Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AUSTRALIA [Illustration: THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR] [Illustration: KANGAROO HUNTING. PAGE 47.] PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AUSTRALIA BY FRANK FOX WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY PERCY F. S. SPENCE, ETC. LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1911 CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE AUSTRALIA, ITS BEGINNING 1 CHAPTER II AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY 15 CHAPTER III THE NATIVES 33 CHAPTER IV THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS 46 CHAPTER V THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH 63 CHAPTER VI THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD 73 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS KANGAROO-HUNTING _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL viii THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 9 THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE 16 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE 25 THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY 32 AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK'S TIME 41 THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT--"MOONING" OPOSSUMS 48 A SHEEP DROVER 57 A HUT IN THE BUSH 64 SURF-BATHING--SHOOTING THE BREAKERS 73 AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL 80 THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR _On the cover_ _Sketch-Map of Australia on pages vi and vii._ [Illustration: Map of Australia] [Illustration: KOOKABURRAS. _Page_ 59.] [Illustration: SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL. PAGE 25.] AUSTRALIA CHAPTER I ITS BEGINNING A "Sleeping Beauty" land--The coming of the English--Early explorations--The resourceful Australian. The fairy-story of the Sleeping Beauty might have been thought out by someone having Australia in his mind. She was the Sleeping Beauty among the lands of the earth--a great continent, delicately beautiful in her natural features, wonderfully rich in wealth of soil and of mine, left for many, many centuries hidden away from the life of civilization, finally to be wakened to happiness by the courage and daring of English sailors, who, though not Princes nor even knights in title, were as noble and as bold as any hero of a fairy-tale.