THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
"You have no idea what a salubrious region this is," said one of the passengers to whom they had been introduced by a friend who came to see them off. "The air is wonderfully bracing, so much so that it is a common saying, 'Nobody ever dies in the Blue Mountains unless he is killed by accident or blown away.' Many people live to more than a hundred years old; there is an authentic account of a man who celebrated his one hundred and tenth birthday six months before he died, and another who was cut off by intemperate habits when he was only one hundred and one. This man used to speak of a neighbor who lived to be one hundred and eight years old and hadn't an unsound tooth in his head, when he was killed by the kick of a vicious horse."
The Blue Mountains are a part of the great dividing range already described in our account of the visit to Queensland. Of late years they have rapidly grown in favor as a pleasure resort, and thousands of the inhabitants of Sydney go there to escape the heat of summer. The mountains increase in height as they approach the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria, where they are known as the Australian Alps. The highest peak of all, Mount Kosciusko, is 7308 feet high, and its summit is covered with snow throughout the year.
ON THE HEAD-WATERS OF THE MURRAY RIVER.
Frank and Fred were at once seized with a desire to visit Mount Kosciusko, but were restrained by the Doctor, who did not share their enthusiasm for mountain-climbing. So the youths contented themselves with a distant view of the snowy tops of the high peaks of the range, and allowed Mount Kosciusko to rest undisturbed. The country is wild and picturesque, but the facilities for travel are not extensive, and only those travellers who are accustomed to fatigue should undertake the journey. The starting-point for the excursion is the little town of Tumberumba, from which the mountains are about forty miles away. A coach runs between Tumberumba and Calcairn, seventy-four miles, the nearest point on the railway, and the town is said to be pleasantly situated at an elevation of two thousand feet above the sea.