diminutive patches of verdure. The aspect of the south shore is more pleasing. The various promontories are crowned with large and handsome mansions, with sur rounding groves and lawns, which have been formed at great expense, despite the sandy nature of the soil. These are the abodes of some of the old colonists, who have been carried onward in the tide of prosperity which has marked the progress of New South Wales during the last fifteen years. The increase of their flocks and herds, and the unprecedented rise in the value of land originally granted to them in Sydney and its vicinity, with the ad vantage of assigned labour, has enabled them, in less than a quarter of a century, to roll in their equipages, and to inhabit houses worth thousands of pounds. As we advance up the harbour, the shores are more closely covered with buildings, the windmills crowning the heights of Wollomoloo become visible; the new government house rears its castellated outline high above the trees of the Domain and Botanical Gardens; forts and batteries are seen either completed or in progress ; and lastly, situated on the sides and ridge of a sandstone pro montory, almost surrounded by the waters of the stream, the cove, and Darling harbour, stands the Australian capital, whose appearance usually creates in the stranger’s mind an emotion of surprise and admiration. At the period of my arrival there were twenty-five thousand tons of shipping in the harbour, an amount of tonnage equal to that of fifty first-class merchantmen. Many of these vessels were waiting for cargoes of wool and oil; others, having discharged prisoners or emigrants, were preparing to depart in ballast for China, India, or South America.