When I was in the colony in April, 1872, copper, which in April, 1871, had been worth only £74 per ton, rose to £105,--so that the happy owners of mines in a working condition were revelling in a success not inferior to that of the squatters. Copper and wool were both so high that the fortune of the colony was supposed to be made. I found that there were no less than 70 “reputed” mines in the colony at the close of the year 1870, of which 38 were reported to have been then at work. But sundry even of these 38 were not supposed to be remunerative. Many of the 70 so-called “reputed” mines are mere mining claims, which are held under government as possible future speculations. Those which are distant from the sea and distant also from railways cannot be worked with a profit, let the ore be ever so rich. The cost of the carriage destroys the wealth of the copper. At present when men talk of the mining wealth of South Australia they allude to Wallaroo and Moonta. I have said that these places are joined together by a railway,--but they are not joined to any other place by rail. The traveller to Wallaroo is forced to go from Adelaide either by coach or by steamer round the Gulfs. I was taken there by one of the great copper-mining authorities of the colony, and we elected to go by coach, in order that I might see something of the country. The coach was a mail-coach, with four horses, running regularly on the road every day;--but on our return journey we were absolutely lost in the bush,--coach, coachman, horses, mails, passengers, and all. The man was trying a new track, and took us so far away from the old track that no one knew where we were. At last we found ourselves on the seashore. Of course it will be understood that there was no vestige of a road or pathway. Travellers are often “bushed” in Australia. They wander off their paths and are lost amidst the forests. In this instance the whole mail-coach was “bushed.” When we came upon the sea, and no one could say what sea it was, I felt that the adventure was almost more than interesting. CHAPTER VI. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.--TELEGRAPH AND RAILWAY.