Successful Exploration | Page 8

a night,
and find yourself. You must not stay more than ten days. We got there
on Friday and remained until the Saturday week following. We then
obtained this situation, and started on the same afternoon. Twenty-three
of us came up together. Drays were provided to carry our luggage, but
we ourselves had to walk. We were three weeks on the journey,
through the bush, sleeping, of course, in the open air.
. . .
He then proceeds to describe Melbourne, as it then was:--
Melbourne is situated, as you know, on the Yarra Yarra, [Footnote: A
native term, which means "always running."], which has not nearly so
large a bed as the Dart, although more navigable. It is narrow but very
deep, and so far resembles a canal rather than a river. The town, or city,
as they call it, is situated low, but laid out on a good scale. The streets
are very wide, and I think when filled with houses it will be a fine place;
but what spoils the appearance now is, the number of wooden buildings
they are throwing up, as they cannot get workmen for others. When we
were there, butter was from two shillings and fourpence to three
shillings per pound, bread fourpence, milk eightpence per pint,
vegetables enormous, butcher's meat and sugar, as at home. Fruit very
dear; a shilling would not purchase as much as a penny in England.
Beer and porter, one shilling per pint in Melbourne, but from two
shillings to two and sixpence here. The town of Melbourne is all on one
side of the river, but on the opposite bank is Canvas Town, connected
with Melbourne by a good bridge of one arch. Canvas Town takes its
name from being entirely composed of tents, except a few wooden

erections, such as a public-house, and the Immigrant's Home, where we
had lodged. I do not like Melbourne in its present state. You are not
safe out after sundown, and in a short time you will not be safe during
the day. There were some men taken out of the river drowned,
suspected to have been murdered, and several attempts at robbery,
while we were there. I sold my box of chemicals, after taking out what
I wanted, for 4 pounds, and the soda-water apparatus for 2 pounds 5
shillings. I also sold some books that we could not carry, but got
nothing for them. Scientific works do not take. The people who buy
everything here are the gold-diggers, and they want story books. A
person I know brought out 100 pounds worth of more serious reading,
and sold the lot for 16 pounds.
We started from Melbourne on a Saturday, with the drays, eight
bullocks to each, laden entirely with the luggage of the party,
twenty-three in number. We made only five or six miles that afternoon,
and slept under some gum trees. Our clothes were nearly saturated with
dew; but as we advanced farther inland, the dews decreased, and in a
night or two there was no sign of them. The land for a few miles is dry
and sandy, but improves as you proceed. The woods extensive,
sometimes without interval for two or three days' march. There was no
scarcity of water, except for the first fifteen miles, after leaving
Melbourne. We enjoyed the journey much, and shot many birds, which
constituted our principal food. Ducks abound in the creeks, [Footnote:
Watercourses, running in flood time, but partially dry in dry seasons.]
and up this way there are fine white cockatoos, which are good eating,
and about the size of a small fowl. There is also a bird very plentiful
here which they call a magpie. It is somewhat the colour of our magpie,
but larger, and without the long tail; easily shot and eatable, and feeds,
I believe, much like our wood-pigeons. [Footnote: It feeds more on
insects.] The pigeon here is a beautiful bird, of a delicate bronze colour,
tinged with pink about the neck, and the wings marked with green and
purple. They are tame, and nicer eating than those at home. Where we
are, we have abundance of food; plenty of mutton, and we can get a
duck, pigeon, or cockatoo whenever we like, almost without going out
of sight of our hut, besides a good supply of fish in the river; Murray
cod, which in the Murray are said sometimes to weigh eighty pounds,
but in our creeks generally run from two to twelve; also a kind of

mussel, and a fish like a lobster, not quite so large, but good eating.
[Footnote: Crawfish; the river lobster.]
Everyone who comes out does a very foolish thing in bringing such a
quantity of clothes that he never wants. All you require, even in
Melbourne,