copy, contains forty-eight pages, and they tell me this is the
regulation number. The pages are the size of those of HARPER'S WEEKLY,
and are filled with whatever is considered of greatest interest to their
readers in the country districts.
"It is evident," continued Frank, "that there are many waifs and strays
in the population of Australia, if we are to judge by the advertising
columns of the newspapers. All the leading dailies have advertisements
headed 'Missing Friends,' and sometimes there will be a whole column of
these inquiries for persons about whom information is desired by their
friends. Here is one of them:
"'Robert Wiffen, arrived at Melbourne by ship _Covenanter_ on
Christmas Day, 1852, and was last heard of in 1867. Any information
respecting him will greatly oblige.'...
"What volumes might be written by the novelist if he knew all the inside
history covered by the 'Missing Friends' column of _The Melbourne Age_
or _The Sydney Herald_ for a single twelvemonth!"
[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING PAPERS TO NEWSBOYS.]