of the properties—such, for instance, as the Burra Hotel, on long improving leases.
"Leaving the Burra Hotel, you pass down the High-street, and proceed along a road, which on one side winds round the base of a large hill, and on the other side is skirted by a creek that exhibits a very singular coup d'œil. Along the channel of the creek runs a thin stream of water, and on each bank is a line of little detached cottages or sheds, each of which has been excavated out of the sides of the creek, and faced with weather boards. The inside of each house has a fire-place and a chimney or flue, which, making its exit out of the surface ground, is then capped, either by a small beer barrel or mound of earth with a hole in the centre, as a substitute for the ordinary chimney-pot. In these strange dwelling-places, which take up two miles of the creek on each side, the great bulk of the miners and their families reside, being permitted by the Burra Company to do so rent free.[1] A busy hum pervades the creek—swarms of children are at every door—here and there a knot of gossips is collected—and every now and then the scene is diversified by the chatter of a tame magpie, the barking of quarrelsome curs, the grunting of swine, the neighing of horses stabled alongside the huts, or the fluttering of red shirts and other apparel drying in the open air. Two minutes' walk brings you to the mine. Turning from the creek, and looking towards the low but gently-rising ground that lies between three hills, you observe an area of from eighty to one hundred acres, crowded with stone buildings, covered shafts leading under ground, machinery and engine works, engine-houses, storehouses, tanks, and dams of water, innumerable sheds of all sizes, and countless piles of copper ore of various assorted qualities, in different stages of dressing, lying almost in every direction. If you arrive after six in the evening expecting to find all quiet and the business of the day over, great will be your surprise at the bustling animated appearance of the place. The first striking object is the gigantic white chimney towering from the summit of the middle hill, and carrying the smoke from the different engine-flues which run under the surface of the ground towards the middle hill. At the summit of this same hill, also, you observe a large well-finished stone warehouse, used as a powder magazine. The eye is next caught by a fine lofty stone building, situate about the centre of the ground—the three-storied pumping engine-house, with the great beam in front, steadily working up and down. Ascending the road, you pass the weigh-bridge, and an extensive square of stone-built offices and stores adjoining a spacious yard, enclosed by a stone wall. These premises are used as depots for building timber, iron, workmen's tools, and various engineering stores. In the back ground, on the brow of the hill, is a row of well-built stone cottages—two of them the residences of Captain Roach and another mine captain, and the third comprising the consultation room, the changing rooms, and the office of the company's accountant and his clerk.
"On the right of these cottages is another similar range, the residences of the other captains of the mine and their families. Still further to the right is a pretty detached cottage, occupied by Dr. Chambers, the principal surgeon at the mine. On the brow of the right hill is a long line of stabling and sheds for carts, with adjoining yards and barns. The stalls are roomy, floored with small stones, and capable of receiving upwards of one hundred horses. Near the stabling is a sub-- ↑ Since this description was written a flood has destroyed these dwellings, drowning some of the inhabitants.
