Having, in the preceding chapter, run along the coast of South Australia, and noticed such parts as have been sufficiently examined to justify our observations, it remains for me to give an account of its interior features, of its climate, soil, mineral, and other sources of wealth, and lastly of its fitness as a colony for the peculiar habits of an English population.

The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, stands on the eastern shore of St. Vincent’s Gulf, and is about six miles from the coast.  Any one landing either at the old or new port, and proceeding to the capital for the first time, would perhaps be disappointed at the description of country through which he would pass.  It consists indeed of extensive level plains, over the eastern extremity of which the Mount Lofty Range is visible.  They are bounded southwards by a line of trees, marking the course of the river Torrens across them, but extend northwards for many miles without any visible termination.  Their monotony however, is, at the present date, in some measure broken by belts of wood, and the numerous cottages that have been built upon them, with their adjoining corn-fields, have changed their aspect, and removed the appearance of loneliness which they first exhibited.  Still neither the gloomy swamp over which the stranger has in the first instance to travel, on landing at the Port—­or the character of the plains themselves, are calculated to raise his anticipations, as to the beauty or fertility of the interior.  The first town through which he will pass after leaving the Port, is Albert Town, which has been laid out on the first available ground near the swamp.  When I left the colony in May last, several tolerable buildings had been erected in Albert Town, but it was nevertheless a wretched looking and straggling place, and will never perhaps advance beyond its present state.

On his nearer approach to the capital the traveller will pass between the villages of Boden and Hindmarsh, in both of which he will observe numerous kilns of bricks.  He will then enter on the Park Lands, by which North and South Adelaide are separated from each other.  On this land the scene at once changes, and he will find himself riding through an open forest, shading rich, alluvial, and grassy flats; and, strictly speaking, will then be traversing the Valley of the Torrens.  In May, 1847, there were four bridges over that little river.  The Company’s bridge a little above the city.  The Frome bridge, a light wooden structure, built by the sappers and miners, under the direction of Captain Frome, the Surveyor-General, after whom it was called.  The City bridge, constructed of stone, but then incomplete, and a rude wooden bridge between Adelaide and Hindmarsh, erected by an innkeeper, with a view of drawing the traffic from the Port past his door.  The City bridge, which was undertaken by contract, promised to grace the approach to Adelaide, and was intended to be the principal bridge to connect