Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/320

 to verify these statements, because though we occasionally conversed with miners, they looked anything but dare-devils and spendthrifts, and it seemed scarcely delicate to ask them if it was true that they periodically repaired to the nearest town to paint it red as long as their money lasted. As for the shops on either side of the broad, dusty, empty streets over which the heat brooded, they seemed to consist principally of lettering. Every minute shanty had above it vast boards proclaiming in letters as large as itself the name of its owner and the superiority of its stock, whether bicycles or tents, both essential articles of merchandise in an outlying Australian town. The more ambitious shops had placards inside. One enterprising draper called on the passer-by to observe the rebuilding of his "palatial premises," while another drew attention to "Dame Fashion's latest caprices."

We passed a cotton tree with ripe pods, growing in a garden, and several coco palms, the coco-*nuts hanging in yellow bunches like a cluster of immense bananas. After crossing a river bordered by mangrove swamps, and passing through the main street, we struck off up a steep hill in quest of the church. On climbing a granite mound we found ourselves at its doors, with a beautiful view of the bay and its green shores, but no ser