1980 - Sewell, Henry. The Journal of Henry Sewell, 1853-7. Volume II - NEW SOUTH WALES, p 276-289

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NEW SOUTH WALES

Six days more of head seas, moderate winds, fine fresh weather, and sea sickness brought us on Tuesday night close to the coast of Australia. About day-break the letting off of Steam gave sign of our approaching the land. I put myself into my dressing gown and groped my way on deck. A light was on our larboard bow, the lighthouse of Sydney Heads, but nothing distinctly visible. Shortly after, as day light dawned we went quickly through the Heads, and slipped easily up the Harbour to our final destination. It was scarcely light enough to see the scenery of Port Jackson; as mere scenery what I did see disappointed me. It appeared to me to want extent. As a harbour no doubt it is as fine as possible. The coast lines have no mountains like Wellington and Akaroa, and no picturesque peaks like Rangitoto at Auckland. Looking from the Town it reminded me somewhat of Southampton Water. But as yet, I have not seen enough to pass judgment on it.

We breakfasted on board and then I sallied forth in search of a dwelling place of some kind--Hotel, Boarding House, or lodgings. I tried several, and at last fixed on our present location in Palmer Street, Woolloomooloo, a suburb of Sydney, a pretty situation enough. We are safely housed in a couple of decent lodging house rooms on a first floor, for which we pay £2 10s 0d a week. These are moderate terms, and we are very decently comfortable, with a respectable elderly widow for a landlady.

Now about Sydney--You want to know what sort of a place it is. I have not as yet seen enough to say much.

[Sunday,] 2 November 1856. Even now I am unable to describe

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Sydney though we have been here 4 days; but they have been days of rain, and such rain! probably Nature's ample preparation for some prolonged drought. By the bye, one of our fellow passengers by the Steamer, a Captain Dacre, 1 told us that he had been an Australian Squatter, and remembered one drought of 3 years' continuance. What would existence be in such a country? But the rains when they do come, make up for lost time. The gullies literally pour down torrents, and here and there where a few streams meet it is no exaggeration to say that the water would turn a Mill. Of course the weather is cheerless, and sitting in-doors in a strange place without books (at least none but old or indifferent ones) knowing nobody, and not caring to do so, is not a happy state of existence.

I have however transacted some business. With the Union Bank I shall I believe make an arrangement for taking up the circulation of our Bank of Issue, negotiating £100,000 of our securities, and authorizing them under our late Act to issue paper Money. 2 But as to the principal matter, the Steam Contract, I am amazed at finding that nothing has been done, nor as far as I can judge, seems likely to be done. The Sydney people, contented no doubt with the assurance that they will have Steam communication with England, care nothing about New Zealand, or the other branch Services. 3 The Melbourne Government appears to be in advance of them.

[Sunday, ] 9 November 1856. I may begin to write about Sydney, though still the weather has been so bad (till yesterday) that we have scarcely ventured out. Talk of New Zealand rains, and Australian droughts, it is vice versa, as far as our experience at present goes. The weather last week was cold, wet, and cheerless, and we luxuriated in a fire. It has however changed, and now we are anticipating intolerable heat.

We have somewhat extended our range of acquaintances; several people have called. We paid our visit of ceremony at Government House, and dined there yesterday. Sir William Denison 4 not well enough to be at Table. Lady Denison 5 a quiet lady-like woman. The party consisted of some of the Sydney Magnates. Mr Parker the

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Colonial Secretary, 6 and Mr Donaldson the Colonial Treasurer 7 -- also Dr Woolley, the Principal of the University, 8 who turns out to be an Exeter Man, and a pupil of William's, of whom he speaks in terms of extreme gratitude. There were Ladies too. Mrs Woolley and Mrs Donaldson, but they were silent and uninteresting. If any body has a curiosity to know what a dinner at Government House is like, let him fancy it to be just the common-place sort of thing at any private gentleman's house. The dinner the same, the wines, the small-talk--the general boredom of the whole affair. I sat by Mr Donaldson and tried to get him into conversation about Colonial affairs, but failed, but he seems to be an agreeable person, and disposed to be friendly. We are going to dine there on Monday.

Government House is a pretensious building of the Strawberry Hill castellated Gothic style. 9 A handsome entrance with an imposing staircase. We were received upstairs in a good-sized room, moderately furnished, habitable enough, but nothing remarkable. We descended to the ground-floor for dinner; the dining room a large room, but scantily furnished. I suppose the continued procession of Governors one after another makes it not worth any one's while to expend money on furniture. I like the general style of our New Zealand Governor's Table better than this; there is more heartiness in it. The situation of Government House is very pretty; it reminds me somewhat of Norris Castle, 10 looking out on the Harbour, as Norris does on the Solent.

As to Sydney itself, as a whole it is very superior to my expectations; larger, more advanced, more populous, and city-like than I fancied it would be. Its general features remind me somewhat of Southampton, but there is more pretence in its architecture, and none of that old substantial respectability which there is in Southampton. The shipping is not imposing--a dozen large vessels or thereabouts are lying alongside the Wharves, loading or

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unloading--as many more lying in the stream; but there is bustle and activity. A few small Steamers ply up and down the Harbour, and boats are passing to and fro from the North Shore. Along the water side runs a range of wharves with stores, and behind, parallel with the wharves is the principal street of Sydney, George Street, the Thames St., Fleet St., Oxford St. and at the extremity the New Road of Sydney; stretching away into dirty suburbs, till it loses itself in the main road to Paramatta. This George Street is the main artery of Sydney. Others branch off at right angles, and are again crossed by others, which may answer to Great Russell St., Lamb's Conduit and the like. Then bordering on the Government Domain, and overlooking the Government Gardens, there is Macquarie St., the Park Lane of Sydney--with good, fresh, smart looking Houses, with Jewish names inscribed on their brass plates; verandahed and jalousied in token of the great enemy heat, against which the inhabitants of Sydney have to contend. The Shops are beginning to copy their prototypes of Regent St. and Oxford St. Many of them have great plate glass windows, and all the proper decorations of Shop architecture. They seem also well supplied with goods, but of what quality, or at what comparative cost, I know not. Beyond Sydney, detached from it, and yet part of it, is the suburb of Woolloomooloo, where we are located. There is an interesting space of green turf between it and the city, which is Sydney proper. This open space is Hyde Park, not that it has any resemblance to the genuine Hyde Park. It is much more like an elongated St Stephen's Green, Dublin. Up and down the centre is a straight Promenade, and on a Sunday evening, oh such crowds! all Sydney seems to swarm there. The real Hyde Park of Sydney is the Government Domain, an extremely pretty piece of ground bordering the water, and laid out in walks, with the refreshing shade of trees, with seats underneath. (By the bye the trees are mostly the everlasting gum, small and graceless.) Altogether a very agreeable oasis in the midst of an arid glaring area of buildings, mostly of white stone; which under the intense light of an Australian sky is painful to the eyes. This suburb of Woolloomooloo is to Sydney as Hampstead and Highgate to London, only much closer. All about on the crest of the Hill are goodly villas. We dined yesterday [Monday] 10 November at one of them; Mr Donaldson's, the late Premier, now Finance Minister, who seems to be the leading spirit of the present Responsible Government.

[Sunday,] 16 November 1856. What shall I say of our first dinner visit to the Magnates of Sydney? It was but a sort of tete a tete affair, and there was nothing whatever to describe about it. I do not succeed in extracting much information from Mr Donaldson, or

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indeed any body else. Perhaps the fault lies with me, but I cannot help suspecting that there is a lack of material, and that underneath a somewhat showy surface there is not much solid substance.

Wednesday [12 November]. We devoted to an expedition to the South Head, the great beauty of the environs of Sydney, and certainly the drive is very charming. Along the Southern Bank of the Harbour, climbing hills by roads winding up and over spurs of hills which run down to the Sea, and then descending into bays formed by the indentations of the coast. All the way through more or less of wood, the evergreen wood, filled with low shrubs of great variety, and many of them having beautiful flowers, such as in an English conservatory would be counted as rarities. The Trees are for the most part the everlasting gum; very inferior in picturesqueness to New Zealand Trees, but the Shrubs are I think decidedly superior, and in greater variety. There are lots of suburban villas, mansions of the Merchant Princes of Sydney, scattered all the way along. At one of these (Mr Cooper's, 11 the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly) I am going to dine on Monday--a Parliamentary dinner. The land along the road, sells I am told at unheard of Sums. The general scale of prices of property of all kinds is exorbitant and fictitious. One man gives £800 a year rent for a large castellated building like East Cowes Castle [Norris Castle], but not so extensive. But what a rent! and what a scale of mercantile profit and income must this represent! There is no doubt great wealth in the place, and it must go on increasing; but in the nature of things there will come reactions, and depressions. I think also as new places develop themselves, Sydney will lose something of its present advantage as the one great emporium. Nevertheless it will be a great place in these parts--is so now indeed.

The drive to the South Head is the fashionable drive. You may have some notion of it by comparison with the road from Ryde to St Helen's [IoW], only it is far more beautiful and striking. We hired a fly or cab, one which ply in the streets, and a remarkably good kind of carriage too, but then the cost! I was charged 15s the other day, for merely taking us to Government House and back. £2 a day is the regular rate. We paid £1 5s 0d for our drive to the South Head. Of course such prices are prohibitory and one cannot indulge in sightseeing. From what we hear there is not much worth seeing besides the South Head road. We meditate an excursion to Botany Bay, to say that we have been there; down the Harbour and to

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Paramatta; that I think will be the extent of our peregrinations in Australia. 12

Our minds are settling down to taking passage by the Dunbar. There seem to be doubts as to the Mail Steamer, when she will arrive, and when depart. Also on calculation we find a great difference of expense. So that unless there should be some positive object to be gained by staying for the Steamer, we shall most likely be off by the Dunbar, advertised to sail on the 15th of December.

[Sunday,] 23 November [1856]. I dined on Monday [17th] with Mr Cooper--a Parlimentary dinner. Every thing all very fine. Most of the people with whom I had made acquaintance there, but nothing remarkable to note.

Tuesday 18 [November] we made an excursion to Botany Bay about 5 miles from Sydney, over an execrable road, and through land which offers little temptation to agriculture. A white drifting sand, with here and there a bog. The suburbs of Sydney stretch out to a considerable distance, but beyond there is scarcely a sign of cultivation. This is the general character of the country round Sydney. We agreed that Botany Bay is an imposture, that is as far as the picturesque is concerned. It is a large expanse of water, enclosed by Head-lands which form a narrow entrance. The coast is low, the shore sandy and monotonous; the whole effect dreary in the extreme. But it seems to be a place of resort for holiday folk, and as we are told used to be a special place of retirement for the honey-moon. There is an Hotel, with a garden and a menagerie and an aviary. 13 An Elephant, two tigers, two bears, some kangaroos and lots of cockatoos and parrots. They have at least the merit of supplying some objects of interest and amusement in what would otherwise be the most hopelessly dreary place under the sun. We returned by the same way we went, not at all impressed with the charms of the environs of Sydney.

Thursday [20 November] I dined with an old School-fellow of mine, a Mr Spain, formerly Commissioner of Land claims in New Zealand. 14 He is now a very successful lawyer here, and has a nice place about a mile and a half out of Sydney overlooking the

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Harbour--a charming situation. I there met a Mr Bartley, 15 a brother of my old friend and quondam colleague Mr Bartley, the Barrister at Auckland. Mr and Mrs Bartley are from Adelaide, on their way to England, via New Zealand. We talked of the Hawkers 16 with whom they are intimately acquainted. Also of South Australian politics. Responsible Government is the one idea which at present pervades the whole of this part of the world, South Australia included. But the experiment has hardly been commenced there.

Yesterday, Dr Woolley came by appointment to escort us over the new University. It is about a mile from the Town, and will be an extremely fine building. 17 They are spending a monstrous sum of money on it.

[Sunday,] 30 November 1856. This journalizing becomes insufferably dull, one has nothing to record worth noting. The dinners are all alike, one meets the same people, and the people have all the same ideas, and all confined within the narrowest circle. The radius of the Sydney mind may extend about 5 miles from the Sydney centre. The world beyond is the margin in which Sydney is placed, the frame for that gem. It is just the same here as every where else, the Colonial mind is essentially cramped and narrow. Dining at Mr Holt's 18 (late Finance Minister) the other day, we discussed Steam Postal Communication with England. 'I have yet to learn' said he, 'what possible advantage New South Wales is to derive from quick postal communication with England.' 'The eyes of Europe are upon us' says Mr Donaldson, the late Premier. It would be a good lesson if every man were once in his life to be put down at 4 o'clock in the afternoon in Cheapside, it would teach him his insignificance. We are sick and tired of it, and want to be on our voyage, or doing something.

Well, I have made a movement at last. After talking over all sorts of plans, looking over a variety of Ships, calculating distances, time, expense, and so forth, we resolved (I did at least) that we would go by the Mail Steamer from Melbourne. Then that we would go to Melbourne forthwith, where I could see something of the working of Responsible Government (the Parliament of Victoria is just now

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meeting) stay a week or so there, and then if possible see Hobartown and Adelaide, where Responsible Government is also in its first stage. There would be a decided object in seeing the actual working of the new political system in all these Colonies. 19 That resolution made, I called yesterday on the Governor to tell him I was going, and to ask if any thing had been done about Steam. He told me that the New South Wales Government had just resolved to signify to Victoria their assent to the plan proposed of advertizing for Tenders for the Branch Steam Services, and were about to write immediately to that effect. I then saw Mr Parker, the Colonial Secretary, who shewed me the Minute of Council on the subject. Then I went to the Steam Packet people, and initiated a negotiation with them for the entire service to New Zealand. I am to see them again on Tuesday. 20 In the meantime I get letters from New Zealand which confirm me in my own plans. So we have made up our minds, unless unforeseen circumstances should occur, to leave this next week for Melbourne. So much for the future--now for the past.

Our principal adventure this week was an expedition by Steam up the Paramatta Estuary to Paramatta, thence by railway to Liverpool, and back per Railway to Sydney. We did this on Monday 24th. Started about 9 o'clock, in a small River Steamer. The day hot, but cloudy, so we did not suffer much. The scenery up the Estuary is very pretty, but not more. At Paramatta the water narrows, and terminates at last in a brook. The banks of the water are covered with bush, for the most part all uncleared, and I suppose the soil is not fertile enough to make it worth the expense of clearing. Towards Paramatta there are gardens, and groves of Orange Trees, which supply the Sydney Markets. Here and there, is a respectable looking villa but altogether there is no correspondence between the pretensiousness of Sydney itself, and its environs. Out of Sydney you come at once upon the uncleared Bush. This arises from the

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poorness of the land. The better land is distant 30 or 40 miles, from which the principal agricultural supply comes. Paramatta struck us as agreeable. It reminded one of a large English village. Houses standing back in good sized gardens--a few respectable looking elderly shops--a very nice Church, Norman, but with two nondescript towers. 21 The general air of the place tame and quiet, suggesting the idea of peaceful retirement after the bustle and dust of Sydney.

Walking from the landing place up to the Town an Omnibus passed us, which stopped and a gentleman descended, who came up, and at once accosted me by name. He was a nephew of Mr Blachford's, Mr Cox, who it seems has a Sheep run at Canterbury, and had seen me there. 22 He was extremely civil; and shewed us all the lions of Paramatta which are not considerable. There is a quondam Government House, but half destroyed by white ants, and it has ceased to be occupied by the Governor. The Domain round it might be made pretty but it was ill-kept and untidy; and the Park is uninteresting, for there is nothing but the everlasting gum in the shape of Trees. Just round Paramatta there is better land, and some of the clearings are pretty enough. The Railway Terminus, the road leading to it, a Turnpike gate, a flashy looking Hotel, Omnibuses &c., all looked so like England, that one could hardly persuade oneself that it was the other side of the world. From Paramatta to Liverpool is about 9 miles, which we accomplished in about half an hour. The Railway seems well appointed, the Carriages are handsome and good, the rate of travelling about 20 miles an hour; but it is impossible to avoid asking the question, why are they here, and what is the use of them? Of that I may have something to say by and bye. All the way from Paramatta to Liverpool was Bush--here and there the commencement of a clearing--a settler's tent--a post and rail fence, and grass beginning to spread. The clover seems to spread here as it does in New Zealand. At Liverpool we opened on a small stream, called the George River, which flows between high banks, and loses itself about 20 miles below in Botany Bay. Here is the beginning of an inland Town. 23 At present it is the termination of the Railway, but it is a sleepy stagnant place. We counted three large stores closed up, and nothing about it indicated life or motion. The land is better here,

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and it is more cleared. Some adventurous person is constructing Abattoirs to supply the Sydney Meat Market. I do not know any reason why such a scheme should not succeed. We were astounded at seeing in the Newspaper the next morning, that on that very day there were great doings at Liverpool. The first stone of the Abattoirs was laid, and sundry men of importance had gone from Sydney to inaugurate the undertaking. Also there was a great sale of land in the suburbs of 'that thriving and important Town of Liverpool!' described in the advertisement in such terms that one might have fancied it a copy of its namesake. To us the place appeared dead. What its normal state of animation may be, if such is its condition under such unwonted stimulants, it is difficult to conceive. The building land mania seems as strong here as ever. There, in that torpid town or village of Liverpool, scarcely reclaimed from the wilderness, and with nothing but bush about it in all directions, frontages to imaginary streets were selling at 50s a foot. Dickens' description of Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit is as true a picture here as in America. 24 So far as I can judge the only form in which the passion for land can be indulged here, is in speculative building allotments. I cannot find that there is any rural land for cultivation saleable, which would be worth buying, about Sydney, except at unheard of prices. I shall make a note or two upon the Land system, as it strikes me.

We loitered about at Liverpool, endeavouring to kill time, till the return Train to Sydney. We ventured into the Bush, which is by the bye just at the end of the main street of the Town, and proposed to ourselves to sit down under shade; but we quickly abandoned our position. Mosquitoes, oh those pests! swarmed about us. What enjoyment can there be in existence when the air is filled with stinging venomous insects, and you cannot throw yourself on the grass without being a prey to swarms of ants? About 6 we started homewards. An hour carried us back to Sydney, neither greatly enchanted nor amazed at any thing, but satisfied so far that we had seen something of the Country. The general aspect of it when one got on high ground, and could look over the bush was agreeable and undulating, without any marked features. In the distance is the range of the Blue Mountains, but there is nothing striking or picturesque about them seen from this distance. They are only an outline on the horizon. I am told that the agricultural district is about 40 miles from Sydney, on the Hawkesbury; but a Canterbury friend whom I met, and who went there spoke disparagingly of it. Of the Country I have seen so little that I cannot offer an opinion.

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Thursday 27 [November]. Dr Woolley shewed us over the Museum. I have no science in me and do not understand the 'ologies'. There appeared to be a very good collection of shells, and birds of gorgeous plumage. The fault of these Museums is, that they seem to expend their efforts upon imperfect collections of foreign objects, instead of perfecting those peculiar to the Country. However these were things to wonder at, and admire, and not a few to abominate. There was a huge Python. I asked if they had snakes in Australia as big, and was told, yes--in the North. Horrible monsters! There was the death Adder which gives you only ten minutes' chance of life, if you can manage in that time to cut out the bitten flesh. Scorpions, Tarantulas, Centipedes, and innumerable shapes of entomological torture. We can bear witness to some of them of inferior power, but capable of making life unedurable. Why talk of a beautiful climate and sunny skies, when you are afraid of treading at every step upon some horrible reptile. Certainly in that respect New Zealand is a paradise to Australia, a paradise without a Serpent. 25

Melbourne. 10 December [1856]. See, we have made another step or rather stride on our road homeward. We arrived here on Tuesday [9 Dec], this is Thursday. We are fretting at being confined within doors by weather as bad as England could furnish at this very time, wet, windy and cold. But I shall say nothing of things present till I have completed my record of the past.

I have said nothing about New South Wales politics, or general questions. I do not like to write in a hurry or with hasty impressions, and shall defer what I have to say till I have had time to compare and judge. So at present I merely jot down a memento of our daily or hebdomadal doings; not that there is much to notice in that line.

On the 27th of November the Denny came in with letters from New Zealand. Some from England, some from Lyttelton, some from Auckland. Those from England about Association affairs very agreeable. It pleases me much to hear of the convivial Euthanasia of the Association, and of the kind and complimentary reminiscences of myself. This is as I could wish and to speak plainly it is the more agreeable because I think it not undeserved. Dr Campbell 26 arrived by the Denny and we took counsel together about Steam arrangements, the conclusion being that nothing could practically

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be done till farther intelligence from England, probably not till the arrival of the Oneida. We resolve to set off for Melbourne next week. It was useless to remain longer at Sydney. Nothing could be done to expedite matters. He informed me that he had just written to Melbourne, agreeing to the Melbourne Government issuing Advertisements for Tenders. So far so good. There is a step towards a settlement. But the truth is that the whole of this affair of the Steam contract has been be-messed. The British Government goaded into doing something has done it in a hurry, and has left half its work undone. First, it has made an improvident contract. Sir William Denison told me he could have got a fortnightly service from Sydney at £50,000 less than the present Contract. Then it has left the Branch Services to shift for themselves, and now, when there comes a necessity for completing them, nobody has the power of acting. At all events nothing can be done at Sydney.

We dined one day at a Mr Salting's, 27 a Merchant and Millionaire, who has a charming place overlooking the Harbour. He is going to England to educate his sons either at Oxford or Cambridge. The dinner stupid and fine. Saturday, the 29th [November] we dined at Dr Woolley's, the Principal of the University. Met just the same people. Paying visits--politics--and idleness filled up the interval till our departure. We dined at the Bishop of Sydney's on Friday the 5th Decr. Though he is not what I should desire for a Bishop, it is impossible not to like him. 28 We at all events are bound to speak kindly and gratefully of him. He was especially kind to us. Both he and Mrs Barker seem to be the quintessence of amiability. The Bishop looks terribly depressed as if he were in an uncongenial atmosphere. There we met a Mr Larmer, 29 the Agent of the new Steam Company, but who throws no light on the proceedings of that Ship, which to me has become mythical and fabulous.

Saturday 6 [December 1856] at 3 o'clock we started from the Steamer's Wharf in the Wonga Wonga, a screw Steamer, the accommodation comfortable enough. Our fellow voyagers nothing remarkable. A Mr and Mrs Hamilton, 30 the latter a daughter of our

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Judge Stephen, and their children were the only people we knew. The Hamiltons very civil to us. He is an old Port Phillip Squatter. Just as we got off, there came on one of the most violent storms of wind which I ever saw. A hurricane in fact. There were heavy thunder clouds about us, with wind from the N.E. A white mass of cloud was gathering from the South, with evidently a rotatory motion. Presently it burst, tearing the water up like a cloud of dust. It did no damage as far as we could judge. Lightning and rain continued all the way down the Harbour, so spoiling the picturesque. Gradually however the storm wore away, and after we had cleared the Heads the weather settled down, and we went quietly along, with a mild North wind quite in our favor. The water as smooth as a lake, so minimizing the miseries of our voyage. We passed down the Coast of New South Wales, but head-lands, bays, promontories, and outlines of distant hills are all alike. In the morning we were off Twofold Bay, and before night had rounded Cape Howe. The wind shifted to the Southward, but not very strong, and without much sea, so that we suffered little from the motion of the Ship. Another night, and another morning, we were nearing Bass' Straits; still with smooth water but a westerly wind, dead in our teeth. About 8 or 9 o'clock we rounded Wilson's promontory, the Southern point of Australia. A clear moon light night. We ran close under the land, and saw outlines of Islands scattered about us. Here we entered Bass' Straits, and began to feel the rolling of the South Westerly Sea. A heavy swell came up on our beam, and we wobbled about distressingly. People began to be ill: Poor Elizabeth suffered dreadfully from headache nearly the whole way. One more night--next morning we were nearing Cape Shank, about 30 miles from Port Phillip Heads. The weather fine, but the same disagreeable swell, which continued till we passed the Heads. The Coast line as you approach Port Phillip is low; there is some high land in the distance, but from Cape Shank to the Heads you pass down a narrow kind of spit, which shuts out the Harbour of Port Phillip from the main Ocean. The entrance to the Harbour was boiling like a pot. The water rushes out between the narrow Heads like a Mill-race. They said it was remarkably smooth by comparison: With a Southerly gale, and an ebbing tide, there must be an awful commotion of water there. Not so bad as Manukau though. We slipped in easily enough. There were signs all about us of the activity of the place. Ships were going in and sailing out. I counted 12 of large size just at the entrance, and more as we advanced up the Harbour. Harbour I do not think it should be called, it is a huge lagoon. Here and there you lose all sight of land. It might be an inland Sea. In fact here from Melbourne, looking out

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Seaward, you are apparently looking at the boundless Ocean; the Heads are not visible. Only the smoothness of the water betrays its lake-like character. I like that expansiveness of view, and would infinitely prefer looking on it as a permanent view than upon all the beauties imaginable of close confined Mountain scenery. Mountains are in fact prison walls to the mind, which is always wanting to get beyond them. I remember the enjoyment of getting into the flats of Holland after being cooped up for some days amongst the beauties of the Rhine. So give me Port Phillip in preference to Port Jackson--just as I would say, give me for a permanence legs of Mutton in preference to Turtle Soup.