Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/153

 QUEEN'S QUEENSLAND 145 were of English, 2,245 of German, 1,150 of Scotch, and 1,110 of Irish origin or descent. The coast is deeply indented, and bordered by a rugged ridge extending many miles inland. The interior is beautifully diversified with val- leys, rivers, and lakes. The soil along the streams is fertile. Capital, Liverpool. III. The central county of Prince Edward Island, Can- ada; area, 771 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 42,651. It is traversed by the Prince Edward Island railway. The surface is diversified and the soil fertile. Capital, Charlottetown, which is also the capital of the province. QUEEN'S, a S. E. county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster ; area, 664 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 77,071. The Slieve-Bloom mountains divide it from King's county. The principal rivers are the Barrow and its tributary the Nore. Lough Annagh, on the N. boundary, the only lake of any importance, is not more than a mile long. Iron and copper ore and potter's clay are found; and anthracite coal mines are worked. Excepting in the centre of the county, where there are extensive bogs, the soil is generally fertile. The principal towns are Mountmellick, Mountrath, and Mary- borough. QUEENSLAND, a British colony in Australia, comprising the N. E. part of the island, lying between lat. 10 43' and 29 S., and Ion. 138 and 153 E., bounded N. by Torres strait, N. E. by the Coral sea, E. by the South Pacific, S. by New South Wales and South Australia, W. by South Australia and the Northern Terri- tory, and N. W. by the gulf of Carpentaria; area, including the coast islands, 678,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871 (revised), 120,104 ; in 1873, estimated at 146,690. Of the population in 1871, 71,767 were males and 48,337 females ; 47,343 were born in Australia and New Zea- land, 26,296 in England and Wales, 8,564 in Scotland, 20,972 in Ireland, 8,317 in Germa- ny, 3,305 in China, 215 in the United States, and 188 in France. The religious division of the inhabitants in 1871 was as follows : Angli- cans, 43,764 ; Roman Catholics, 81,822 ; Pres- byterians, 15,373 ; Wesleyans, 7,206 ; Congre- gationalists, 2,647; other Protestant denomi- nations, 11,485 ; Jews, 291. No trustworthy information can be obtained concerning the number of aborigines. The coast line, from Point Danger, the S. E. extremity, to Cape York, the most northerly point, has a general N. W. direction ; it runs thence nearly due S. to the southernmost part of the gulf of Car- pentaria, forming the York peninsula, when it turns W. and then nearly N. W. to the boun- dary line of the Northern Territory. Its entire length is about 2,500 m. Off the E. coast, at an average distance of 20 to 30 m. from the shore, though in some places 60 m., lies the coral reef called the Great Barrier, which extends from Cape York to lat. 24, about 1,250 m. Within this reef, through which there are frequent though dangerous passages, is a navigable sea, with an ordinary depth of 10 to 25 fathoms ; but at the S. end, where the channel is widest, the depth exceeds 60 fathoms. The coast, both within this sea and S. of it, is indented by nu- merous fine bays, with capacious natural har- bors, many of which form the outlets of navi- gable rivers. The principal of these are More- ton bay, at the head of which stands Brisbane, the capital of the colony, Hervey bay, Port Curtis, Keppel bay, Port Bowen, Port Denison, and Halifax, Eockingham, Trinity, Princess Charlotte, Weymouth, and Shelburne bays. The whole E. coast is strewn with islands, chiefly small. The largest, Frazer or Great Sandy island, in lat. 25, is about 80 m. long by 20 m. wide. In Torres strait are Mulgrave's, Banks, and Prince of Wales islands, and in Carpentaria bay is a group called the Wellesley islands, the largest of which is Mornington. Along the gulf of Carpentaria the coast is low and sandy, with the exception of the S. part, where mountain ranges approach the sea. The E. coast is generally mountainous. From 50 to 100 m. from the shore, and parallel to it, is a mountain chain forming several distinct ranges, from which numerous spurs run to the sea. The principal of these are the Gilbert range in the north, the Expedition range in the middle, and the Denham range in the south. The general height of the mountains is not more than 2,000 ft., but some of the peaks are much higher. Mt. Mitchell, S. of Brisbane, is 4,120 ft. high ; Mt. Eliot, near Halifax bay, 4,122 ft. ; and two of the peaks of the Bellen- den Kerr range, on the coast S. of Trinity bay, are respectively 5,158 ft. and 5,438 ft. high. Beyond the mountains, table lands covered with herbage and well supplied with water, but without trees, stretch across the country to the gulf of Carpentaria, broken occasionally by mountain ranges. Within certain distances of the principal mountains the rains fall regu- larly, and the plains are covered with light timber. The mountains themselves are heavily wooded. Queensland is drained by many riv- ers, several of which are navigable. In the S. part most of the streams flow into New South Wales. The chief rivers that find an outlet on the E. coast are the Brisbane, which, together with the Arrowsmith, Logan, Pine, and Ca- boolture, empties into Moreton bay, and it is navigable for 75 m. by steamers ; the Mary and the Burnett, which flow into Hervey bay ; the Fitzroy, which, with its affluents, the Dawson, Mackenzie, and Isaacs, drains several hundred miles of country, and is navigable for 60 m. above its mouth in Keppel bay ; and the Bur- dekin, which is fed by the Bowen, Belyando, and others, and empties into Wickham bay. The Mitchell, Van Diemen, Flinders, and Al- bert flow into Carpentaria bay. The banks of the rivers are usually high and well wooded, being mostly covered with thick hedges of mangroves and forests of fig trees and euca- lypti, festooned with flowering vines. On the mountains the pine and cedar, and many varie- ties of trees unknown elsewhere, grow luxu-