Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/324

300 "Our ride was extended to the suburbs; and, without question, no city we have thus far seen in the Southern Hemisphere has suburbs at all approaching in attractiveness those of Sydney. First we come to Wooloomooloo—what a funny word that is to write!—and then we wind along the coasts of the little bays between the promontories; Elizabeth Bay, Rose Bay, Double Bay, Rushcutter's Bay, and I don't know how many other bays and coves, where the well-to-do residents have their villas. One hundred thousand people are said to live in Sydney proper, and one hundred and fifty thousand in the suburbs, so that the city, with its suburbs, has a population of a quarter of a million.

"Fred suggested that he would like to see the park or public garden. Mr. Manson asked, "Which one?"

"Fred didn't know, and then our host explained that he had a considerable number to choose from. 'There is Albert Park,' said he, 'of forty acres, with a statue of Prince Albert, and opposite to it is Hyde Park Square, with a statue to Captain Cook, the discoverer of New South Wales. Then there is the Domain, of one hundred and twenty-eight acres, surrounding the little bay known as Farm Cove, the Botanical Gardens, of thirty-eight acres; and we have, in addition, Belmore Park, Prince Alfred Park, Callan Park, Moore Park, Wentworth Park, and the National Park; and a few years hence, if you come here again, there will doubtless be "more parks to hear from."'

"During our stay at Sydney we saw most of the parks named in the foregoing paragraph, and can testify to their beauty and the appreciation in which they are held by the inhabitants. The Domain and the Botanical Gardens were especially attractive; their sites are beautiful, and the Botanical Gardens contain every plant known in Australia, together with exotics from nearly every country in the world. For a student of botany these Gardens would furnish opportunities for months or years of study.

"In the Botanical Gardens our attention was called to three Norfolk pines that are said to have been planted here nearly seventy years ago; one of them is ninety-five feet high, and its circumference, three feet above the ground, is within a few inches of five yards. The other two of the cluster are taller than this one, but not so large in girth. Then they showed us a she-oak tree, which is said to give forth, when the air is perfectly still, a sound like the murmur of a sea-shell. Another curious growth is the Australian musk-tree, which constantly gives out an odor which is perceptible several yards away. Trees and plants from tropical and semi-arctic regions grow here side by side; the