“ It is visited by the ocean steamers of several lines, and is the centre of a very extensive bêche-de-mer and pearl fishery. Tin and gold are worked in the district, in which also good coffee and rice are grown. Cooktown is the port of the Palmer gold-fields, and a railway runs to Laura on the gold-fields, 67 m. W. by S. of Cooktown. It is the chief port of Queensland for the New Guinea trade; and is also the seat of a Roman Catholic vicariate apostolic whose bishop has jurisdiction over the whole of Queensland north of lat. ”