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able to grow wool and mutton. Nearly all of Australia is "owned". Of the four million population, three million live in towns and cities. That state of things with a country only a little smaller than the U. S. and Alaska combined is -- well, I don't know what comment to make. The agricultural possibilities of the land are much the same as in the U. S. but Australia is ten thousand miles from market! There is a glut of all raw products.

I stopped two days at Ballarat, Victoria in a gold mining region, visited two mines and saw the usual sights of the place. It is a very pretty place, and there is a good deal of business, more for the size than any place yet visited. The Botanical Gardens are very fine -- a perfect Gem of a place, with lake, statuary, fern house and the usual green houses.

Things are very slow in Melbourne. People are going through the "convalescent" stage after the flush, times of a "boom". Natives compare the city with New York, I should say it was like Cincinnati.

Yours Truly
Jared G. Smith