twin Australian heroes, Mr Lansell and the late Mr Tyson, is all of squatting and gold-mining, "the Gulf" and "the Block," and a hundred other stimulating technicalities, with their resultant yarns, in half an hour. Ten days of this sort of thing after leaving Colombo, and you are in Western Australia: "W.A," as its inhabitants and neighbours usually call it; or, as it is dubbed by journalists, "the Golden West." Western Australia, in effect, is a colony which has been brought very prominently under the notice of the English public during the past four or five years, on account of the remarkable gold discoveries which have taken place there. But no traveller, who is not also an explorer and is prepared to devote years to the task, can hope to take anything but a hasty glance here and there in passing at this great area, which comprises nearly one-third of the whole Australian continent, and is equal to one-fourth of Europe, with Great Britain and Ireland included.
The first point at which the mail steamers touch, after crossing the Indian Ocean, is King George's Sound. Albany, on the north side of Princess Royal Harbour, within the Sound, is a pretty little town of about 4000 inhabitants, some 340 miles from Perth. It has a rising timber trade, and is by way of being a sanatorium; though perhaps its chief support is drawn from the two or three hotels on the harbour front, and the shillings spent there by passengers. As a coaling-station, it is of great strategic importance, and is garrisoned by a battery of permanent artillery, maintained at the joint expense of the colonies. An enemy's fleet which should set out to attack Australia would find its coal supplies exhausted by the time it reached the southern portion of the continent, and would be practically helpless; hence the fortifications, by which in time of war the coal stored
