Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/46

 smiling towns of Brighton, St. Kilda, and Sandridge. By the latter are jetties from the railway, built on piles, so as to enable several vessels to lie alongside and discharge or take in cargo. These, however, are by no means adequate for a thousandth part of the traffic of this port, and innumerable lighters and tug steamers are employed. This side of the bay has many drawbacks for the formation of good and permanent wharfs, the shore being of loose light sand, and a heavy rolling swell and sea nine months in the year settling along the eastern coast from the prevalence of western winds and reflux of the tides. Sandridge, as its name imports, is built entirely on sand, separated from Melbourne by the low ground which at one time was periodically under water.

It is surprising to see what art and perseverance have done in so short a time. Not only are there several good shops, stores, and hotels, but some comfortable houses, all which have had to be built on piles sunk in the sand. A very capital causeway, two miles long, runs into the heart of the city; and further through the swamp are railroad trains leaving and returning every half-hour throughout the day.

Of St. Kilda and Brighton we will speak hereafter; return we now to Hobson's Bay. About four miles across, on the opposite side, is the fast rising town of Williamstown; close along the shore is the entrance to the Yarra-yarra winding to the city; the bay is of circular form, with good and safe anchorage, although,