Part 13 (1/2)
CHAPTER XI
GEELONG--AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES--FINDING A BIG NUGGET
When they had finished with Williae our friends went to St Kilda, which may be called the Coney Island of Melbourne, as it is very popular with those who are fond of salt-water bathing Harry and Ned remarked that there were hotels, restaurants, and other places of resort and a places, and Ned thought it would require no great stretch of the i place of New York Ned observed that there were fences consisting of posts set in the ground, nota considerable distance out into the water and co place
He asked why the fences were placed there, and was informed that it was because the bay abounded in sharks, and people who ca eaten up by these sea-wolves ”If we should take away the fences,” said one of the attendants at the bathing house, ”ould not do any more business here, and you may be sure that we are very careful to keep the fences in order”
Sharks abound all through the waters of Australia They have caused not a few deaths, and everybody who understands about them is careful not to venture into the water at any place where the creatures are liable to conorant person falling a prey to these monsters of the deep When sailboats and other craft are overturned in storms or sudden squalls and their occupants are thrown into the water, they suffer fearful peril Not long ago a sentlemen and a lady on board, in addition to the boatman and his boy Before help could reach them the whole five had fallen victims to the sharks
Port Philip Bay, into which Hobson's Bay opens, is a grand sheet of water between thirty and forty able for shi+ps of all sizes, and the bay affords anchoring space for all the shi+ps in the world, in case they should come there at the same time The entrance to the bay is about thirty miles from Melbourne, and at Queenscliff near the entrance there is a fine watering place, which is reached both by railway and by stea on the shore of the ocean, while the former place has only the waters of the bay in front of it Many Melbourneites go to Queenscliff to enjoy the ocean breezes and watch the surf breaking on the shore While St
Kilda may be called the Coney Island of Melbourne, Queenscliff is fairly entitled to be considered its Long Branch
On their return to Melbourne, the youths found at their hotel an invitation toWhen Dr
Whitney read the invitation to the youths, Harry asked where Geelong was
”Oh, I know about that,” said Ned; ”I happened to be reading about it thisis a town forty-five miles from Melbourne,” replied Ned, ”and it is a fairly prosperous town, too It is not quite as old as Melbourne, but at one tiht that their toould outstrip Melbourne completely”
”How is that?”
”The town stands on Corio Bay, an arood harbor; in fact, the harbor at that ti went to work and built a railway from their city to Melbourne, with the idea that if they did so, all the wool that was being shi+pped fro for shi+poods that landed at Melbourne would be landed at Geelong”
”The plan did not work as they expected, did it?”
”Not by anyinto Geelong was sent to Melbourne for shi+p were landed at Melbourne and sent over by railway In this way the measures they had taken to increase their trade worked exactly the other way and din co?” Harry asked
”Oh, yes, they have so in co about it e go there”
As there are three passenger stea and Melbourne daily, the party went by railway and returned by water In the railway journey they had a pleasant ride along the shore of Port Philip Bay, and arrived at their destination in a littleThey found the town pleasantly situated on Corio Bay, being laid out on ground sloping to the bay on the north and to the Barwon River on the south Along the streets were fine shops, attractive stores, and every indication of an industrious and prosperous population
In the suburbs, where they were taken in a carriage by the gentleman who accompanied them, they found numerous private residences, entle was faoods, and that it built the first woolenestablishments, and other industrial concerns were visited, so that our friends readily understood whence the prosperity of Geelong caiven up its ideas of rivalry with Melbourne, and had settled doith the deters take care of theht they would like to see soold mines of Victoria, and asked Dr Whitney about them He readily assented, and the trip to Ballarat was speedily arranged, and also one to Sandhurst, which is the present na days
Ballarat was the reater yield of gold than did those of Bendigo At both places the placer old is still taken froion
Theestablishments of Ballarat are outside of the city itself, and when the visitors reached the place and rode through the town they could hardly believe they were in a gold-ion The streets are wide, and most of them well shaded with trees, while some of them are so broad that they deserve the name of avenues rather than that of streets