They accepted the invitation, and went to the copper-mine which is known as the Burra-Burra, and is one hundred and one miles by railway from Adelaide. Starting at seven o'clock in the morning, they reached the station near the mine a little past noon, spent three hours at the works, and returned to Adelaide in the evening. It was a long day and a wearying one, but the ride and visit were greatly enjoyed.
The Burra-Burra mine was discovered by a shepherd name Pickitt, in 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 about a mile from shore, and our friends were landed in a row-boat on payment of one shilling each, the same fare being charged for the return trip before the departure of the vessel in the evening. King George Sound is about five miles long and nearly the same in width, and forms a good anchorage for ships. Its advantages as a naval possession were long ago recognized, the British Government having secured it by establishing a colony there in 1826. There are two entrances on opposite sides of an island called Breaksea, a massive rock that reminded Frank and Fred of Alcatraz Island, in the harbor of San Francisco, or Capri, in the Bay of Naples.
The youths were disappointed with Albany, which they had imagined to be a place of some importance. It stands on rising ground on the north shore of the harbor, and has not far from one thousand two hundred inhabitants—hardly enough to give it the dignity of a city, which most of its residents claim for it.
Frank asked how they could get away from Albany in case they had decided to travel through Western Australia.