further adorned by a lagoon and ponds fringed with water-lilies,
and by winding paths, grassy lawns and knolls, beds of lovely
orchids, and radiant parterres of many-hued flowers and variegated
foliage-plants cunningly inlaid. The Parliament House is a hand-
some freestone edifice, with a central dome, and wings surmounted
by high mansard roofs. There are four public parks, and the
gardens of the Acclimatization Society are as beautiful to behold
as they have proved useful to the colony in introducing and distri-
buting plants and trees from every part of the tropical and sub-
tropical regions of the world. Tram-cars, omnibuses, wagonettes,
and suburban railway-lines supply ample accommodation for traffic
between the business quarters and the fringe of suburban residences
built on charming and healthful sites among the ridgy inequalities
of the ground.
Ipswich, 25 miles by railway from the capital, lies on the
Bremer River, an affluent of the Brisbane, and has good structures
in St. Paul's Anglican Church, the Grammar School, and a fine iron
bridge spanning the stream. The population is about 8000, many
of whose toilers find employment in the workshops, covering
22 acres, of the Southern and Western line. Thence the railway
runs westward through rich forest flats to the foot of the coast
range. The mountains are ascended, not by the "zigzag" method
described in connection with the Blue Mountains of New South
Wales, but by the " contouring " plan, whereby the railway follows
the outline of the hills in a constant ascending grade along their
face. Tunnels here and there pierce projecting spurs, and iron
bridges, light but strong, leap across ravines and gullies often of
great depth, where the traveller looks down from the carriage
window into a ferny tangle, on to the tops of trees springing from
ground hundreds of feet below. After an up-grade of about seven-
teen miles, the line, having overcome the mountain barrier, gently
descends towards the great plateau of the Darling Downs and
reaches Toowoomda, the capital of the District. This town, with
a population of over 7000, lies nearly 2000 feet above sea-level, at
the head of Cowrie Creek, a tributary of the Condamine. The
broad gas-lit streets have no architectural merit; the industry of
the place comprises soap-making, brewing, tanning, saw-mills, flour-
mills, foundries, and a manufacture of tobacco. Here the line bifur-
cates, one part proceeding westwards towards the vast region of
