Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/556

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532
THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA.

1844, and has proved highly profitable to its owners; for a good many years its annual product of ore was ten thousand tons, yielding two thousand five hundred tons of pure copper. More than twenty million dollars' worth of copper has been taken from this mine, and the supply is by no means exhausted.


ONE OF THE MINERS.
But our friends heard of even richer mines than the Burra-Burra. They were told of the Moonta mines, which paid from the very start; not a penny of capital was ever subscribed, but the mines have yielded large dividends, in some years as high as eight hundred thousand dollars, in addition to paying for costly buildings and machinery. It should be added that the success of these and other mines led to a great deal of mining speculation which was very disastrous for nearly all the investors.

Early one Thursday morning it was announced that the regular mail steamship of the Peninsular & Oriental Company was at Glenelg, and would leave in the evening for King George Sound, Western Australia. Doctor Bronson had taken passage for himself and his young companions; his first intention was to stop at King George Sound, but owing to the limited facilities of travel in Western Australia, the small population, and the slight development of the country compared to that of the eastern half of the continent, the idea of making an extended tour through the only remaining colony of Australasia was definitely abandoned.

The steamer left Glenelg in the evening of Thursday, and on the morning of the following Monday arrived at Albany, in King George Sound, one thousand and seven miles from Adelaide. She anchored