Page:The British Empire in the nineteenth century Volume VI.djvu/223

 further adorned by a lagoon and ponds fringed with water-lilies, and by winding paths, grassy lawns and knolls, beds of lovely orchids, and radiant parterres of many-hued flowers and variegated foliage-plants cunningly inlaid. The Parliament House is a hand- some freestone edifice, with a central dome, and wings surmounted by high mansard roofs. There are four public parks, and the gardens of the Acclimatization Society are as beautiful to behold as they have proved useful to the colony in introducing and plants and trees from every part of the tropical and  regions of the world. Tram-cars, omnibuses, wagonettes, and suburban railway-lines supply ample accommodation for traffic between the business quarters and the fringe of suburban residences built on charming and healthful sites among the ridgy inequalities of the ground.

Ipswich, 25 miles by railway from the capital, lies on the Bremer River, an affluent of the Brisbane, and has good structures in St. Paul's Anglican Church, the Grammar School, and a fine iron bridge spanning the stream. The population is about 8000, many of whose toilers find employment in the workshops, covering 22 acres, of the Southern and Western line. Thence the railway runs westward through rich forest flats to the foot of the coast range. The mountains are ascended, not by the "zigzag" method described in connection with the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, but by the " contouring " plan, whereby the railway follows the outline of the hills in a constant ascending grade along their face. Tunnels here and there pierce projecting spurs, and iron bridges, light but strong, leap across ravines and gullies often of great depth, where the traveller looks down from the carriage window into a ferny tangle, on to the tops of trees springing from ground hundreds of feet below. After an up-grade of about miles, the line, having overcome the mountain barrier, gently descends towards the great plateau of the Darling Downs and reaches Toowoomda, the capital of the District. This town, with a population of over 7000, lies nearly 2000 feet above sea-level, at the head of Cowrie Creek, a tributary of the Condamine. The broad gas-lit streets have no architectural merit; the industry of the place comprises soap-making, brewing, tanning, saw-mills, flour- mills, foundries, and a manufacture of tobacco. Here the line, one part proceeding westwards towards the vast region of