and at nine o'clock on the following morning left by train for Brisbane—two hundred and seven miles—where they arrived at half-past ten in the evening.
Frank and Fred were out the next morning at an early hour to see the sights of the capital of Queensland. They found it smaller than Sydney, the total population within a radius of five miles of the centre of the city being less than a hundred thousand. It is on the river Brisbane; river and city were named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of the colony of New South Wales in 1825, the year when the city was founded as a penal settlement. The river surrounds it on two sides, and gives it an excellent water frontage; from the city to the debouchement of the river into Moreton Bay is about twenty-five miles by the course of the stream, though not more than half that distance overland.
Their walk took them along Queen Street, the principal avenue, to Victoria Bridge, a fine structure of iron which spans the river between North and South Brisbane. The bridge is more than one thousand feet in length, and divided into thirteen spans, with a swing in the centre to permit the passage of vessels. Like most works of the kind, it is said to have cost more than double the original estimates of the engineers who planned it.
The youths were not favorably impressed with the streets of Brisbane, on account of their narrowness, Queen Street being little more than sixty feet wide, and the others in the same proportion. They asked why the streets were made so narrow, when there was such an abundance of land in Australia at the time the place was founded, and were told that it was due to the orders of one of the early governors, Sir George Gipps, who wished to be economical with the land of the Government. But if Queen Street is narrow it is by no means unattractive, as it can boast of many fine shops and substantial buildings, including several belonging to the Government. Frank called Fred's attention to the verandas that on one side of the street ran almost from one end to the other, and extended quite across the sidewalk. Fred rightly conjectured that they were intended to screen pedestrians and goods from the heat and glare of the sun, Brisbane being blessed with a climate of tropical character.
A policeman of whom they made inquiry pointed out the post-office, town-hall, and exchange, the two last-named being in one building, which also contains the chamber of commerce and the council-chamber, and also the court-house and other public edifices. They were
