On our visits to other great capitals we have found steamers unloading their cargoes in the very heart of the city; but Adelaide, founded in 1836 and named after the wife of King William IV., is neither on the sea nor on a navigable river. The original settlers were aiming at a purely agricultural colony, and so chose a position a few miles inland in the midst of fertile land and pleasant scenery. So we must land at Port Adelaide and take the train.
Partly owing to the separation of the port from the city, partly 1 owing to the slower and more even growth of South Australia, Adelaide seems quieter and less crowded than Melbourne or Sydney, and its inhabitants consider it to be the model capital of Eastern Australia. King William Street, which we see here, 2 with the statue of Colonel Light, the founder of the city, in the foreground, does not look in the least commercial. We get the same impression as we walk along the tree-clad banks of the 3 little Torrens River, or cross it by the City Bridge. We miss the wharves and warehouses and steam cranes, and might almost 4 imagine that we were on a backwater of the Upper Thames. The main streets, too, of the city remind us rather of the West End 5 than of the City of London; while even the post-office stands in an open space with trees. In fact, the whole city, with its 6 wide streets, its parks and gardens, gives the impression of 7 spaciousness. If we make our way, however, to the railway station we shall see that Adelaide is not by any means without trade. Here are collected the products of all the country round; but as this is purely agricultural, and Adelaide is not the only outlet, there is not the rush of business which we saw at Melbourne.
[Illustration: SOUTH AUSTRALIA: OROGRAPHICAL.
Here is a general view which will give us some idea of the 8 position of the city. It lies on a plain; a few miles away to the east the view is shut in by a long, low ridge. If we climb this ridge and look back towards the city, we have in sight a large part of the original South Australia.
South Australia of to-day is a somewhat difficult country to 9 analyse; but the ridge on which we are standing may give us the key to the whole. If we follow the heights northwards, we shall find that they disappear, hundreds of miles away, in the country south-east of Lake Eyre. South of Adelaide they curve round and end in Kangaroo Island, which stretches across the mouth of the Gulf of St. Vincent. These heights are really the edge of a plateau, and the plateau slopes gently away from the sea towards the basin of the Murray. The Murray, at the great bend, turns sharply southwards and reaches its outlet in Lake Alexandrina just beyond the southern end of the highlands.