Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/439

Rh the time this is in print, if it should ever have such good-fortune. It is one hundred and sixteen miles from Brisbane to Gympie, and sixty-one from here to Maryborough. The town is prettily situated on the side of a range of hills on the river Mary; it has handsome public buildings, and bears every evidence of prosperity. It has a School of Arts, a public library, and other institutions not always to be found in mining towns, and altogether deserves the good name that it bears. It has a population of nearly eight thousand in the municipality alone, and there are four thousand more in the immediate neighborhood.

"There are the usual paraphernalia of the mining industry, which we have already described in other places. In every direction there are mining-shafts and reduction-works, and for miles and miles around the country is full of prospecting holes, where gold has been sought but not found, at least in paying quantities. The first rush here was for the alluvial diggings, and large amounts of gold were taken out by the early comers.

"We were much interested in hearing about the adventures of Mr.