V^ ' ^'^ 2 .**.'* THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES to. TRAVEL AND TROUT IN THE ANTIPODES. TRAVEL AND TROUT IN THE ANTIPODES AN ANGLER'S SKETCHES IN TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND BY WILLIAM SENIOR ("RED SPINNER") AUTHOR OF "BY STREAM AND SEA," "WATERSIDE SKETCHES," "NOTABLE SHIPWRECKS," ETC. "Oh monstrous! But one halfpennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack ! What there is else keep close : we'll read it at more advantage." SHAKESPEARE [The right of translation is reserved] DU PBEFACE. WITH the exception of two chapters, portions of which have appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, these sketches will, I belieYe, be new to English readers, though they are to some extent enlarged and rearranged from Notes from Tasmania published in The Week, and from Notes from New Zealand published in the Queens- lander both weekly journals issuing in Brisbane. Hereby, therefore, I tender to the several proprietors hearty thanks for permission, cheerfully given, to unearth produce which they might otherwise have padlocked in their own garners. Taking it for granted .that Tasmania and New Zealand are in the main well known to the ordinary reader, I have not pretended to write of other than the particular localities I visited; and I am well aware that these did not comprise many from a scene- painter's standpoint famous places in those islands. ' W. S. BRISBANE, May Day, 1879. a 3 CONTENTS. PART I. TRAVEL AND TROUT : TASMANIA. CHAPTER I. DIALOGUE AND DETERMINATION. PAGE A hot day in Brisbane Visions Queensland climate Colonial conversation The marsupial plague Wreck and clearance A thunderstorm More travel than trout : a warning 3 CHAPTER II. COASTING AND CAPITALS. Brisbane unfinished Rival ports The river Situation of the city Parliament buildings Threatening weather A nasty night at sea Midsummer Christmas Sydney har- bour Sydney city En route Turning the corner Melbourne and its suburbs King People rules "Chalk it up" 11 CHAPTER III. FIRST BLOOD. Fishing at Sydney and Melbourne The Yarra Yarra ; its merits and defects Across Bass Strait The valley of the Tamar Launceston town and suburbs Distillery Creek Cora Linn Caught with a black gnat St. Patrick's river The duck-bill platypus 31 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. CAVES AND CATTLE. PAGE Olil country names Launccston and Western Railway The Meander Bush on fire Phantom horseman Ravages of the fire Caves Unadorned nature Tho young Tas- manian Fun and frolic on the road Wild cattle Full chase Tho strawberry bull : a noted character 43 CHAPTER V. COACHING: OLD STYLE. Last opportunity The Tasmanian Royal Mail Coaching in Tasmania Old friends Counties and townships Road- side inns Antique waiter The morning star Descend- ing to Ho! nit Town 50 CHAPTER VI. AT HOBART TOWN. The Major Domestic life Exciting paragraphs Hobart Town harbour Mount Wellington Windy weather Government House Brown's River Mount Nelson Fishing in the Derwent estuary Port Arthur in decay : a retrospect C4 CHAPTER VII. OVER THE MOUNTAINS. Two recommendations A reported arrival The cucumber mullet A grand coach ride" Tho harvest of a quiet eye " Seventeen hundred feet above sea-lever Half-way house " Pretty miserable, thank you " A prostrate monarch The Iluou district Venator and Piscator The river Huon 75 CHAPTER VIII. FIRST AND SECOND LKSSONS. The angler enthusiast A fair understanding Up btream A boatman's habit Tho ''Rapids" Retreat ordered A serious drawback A palpable hit End of first lessons The mountain stream Try again The Major's conversion A delicious experience A golden shallow A well-tried cast Landing double End of second lessons Thymallus Autiralie ,., ... 85 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IX. "SEND HIM TO AUSTRALIA," Blustering gale The New Norfolk steamer The Upper Der- went A ne'er-do-well Foolish parents and guardians Master H. G.'s story Dining not in his line Moral for emigrants 98 CHAPTER X. THE SALMON PONDS: PAST AND PRESENT. The Lachlan Lost fish the tyro's friends The river Derwent Liberty regained The Governor's loss Wise after the event The Governor's luck Doctors differing Tas- manian resources The Government-pay system An enter- prising owner A garden Fruit and hops Tame subject for rhapsody An angling picture The salmon ponds Exhibition trout Ponds and hatching-house History of acclimatization 107 CHAPTER XI. SKETCHY AND HISTOBICAL. Daily lounging Salmon trout in the Derwent Miscellaneous sport A colonial picnic Slammock the shepherd Snakes The Schweinfurth family Tasman's love; being a speculative study embodying the history of Van Diemen's Land 125 CHAPTER XII. IN THE MIDLANDS. Ousebridge a centre of operations A sporting quartette A many-sided coachman Scotch nomenclature The river Ouse A churlish proprietor His honour sits down before the enemy Both well and Melton Mowbray The river Jordan A costly conflagration The lakes Wind by measure 140 CHAPTER Xm. BUMMING UP. Fish slain Character, moral and otherwise, of the Tasmanian trout Fishing under difficulties General conclusion ... 155 X CONTENTS. PART II. TEAVEL AND TKOUT : NEW ZEALAND. CHAPTER L WEST TO EAST. PAGE Trout hunger again New Zealand beckons The yellow agony A proper berth companion Hot to cold by easy stages Sketches, not guide-book Albatross or mollyauk A ship library North Cape New Zealand not Aus- tralia Bay of Islands A change indeed Coal and coal- ing New Zealand coasting Auckland harbour 165 CHAPTER II. ROUND ABOUT AUCKLAND. Rival cities Cyprus of the Southern Ocean Sealers and whalers " The Rogue's March " A Maori poem History of Auckland Suburb tersvs city Kauri pine and kauri giim A club window view A denounced climate A spring carnival Mount Eden panorama ... 177 CHAPTER III. BAY OF PLENTY. Hot springs and mineral waters Waiwera Leaving Auckland Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay Tauranga An old acquaintance The modernized Maori Mixed costumes Highland or Maori ? Blue silk and black pipe Lazy and savage A human flesh connoisseur In a Maori village Old Ocean's largess The New Zealand salmon White Island 100 CHAPTER IV. THROUGH THE FOREST. Civilization does not suit Preposterous sentiment Native canoes Ledger entries of the brave Road to the lakes A phenomenal pony Site of the Gate pah Fern country New Zealand flax English birds The "Eighteen-mile Lush" Like moorland Maori country 204 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER V. WONDERLAND. PAGE Rotorua A veritable hotbed An uncanny thought Bath water at choice Easy cooking Bathing in company A formidable name Retiring from business Mud fountains and steam jets A lost horse A sulky geyser Scram- bling for money Ohinemuto a means to an end A leafy cloister Wairoa Maoris A musical procession Old and new style Lake Tarawera Rotomahana- The White and Pink Terraces 215 CHAPTER VI. CEREMONIAL AND FESTIVE. Maori land Farewell to Wonderland The member for Lam- beth Visit of ceremony Flea-haunted wharres Prussian carp A Maori Waltonian The haka Hinemoa and her lover Railways Gisborne The land question Hawke Bay and Napier Fast on the rocks Cook Strait Ex- change no robbery Wellington harbour 229 CHAPTER VII. WELLINGTON TO POUT LYTTELTON. Wellington and suburbs A winsome view Atmospheric effects Eden on the premises An ideal public park Enterprise of the empire city Largest wooden building in the world Sir George Grey No earthquake A thoroughly bad night Glimpse of Southern Alps Port Lyttelton Climbing the hill Plains and pilgrims The French at Akaroa 240 CHAPTER VIII. CHRISTCHUBCH ON AVON. Day of rest The willow-lined Avon Useful servant and bad master Classical Christchurch Broken promise Trade and commerce Anacharis again Canterbury Accli- matization Society Individual enterprise Birds accli- matized Fish and fish licenses A literary trout Hard on the stranger Angling in the Avon Ordered off ... 255 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. FISHING THE CC8T. FJLOB Origin of trout The one-eyed veteran River Cust High- class farming Snow mountains, firm and immutable One of the right sort A brawler Capital gamekeepers Good sport Archidiaconal success A dogmatic fish " Chop ! chop ! " A lazy eaunter A field review Creation of a yeoman class ... 265 CHAPTER X. SHAG VALLEY AND DUNEDIN. Agricultural prosperity Pictures in the fire An incident of colonial life Stud farm for trout An enthusiast Fish- breeding Sea trout An historical trout An Irish Gover- nor's plan Scotch leaven in Otago Dunedin and suburbs The Water of Leiih University buildings Otago Museum Port Chalmers 278 CHAPTER XI. NEW ZEALAND FISHES. Dunedin fish-shops Illegal possession Comprehensive work on New Zealand fishes Commission of inquiry Abun- dance and variety Dr. Hector's classification Resident and visiting fish Native salmon Frost-fish Snapper Hapuku Barracuda Trevalli King-fish Butter-fish Haddock Red cod New Zealand sole Smooth-hound shark Stinging ray Fresh-water fishes 288 CHAPTER XII. TBOOTING AMONGST THE HILLS. California:} salmon Acclimatizers A lovely valley All against collar In the hill country An angler's rest Day of small trout The unknown angler Eight happy days Lee stream trout A cool reception Clearing up Fly-tying " L.'s persuader " Excitement in " Sleepy Hollow " No murder after all Good sport The Deep stream Sport in the Cutt The Koorawa Glorious sport Holiday ends 302 PART I. TRAVEL AND TROUT : TASMANIA. TRAVEL AND TROUT. CHAPTER I. DIALOGUE AND DETERMINATION. A hot day in Brisbane Visions Queensland climate Colonial conversation The marsupial plague Wreck and clearance A thunderstorm More travel than trout : a warning. IT did seem on the face of it a strange whim to under- take a journey of about three thousand miles for the sake of a few days' trout fishing. But it happened on this wise : It had been a hot day in Brisbane. Young A., lounging down Queen Street, on the shady side, languidly imparted to young B. his conviction that it had been " blazing hot, and no mistake ; " old C., sitting in the Club verandah, possibly the coolest place in the whole city, admitted at length that it icas warm, observing " By Jove, sir, it reminds me of the old days on the Hunter, where your very boots were burnt off your feet." Mr. D., Member of the Legislative Assembly, and entitled therefore to write M.L.A. after his name 4 TRAVEL AND TROUT. mopping his steaming forehead, swore that another year he would allow public business to go to the dogs, so far as he was concerned, if the Government, against all precedent, law, order, and common sense, prolonged the session into December. Mr. E., always great at quota- tions and memories, said ho had often during the day been reminded of Sydney Smith's idea, that it would bo a capital thing to take off your flesh and sit in your bones. The poor people in the low ground and narrow thoroughfares panted, prone upon the hard boards or harder ground ; well-to-do folks in their suburban verandahs panted upon their Hongkong couches and lounging chairs. The heavens were as brass, and the earth as iron. Three men toiling on the wharves were smitten with sunstroke, and taken to the hospital. And the afternoon arrived without that welcome breeze which generally in the summer months comes with healing and refreshment from the sea. It was indeed hot even for Brisbane, and the meteorological observer duly noted that the glass had stood at 101 in the shade. A\ hat can bo done on such a day ? What need bo done except necessity drives or duty calls ? I answer the question by lazily swinging in a hammock, and hceking visions in the ascending wreaths cuiling from the nut-brown pipe-bowl. Soon the visions came : farmyards kuecdeep in snow ; country lanes, venerable churches, lea and fallow, copse and garden, in their full winter garb; liver and pond ice-bound, and lingiug with boys sliding and skaters circling and wheeling. What more natiiral than that, hammock still swinging, insects still buzzing and humming, and perspiration oozing from every pore, ono lingers fondly over the dream of winter, and passes, without an effort, through DIALOGUE AND DETERMINATION. 5 other dreams of spring, summer, and autumn scenes? By-and-by it becomes a dream of brook and stream, of fly-rod and wading gear, of cool ripples and speckled trout. Now, Queensland is a rich young colony, with more sterling attractions than I have now time or inclination to enumerate. One thing, however, it lacks : it has no trout, nor, I fear, a climate that will ever permit of the acclimatisation of that prince of fish. Whether any country can ever be traly great without salmon or irout is a question requiring more consideration than I can at present afford. It is enough for me to know that whore there are none there must always be to me an aching void. For a long while after leaving the old country I suffered severely from home-sickness, but its most acute phase was what perhaps I may be allowed to term trout-sickness. Sometimes I had to hide my fly-rod, and shun the English sporting papers. Upon this hot day in Brisbane the S3'mptoms come on, and they are such pleasurable pain, that I take no steps for remedy. Trout ? It suddenly occurs to me that there are trout in Tasmania, and Tasmania is within eight days' travel of my Queensland home. When the sun sets in an orange glare, and the mosquitoes swarm up in hungry evening cry from the mangroves at the river-edge, taking a mean advantage of bared arms and naked feet, the hammock becomes untenable. I restlessly overhaul my fly -books, winch, net, and rod, long disused, but bearing honourable marks of active service in other latitudes. And so, prompted by the vague sort of feeling which induced Micawber to take a look at the Medway, and one of Vencering's friends to drive down to the House of 6 TRAVEL AND TROUT. Commons, I saunter up the road to commune with a certain acquaintance. A long while ago, in the old country, the doctor told him his life was not worth another year's purchase, if he remained to permit the fogs and east winds to perfect the work they had begun ; and, as the poor consumptive sailed out of the Thames, his friends returning from Gravesend agreed that his days were numbered. Yet the climate of Queensland, with him as with others, had arrested the insidious disease, and made him a strong, hopeful man. I knew I could at least talk ice and snow and trout with him. At first, when he suffered, as eveiy emigrant, rich or poor, will suffer, if the heart remain green, from home-sickness, it was curious how greatly he began to respect his former enemy, the bitter English winter. From the moment he was assured that in his adopted home he would never behold snow, and seldom ice, the mighty black frosts and blinding snow-storms driven before grey north-easter became cherished recollections; all forgetful that they and their more prosaic kindred, fog, sleet, and east wind, had forced him to flee from the land of his fathers. The frogs and crickets keep up a deafening chorus as we talk of these things. A thunderstorm is mean- while coming up against the wind. A squatter friend drops in, and the conversation at once becomes colonial. It is started by a casual statement as to the parched condition of the country, and turns with full force upon the ravages committed by marsupials ; upon the Polynesian labour question ; upon the splendid new country discovered out west; upon the projected railways, and the chances of their ever being built; upon the members of the Legislature, and their pecu- DIALOGUE AND DETERMINATION. 1 liarities ; and upon many another topic, from which the listener learns something of colonial manners and customs, trials and triumphs. " You talk of the plague of marsupials," says the up- country man, " almost as a kind of joke, in Brisbane. I shouldn't wonder if they raise a laugh upon the question in the Christmas pantomime. But it is a most alarming evil, I cantell you. I was on a station the other day where the kangaroos were eating up everything." "Oh yes," breaks in the other, "you squatters are like the English farmers ; there is always something wrong. Why, a man seriously told me the other day that, in his part of the country, you might notice a big kangaroo waiting day by day camping out, so to speak at a particular root until a blade of grass should shoot up." "Well, well, have your joke," the other replies, good- hmnouredly. "You yourself must have seen enough to convince you of the magnitude of the devastation. The squatter I referred to has already spent thirteen thousand pounds on fencing, and has not finished yet." " Serves you right," is the rejoinder. " You took it into your heads that because a few lambs were killed, and sheep worried, the dingo must be improved off the face of the country. You swished your law through your Houses of Parliament, slaughtered your dingoes, and now you would give your ears to have them back again to keep down the marsupials. Can't you invent or introduce some wild animal that will replace the martyred wild dog? Here's a chance for your Acclimatization Society " turning to my friend, who is a member of that useful body. 8 TRAVEL AND TROUT. " Our business is with plants at present," ho says, " not birds or beasts. But to return to the marsupials. I have been assured that the kangaroos come first and eat off the grass ; that the wallabies, following, grub up tho roots ; and lhat a weed succeeds which no animal will eat." " Yes," is tho answer, " but it is enough for some of us to know that the creatures ^,ro ruining tho country." " This country will take a deal of ruining," I ven- ture, from conviction, to tirge. " And you still think of Tasmania?" inquires my friend of me, bringing tho conversation back to where it hung before tho squatter arrived. " Either Tasmania or New Zealand," I answer ; " tho lime has arrived when I must t-lay a trout somewhere, and I believe Tasmania to be tho best placo for me. I prefer Tasmania, but I will bow to tho will of tho majority." " Hark at him," says my friend. " You would fancy ho means to go into tho Assembly at the first oppor- tunity, and is already catching tho spirit of the place." "Meanwhile, however, he wishes to catch a trout; so wo will talk tho matter over with our colleagues, and give his interests our best consideration. I believe that is the ordinary way of putting it," adds tho other. We thereupon resolve ourselves into a committee of tho whole house, and decide upon Tasmania. " Look out for a storm directly," at length says the squatting gentleman. " I saw one on the station last February I shall never forget. It was awfully sublime. I had been dozing on the verandah, fairly oppressed like every living thing by the sultriness of tho after- noon. In tho uneasiness wo sometimes experience between sleep and wakefulness I heard an awesome DIALOGUE AND DETERMINATION. 9 sound. At first I thought it was the roar of the sea bursting on a distant shore; but it was not that. Rather, it resembled the approach of a multitude with ponderous gongs beating, A blue-black line of cloud, extended straight across the country, approached frown- ing, and revolving on a mighty axis never forged on earth ; fire flashed from the terrible mass ; and before I had thoroughly recovered my calmness the tornado was upon us, with shrieks, and clamour, and force that made one think of the day of doom. Great trees were twisted round as you twist reeds, and the course of the storm to this day is marked by a long broad track of wreck and clearance." Hurrying homeward, and too feverish to get inside the mosquito curtains, I again go through my fly-books, test the casts, unreel the lines. The storm gives me an accompaniment. I pause, to watch the tempest from a lee corner of the verandah. The artillery of heaven opens over Brisbane, and in full force beyond Kangaroo Point. The prevailing gloom is an appro- priate foil for the pale red lightning, which first in general flashes, and then in fierce forks, rends the clouds asunder. Now superb chains of liquid flame run from east to west; again, a brood of fiery serpents would seem to be chasing each other across the leaden sky ; then the lightning describes the course of a river, throwing out tributaries on either side ; and finally, as the heart of the tempest passes inland, perchance to nourish the thirsty earth, the flashes assume a playful form, breaking without intercession, but with none of the anger that marked the beginning of the storm. The night is not perceptibly cooled by the too transient downfall, and in lieu of sleep I set my affairs in order, and next day take my passage south. 10 TRAVEL AND TROUT. Returning from the shipping office I meet my friend. He smiles, and asks " Do you remember Prince Henry's ejaculation alxmt the intolerable proportion between bread and sack?" "I do. What of it?" " Only this. If yoxi go to Tasmania you'll find an intolerable amount of travel to an infinitesimal amount of trout." And in closing Chapter I., it is only fair I should warn the reader that my friend spoke undoubted truth. ( 11 ) CHAPTER H. COASTING AND CAPITALS. Brisbane unfinished Rival ports The river Situation of the city Parliament buildings Threatening weather A nasty night at sea Midsummer Christmas Sydney harbour Sydney city En route Turning the corner Melbourne and its suburbs King People rules " Chalk it up." BEFORE finishing this book I shall have occasion to deal with more than one Australasian capital, and since my start is from Brisbane, let me at once introduce the reader to that city, the introduction being the first contribution to that inevitable preponderance of travel over trout of which somewhat has already been hinted. Standing, as we will suppose ourselves to be doing, on the wharf, pending the departure of the steamer south, our view of Brisbane is limited, and would favour the idea that the place is unfinished. Though it is not so unfinished as it appears from this stand- point, there is some room for the supposition. Brisbane is the youngest of the Australian capitals, not having yet attained its majority, and there are reasons why it must take longer to mature than did either Sydney or Melbourne. The first was formed under the direct fostering of the English Government, and began with 12 TRAVEL AND Tit OUT. whatever advantages belong to a garrison town. The second sprang out of a gold fever, and, even in its canvas and weatherboard era, had collected as many inhabitants as Brisbane possessed when it was fifteen years old. Brisbane, too, has four port rivals along the Queensland coast, namely, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Bo wen, Townsville, and other ports are forming still further north. The original promoters of separation from New South Wales intended to make the Clarence river the southern line of demarcation, and had that scheme been carried out Brisbane would have stood upon a central point of the coast. It was decided otherwise, and the metropolis of the new colony was somehow fixed at the lower extremity of a coast line of from two to three thousand miles, rendering the establishment of several ports, as the country became occupied, an unquestioned necessity. In its present condition of development Brisbane is a fair example of what Sydney and Melbourne were in their transition between the chrysalis and butterfly state. Side by side with the three-storied, ornate, stone-carved, beporticoed insurance office or bank may be seen the shed of galvanized iron or humble wooden store. In any but the main street the footpaths are, to say the least, diversified in character ; the suburbs are as yet innocent of gas, and everywhere the architecture is composite, and often primitive. Yet the city, like the colony of which it is the capital, is making enormous strides every year; and as the development goes on, tlio rough places will be made plain, and the crooked straight. When it is remembered that Brisbane has li;ul no gold rush to give it sudden impetus, like Melbourne, and that its geographical position forbids COASTING AND CAPITALS. 13 its being the one unrivalled outlet for the colony, like Sydney ; when it is remembered that middle-aged inhabitants have shot snipe and seen bullock-drays bogged where the heart of the city now lies, it goes without saying that Brisbane is a remarkably lusty youth, with a magnificent manhood before it. The city, which is about eighteen miles from the fine river from which it derives its name, spreads from the wharfages over the high ground and upon the hills which catch the sea-breezes at the earliest moment and afford at all times a maximum of coolness. The Brisbane is a broad stream, with a narrow and tortuous channel, which the colony, at great expense, is widening and deepening. Alreadj 7 all but the largest ocean steamers can get to the wharves, and the process of improving the navigation goes on steadily. The Brisbane river is serpentine in its course, and its ap- parently land-locked expanses improve in appearance as the ascent is made ; the land becomes higher, low mountain ranges appear in the distance, and the uncleared and half-cleared bush gives place to clean cultivation, patches of maize, groves of bananas, and ornamental gardens. The situation of Brisbane is its chief charm and prospective advantage. If it had been laid out on some definite plan like Melbourne and Adelaide, and had not been allowed to grow promiscuously, it would have been a place of some beauty, as no doubt it will be in a few years. It is strange that cities so near the tropics as Sydney and Brisbane should not have introduced fchade trees into their thoroughfares. It is strange, of course, that there should bo any city or town in Australia without its boulevards, if only for ornamental purposes, seeing that land is abundant and the climate It TRAVEL AND TROUT. particularly favourable for tho growth of suitable and even uncommon shade-yielding trees. But that the semi-tropical and tropical towns should bo without their leafy street avenues, from reasons of utility as well as ornament, is strangest of all. Yet so it is. From the higher point of Brisbane there are fine views of country bounded by picturesque mountains. From a friend's verandah upon such a point, I have often looked with speechless admiration over a panorama of city, river, forest, and mountain, changing under tho lovely sunset tints of blue and violet that one looks for when tho weather is westerly and fine, until it faded into tho purple half-light that is seen to such perfection in Australia. From other hills glimpses of lake-like reaches of the river appear ; and, elsewhere, charming bird's-eye views of the city are attainable. The river, therefore, enters largely into a consideration of Brisbane, which, as a fact, it divides. Pleasant bush drives may be had in any direction, and within a few miles of the General Post Office there are sugar-mills and arrowroot factories in operation. One of the finest prospects of its kind I have ever seen was from an eminence on the spur of a range within four miles of Brisbane. It was a bright summer afternoon, and grateful was it to leave the high-road and ride up tho steep bridle-path in the bush. Com- plete silence reigned in the wooded solitude of tho ridge, from which, through openings in the gum trees, the lower world occasionally presented itself, quivering under a sweltering heat. The goal was a clearing on tho scarp of an abrupt shoulder, to bo reached only on foot or horseback, and from it the town of Ipswich, twenty miles distant, coxild bo descried, a white shining mass. All the intervening country lay plain to view. COASTING AND CAPITALS. 15 In another direction the blue sea glittered, Moreton Island lying upon it like a cloud. For once the gum trees, looked upon from above, and seen, therefore, with imperfections hidden, added to the beauty of the scene. For leagues and leagues the full-bosomed hills were covered with woods. The broad river, which gladdens the city and invites it on to greatness, wound round a hundred tongues of land ; lost to sight for a while, it would reappear, a cord of silver entangled amongst the trees. Cultivated belts along its margin were level and smiling in their bright green. Far away, still progressing to the ocean, you might follow the windings of the river, and in the clear atmosphere they resembled a succession of white terraces set at unequal distances the one above the other. It was a noble picture, and I have seen many like it in Queensland. The ease with which building allotments can be obtained in the outskirts of Brisbane has had the effect of imparting to it a very straggling aspect. A working man can buy a small square of ground for twenty pounds and less. It is too small for sanitary fair play, but it will be his own. So he becomes a landowner, and puts up a slab shanty, or a tent, at first, and lives there until he can replace it with a wooden cottage. The styles of this cottage architecture are amusing sometimes, and as widely different as the poles. The warm climate enables people to live out of doors the major part of the year, and the buildings are therefore of the flimsiest. You may see a suburban residence constructed of beaten-out kerosine tins; another modelled after a sentry-box. Upon hills great and small, on the slopes of gullies, or in the bush, resembling a temporary encampment rather than a permanent suburb, these humble freeholds attract the attention of the passer-by, 10 TRAVEL AND TROUT. but, as the reader will perceive, do not improve the general appearance of the place. Brisbane, in conse- quence of this peculiarity, extends over an unusually wide area, and seldom obtains the appreciation it deserves. Above its sister capitals, Brisbane probably best meets the stranger's idea of a colonial town. In its steady practical progress it has not yet had time to put on airs, or to bo pretentious. The streets, build- ings, and people in their respective ways inform you that hitherto they have l>een content to walk bd'ou.- they run. There is no public market-place, and no theatre worthy of the name; but there are several largo public buildings now in couiso of erection. Hitherto, the Brisbanians have cheerfully put up with makeshifts. But the day of makeshifts has set, and public works and private enterprises aro being vigor- ously undertaken. Still, Brisbane looks what it is colonial, which cannot be said of either Melbourne or Svdney. The wooden houses, with their inevitable verandahs; the hitching-posts at the shop doors; the prevalence of broad-bri mined hats, moleskin breeks, and riding-boots in the streets ; the passing country farmer, with wife and children perched atop of the produce, make you feel that you are undoubtedly in Australia. In one thing Brisbane excels. It has the most sensible Parliament buildings of all the colonies handsome without the overdone ornamentation of the Melbourne, and unpretentious without the poverty- stricken appearance of the Sydney Houses of Legis- lature. Its Acclimatization G sounds and Botanic (lindens the first maintained with praisewoi thy perse- verance by a private society, and the second a Govern- ment reserve have the advantage of being able to grow COASTING AND CAPITALS. 17 tropical rarities that have no chance of life further south. On the whole, Brisbane always seems to agreeably surprise the stranger; and well it might. It is a homely city, none the worse because it is, in fashionable pretensions, behind Sydney, in the same ratio as Sydney is behind Melbourne. When the seasons are favourable no one has cause to say that Brisbane is not a pleasant place ; and of its healthiness at all times there is no question. But to our voyage. The departure and arrival of the boats are stock sources of interest and excitement, and to-day the outgoing steamer and the wharf are enlivened with the customary bustle and confusion when the bell rings. Ladies who have kissed each other fifty times before kiss each other as often again as the time allows ; gentlemen rush up from the saloon, wiping their moustachios, the steam from the whistle having perhaps bedewed them ; the crowd who have come down to the wharf to see the vessel depart being twice as numerous as the people departing, odd couples who wish to have a few last words of affection or business are prevented by all manner of acquaintances putting themselves forward ; a chorus of " Be sure and write" is chanted ashore; "Cast off" comes as a final solo from on board. Punctual almost to a moment, the Florence Irving sheers out into the stream, and steams slowly by the gardens and hills of Kangaroo Point. However the passenger may fare in blue water, the two hours' trip down the Brisbane river is generally enjoyed, and is sometimes the only portion of the voyage which is enjoyed. It is smooth water to More ton Bay, and nearly always across the bay, which is studded with islands, and, unfortunately, with shoals and sandbanks that confine the channels. c 18 TRAVEL AND TROUT. At the mouth of the river I notice that the sky is scaunod very suspiciously by many of the passengers ; the weather certainly is extremely threatening. In Brisbane another thunder-storm was waiting to burst when we sailed; as the voyage down the river pro- gresses, the region of winds is entered. The sea- seasoned among the passengers peep through the skylights to note whether the tables are being laid for dinner ; doubtful individuals inquire of each other whether they are good sailors; that lemarkablo class who are said to be unpleasantly qualmish by merely looking at a marine picture persuade themselves they are very ill and perseveringly settle down to make themselves as miserable as possible. Is there any necessity to enter into a detailed de- scription of a nasty night at sea ? I suspect many of my readers will without hesitation say there is not. One by one the ladies disappear, and many of the gentlemen droop shyly as they sit on deck. Sea-feick- ncss must be a terrible business; it takes the starch out of the most straitlaccd gentleman that ever culti- vated the noble science of deportment, and, as one of those irreverent American writers remarked, proves that the ocean is the only thing in the world that makes a woman indifferent to her personal appearance. Before we are fairly at sea, numbers of passengers have cautiously steadied themselves along the f-ide, staggered across to the companion, and lowered themselves dis- mally below, to be seen no more for a season. Night comes in darkness, storm, and uproar, to hide the pangs and stifle the sounds of human suffering. Ports are closed and things made generally taut. Though wo are seldom out of sight of land and the inland ranges, the trip from Brisbane to Sydney is not COASTING AND CAPITALS. 19 interesting except for the miscellaneous company, who, in fine weather, are always on their good behaviour and anxious to please. Yet it is a characteristic sample of Australian coasting. At such times you may in- dulge in a good deal of character study. You have people jnst arrived from the old country ; rough, genial gold-miners from the rich Queensland gold-fields ; perhaps pearl fishermen from Torres Straits ; squatters and their wives, pleasant in the prosperity which has never rubbed out their best human nature, and squatters and their wives whose purse-pride renders them the very reverse of pleasant ; business men, Jackaroos the name given to young gentlemen newly arrived from home to gather colonial experiences boiind to Sydney for a spell; globe-trotters wise in their own conceits ; unprotected females who read novels and knit knitting ; a few old women of the other sex to potter about and snarl because those strong-blooded fellows icill smoke on the poop; and always, strange to eay, a gentleman of the clerical persuasion. Here, it must be admitted, we have a variety of materials ready to hand ; shake them up for three days together, and what figures the kaleidoscope will give you ! The second day is bright and breezy, the second night clear and quiet, and on the morning of the third day most of the passengers are on deck admiring the bold, if low, rocks of Sydney Heads, and showing each other, as they always do, the gorge into which the ship Dunbar rushed to her destruction. It is blazing hot, and wo prepare to land in sunproof helmets and the thinnest of attire ; the compliments of the season pass from mouth to mouth, for though it is midsummer day, it is Christmas morning. On the bridge, where for a better view of the harbour 20 TRAVEL AND TROUT. we cluster, conversation becomes common property, and I can but hear my immediate neighbours talking of the incongruity of this Antipodean Christmas-tide ; of the Christmas bells ringing out over the frozen English land, and the muffled people pausing in their brisk walks to bid each other the compliments of the season ; of the misletoe and holly, and the yule log ; of all the dear old English customs, best loved when wo are out of them. " Yes, it is Christmas Day," says a lady ; " but it brings no Christmas feeling to me." " Nor to mo," chime in the rest. *' It is only a matter of association," says a young Australian ; " there's nothing in it." "I beg your pardon, there is a good deal in it," says the lady, adding, somewhat sadly, " I reverence all such associations, and wish I were sui rounded by them now." " It will be a hot day for the holiday keepers. My word ! won't Manly Beach be crowded," says a Sydncyite, homeward bound. "And one of the pleasantest features of an English Christmas is that evening gathering round the roaring fire, while the snow at one and the same time whitens and silences everything," the lady on the other side says. "Good morning," breaks in the captain, ascending to his bridge. " We are now in Sydney harbour, the most beautiful in the world. Sydney harbour", ladies and gentlemen." ***# Without committing myself to so pronounced an opinion as that which the skipper, in common with the majority of Australians, believes as an article of COASTING AND CAPITALS. 21 faith, I shall not err in saying that Sydney harbour is unique and of surpassing beauty. As point after point is opened up, you begin to understand why a Sydney man, who is not too biased to criticize, will suffer a good deal of dispraise so long as you do not contradict him upon this. He will grant you the con- fined thoroughfares, and a good deal else into the bargain, so that you give him the harbour. The in- habitants, in truth, are in it blessed with a most pre- cious gift. The price of wool may decline, as it has an ugly habit of doing now and then ; drought or flood may come, as it does when least wanted or expected ; but nothing, not even the irrepressible Chinese question, can rob them of this inestimable privilege. They have the clear fresh sea at their very doors. In half an hour they may be sailing in a harbour of a hundred bays, complete in themselves, and each with its ac- companiment of hill, rock, and wood. Yellow sands ever invite them forth for evening strolls and moon- light rambles. Before I arrive at the pier I begin to understand why so many travellers rave about Sydney harbour. We are bright enough now. The rain, wind, and sea-sick- ness having gone, wo are rightly attuned by this bright midsummer Christmas morning. Even those to whom every feature of the landscape is familiar betray their delight, which is not at all diminished by the loudly expressed admiration of those who are visiting the capital of New South Wales for the first time. The ships in the harbour and at the distant wharves are gay with flags and evergreens; the sun puts a sparkle into earth, sea, and sky ; the faint strains of music, mellowed by transit across the water, come as a carol of incongruously seasonable greeting from shore. 22 TRAVEL AND TROUT. At dinner, however, I cannot, in loj^alty to our Christmas Day associations^ touch the plum-pudding and mince-pio which, in deference to the occasion, are put upon the table. Iced drinks, 1 .ananas, passion fruit, and grapes are more correct Cliri&tmas faio for this part of the globe. It is rather to my temper to saunter under umbrella through the Domain and pxiblic gardens, and watch the people clustering in every shady nook. The gardener to whom the laying out of these grounds was entrusted, doubtless, had an advantage of situation and conformation which few capitals boast; and he in:ulo the most of it. Other gardens may be, though it is doubtful if they are, botanically of greater value, but they have no salt waves breaking upon their boundary wall, no rising ground, no rocky grottoes. The great charm, however, of the Sydney gaidcns is tho profusion of English flowers in tho ample borders and beds, and these on this Christmas afternoon are a mass of gorgeous bloom. The next day I have an opportunity of noting tho extent to which tho harbour is appreciated. It is one of the sights of the day to watch the people embarking at the numerous steamer landing-places. Take which turning you may, you will bo confronted with energelic and perspiring humanity having this in common they are all streaming to tho water-side. It does one's heart good to see so many folks, all well dressed and comfort- able looking. The smooth face of the water is furrowed in every direction by steamboats, ranging from tho great ocean-going screw to the tiny launch of a few dog-power. Like our London Boxing Day, it is high holiday, but there the contrast ceases. A number of young gentlemen hospitably make me one of their number on a bachelor water excursion. COASTING AND CAPITALS. 23 We steam out of tho bay proper, up an arm known as Middle Harbour, and it is a trip of prolonged delight. We steam several miles, until the hills block our course, and the craft stops in a few inches only of water. It is a reproduction of good Scottish loch scenery, save that for purple heather on tho mountains there stand densely growing eucalypti. To Australians, Sydney has the flavour of antiquity. It is the parent city of all Australian towns, and would be, possibly, the place most worth looting by a foreign invader. Its streets, their traffic, the roomy, comfort- able family carriages and demure liveries to be seen at the shop doors, the advertisement columns of the news- papers, all speak of substantial wealth, gradually made and securely held. There is an old-fashioned air about the place not to bo seen in other colonies, and evidence of hesitation in making changes, though changes in tho directions of improvement are being liberally made. Yet, strange as it may seem for the capital of the wealthiest colony in Australia, the corporation of Sydney in the first quarter of 1879 had to acknowledge itself bankrupt. Coming to Sydney from London or the larger pro- vincial cities of the British Empire, the visitor must not expect too much ; must not forget that ninety years ago the spindle-shanked savages of the country gathered on the beach arid defied Captain Phillip and his fleet of convict and store ships, and that even so recently as the last British Eefurm agitation, a " Botany Bay view " of things was deemed an applicable reference in House of Commons' debate. Sydney, then, must not be measured by a home standard if the measurement is to be a fair one. This may seem to smack of apology. In truth, it does. The main streets of central Sydney are too 24 TRAVEL AND TROUT. narrow, and the fashion in which its founders began their work will be a perpetual reason why it cannot be made, through its streets and buildings, a beautiful city. There arc many really fine buildings, the houses of business are thriving, and Sydney has the advantage of being the one great seaport of the colony. But its boast must be of solid comfortable prosperity, rather than of exterior magnificence. The suburbs of Sydney, however, are "growing in beaut} 7 , and, like the city itself, give evidence of sub- stantial wealth and a certain soberness of living that is not unpleasing to English eyes. Great pride is being taken in the cultivation of English flowers, shrubs, and umbrageous trees; and attempts have been made, with partial success, to acclimatize larks and the English singing birds. Up the Parramatta river the finest orange gardens in the colony flourish. There are many excursions to interesting spots on the coast which may be compassed in the course of the day ; and if the visitor cares for gorgeous mountain scenery ho can obtain it by making a trip up the famous zigzag railway into the Blue Mountains. . And Sydney, as if conscious of the narrowness of its streets and imperfect design, it is but right to add, does make amends, wherever possible, by surrounding its public buildings with open grounds and shrubberies. At homo, Boxing Day would have finished, in all probability, at the pantomime ; at Sydney it closes, for me, with a lounging chair and cheroot in the hotel verandah. I drop into my seat just as three disputants, inhabitants of different Australian colonies, are opening fire upon each other. The object of each appears to be to prove his own particular colony the best. On the face of it the discussion would indicate that the fiercest COASTING AND CAPITALS. 25 rivalry and hatred exists between the colonies, and that they are divided by mighty oceans, instead of by imaginary boundary lines. One man fights the battles of Queensland like a Trojan. Turning to the other two, he says, " You think a world too much of yourselves. You fancy you are the whole of Australia. Look in the English newspapers : in their eyes Australia is Melbourne, and Melbourne only. Both of you come and take our Queensland cedar without let or license, and it is quoted as New South Wales produce. Now, Queensland is richest of all the colonies in valuable timber and in minerals. By Jove, Queensland will lead you all yet; we can grow every- thing there, from turnips to pineapples, from beef to tea, coffee, and sugar." " Bravo, bravo, for Queensland ! " cry a chorus of voices. " It will be a great day for us all," another interposes, " when a big wave of free trade sweeps away all the cursed tariffs, and dovetails our interests into one machine." " \ r ery good," replied a third, " that means Fede- ration." ****** The voyage from Sydney to Melbourne is more inter- esting than the previous stage. You are within sight of the mountain ranges the whole of the first and part of the second day; the vessel occasionally runs within a mile or two of land, so close, indeed, that the bare ash-grey trunks of the gum trees are plainly visible. We begin to feel a difference in the temperature, and are glad to unpack our wraps and shawls. Wilson's Promontory is a remarkably bold cape of solid rock, with a mountainous back countiy. The 26 TRAVKL AXD Til OUT. lijjilhouso seems a solitary place for habitation, but it might be posi-iblo to find a man -who, if he had plenty of rations and a few books, would not object to find protection on that isolated perch, against the hurly-burly of the world. Bass Strait mai ks an era in the voyage, for it is here you turn the corner of Eastern Australia. ****** Melbourne, alone of Australian capitals, may be measured by an old country standard without suffering by comparison. As it stands it is a grand cit}- ; criti- cised in the light of its history, it is wonderful. More than any other town, the capital of Victoria may be termed the colony itself. New South Wales has its Liverpool Plains, Kiverina, and New England; Queens- land, its tropical north land, and its rich back country vast as a largo European kingdom; Victoiiahas Mel- bourne. Trollope, in his book upon the colonies for which many colonials will never forgive him, but which, take it all in all, the visitor may accept as the best guide at his disposal advises the Australians not to "blow." As a rule, the advice is wholesome; yet a Victoiian has a right to "blow " about Melbourne, just as the New South ^Yelshman has a light to blow about Sydney harbour, the Queenslandcr about the magnifi- cent resources of his oniony, and the South Australian about his wheat, and, in a minor key, his wine. But foremost let tho Victorian have his blow about Mel- bourne. Melbourne is gay. The Melbourne native pi ides himself upon tho peculiarly English character of his city, but, in truth, there is just a sovpqon of Americanism perceptible. The sober Englishman, surveying tho scene from the grand stand on a Melbourne Cup day, or promenading Collins Strett or Bourke Street in the COASTING AND CAPITALS. 27 afternoon, when the representatives of the leisure classes are, as it is locally termed, " doing the block," would probably imagine that Melbourne was a very fast city. The dresses of some of 1he ladies who "lead the fashions," maybe, are apt to run to extremes, some- thing after the manner of a New York girl hot from a continental scamper ; but there is a brightness in the place and sky that will admit of plenty of dressing, and even invites it, and the fastness, as yet at any rate, is only upon the surface. The wonder is that in a colony whoso aristocracy is one of wealth, pure and simple, the ostentation should not be greater. What there is of literature, ait, drama, and music in Australia has its head-quarters at Melbourne. It has the finest free library, the best theatre and concert halls. Its people are pleasure loving, and provide themselves with the best amusements within their reach. In work, as in play, they believe in briskness. A bond fide Melbourne man would consider residence in any other Australian capital banishment. The fathers of Melbourne were wiser in their genera- tion than those of Sydney and Brisbane. Like the founders of Adelaide, they planned their city well, in- sisting upon broad thoroughfares and plenty of open spaces, and jealously guarding them even when building- allotments in the principal streets fetched three hundred pounds per foot. The city was built on the square, with sufficient main thoroughfares, and smaller streets running parallel and doing good duty as reliefs. The largest arteries being established as a principle, a liberal sirpply of lungs was superadded ; so that you may walk six miles diagonally across Melbourne, and at no time bo more than a couple of hundred yards from some sort of a garden, shrubbery, or reserve. 28 TRAVEL AND TROUT. Many of the public edifices are imposing; but the beauty of Melbourne city springs from a uniformity of solid comeliness in architecture, and the fine fresh distances. Yet in 1853 it was a community of weather- boards and canvas. In all parts of Australia you meet with men who enthusiastically recall the glorious times when they dwelt in tents and made fortunes in the infant city on the banks of the dirty little rushing Yarra. The miscellaneous man who could turn his hand to anything was here in clover. Then, as always in the colonies, an industrious Jack-of-all- trades found himself in his right place. One of the most prosperous of modern Australian ironmongers landed in Victoria in those times. At homo ho had been a wholesale warehouseman; in Melbourne ho looked about him and went into the business of a plumber, of which he knew next to nothing, but which, while ho was picking up the rudiments, brought him a pound a day wages. In Melbourne King People rules, and the visitor who is a politician may amuse himself by attacking the knotty point which such a statement will raise. Apart from its political aspect, he may profitably investigate the condition of the working classes of Melbourne. They are the absolute owners of some of the suburbs. An acquaintance of mine the other day, wishing to rent a pretty suburban residence, sought the landlord, and found him working as labourer in a timber-yard. I could mention one building society out of many which has lent over a million of money, chiefly to working men. The thickly populated suburbs of East Collingwood, Prahran, Hotham, Emerald Hill, and Carl ton are, to a considerable extent, owned by work- ing men. They are the Victorian democracy of whom COASTING AND CAPITALS. 29 so much has been heard, not, however, to be classed with the " unwashed " of other lands, nor even to be called the residuum; they are well-to-do individually, who have organized themselves into a formidable con- trolling power. In the heat of political strife hard words are natural ; but to apply the term " mob," or " rabble," to such working men would be libel. They have comfortable houses; they may be seen quietly reading in the magnificent Free Library ; in the Accli- matization Grounds in the Eoyal Park ; under the elms, poplars, and pines of Carlton Gardens ; in the cricket grounds of Kichmond or Albert Parks ; in the trains running down to the Sandridge shipping. I doubt whether there is any city in the world where the working classes are so prosperous as in Melbourne. That there is a serious question beneath, the visit of the Victoria embassy to Downing Street shows. I pass it by, merely observing that a gentleman, to whom I was expressing admiration of the apparent comfort of the working classes in Melbourne, said, " Ay, Protection makes them prosperous, prosperity makes them bumptious, and there will be a grand smash by-and-by." I am no logician, but I know ho represents a very widespread opinion amongst the Melbourne merchant class. The landscape surroundings of Melbourne are poor. At St. Kilda and Brighton by the seaside, and at Hawthorne, Kew, and Terac on the Yarra all suburbs inhabited by the wealthiest people there are fine residences and elaborately cultivated grounds ; and for a summer morning ride the dairy farms of Heidelberg and the market gardens of Cheltenham are an agree- able contrast to the pretentious villa and crowded city centre. Further afield, five and twenty miles from 30 TRAVEL AND TROUT. town, into genuine Victoria bush, there is Fern Tree Gully, with its grand tree-ferns ; or, still further, there is the Australian Alpine scenery of Healasville, Fern- shaw, and Woods Point the latter with its mountain gold-field, which was fabulously wealthy for a time, and which, in its dream of permanent gold, erected stone buildings now wellnigh deserted. A miner from this field went to Melbourne for a " spell," and, strolling into the bank one morning, was accosted by the manager with " Ah, good morning. I don't know whether you are aware of it, but there has been ten thousand pounds 1} ing here for you more than a month." The man knocked the ash from his cigar, and drawled, "No; I heard nothing about it. It's all right, I suppose. Chalk it up." His mates working the claim up in the mountain had forwarded him the amount as his share of the proceeds during his holiday. That was in the golden era; tlio man is, likely enough, splitting rails now, or driving a milk-cart. ( 31 ) CHAPTER III. FIRST BLOOD. Fishing at Sydney and Melbourne The Yarra Yarra; its merits and defects Across Bass Strait The valley of the Tamar Launceston town and suburbs Distillery Creek Cora Linn Caught \vith a black gnat St. Patrick's river The duck-bill platypus. SYDNEY has been pleasant, and so has Melbourne, turned upside down though they have been, the one by Christ- inas festivities, the other by New Year observances. At the former there is good sea-fishing to be had out- side the heads, the hauls of schnapper being often reckoned by the hundredweight ; at the latter there is a well-organized angling club, which can tell you of capabilities, including a few native fish that coarsely take a coarse fly, English perch acclimatized in sorne of the inland lakes, and dreams of future salmon and trout. Chance does not, however, bring me into contact with the angling worthies of these colonies, and I must con- fess that, after all the holiday hubbub, it is a relief to find myself at the Queen's Wharf, on board the steamer that is to convey me over the third stage of the voyage. Nay, more, it is a relief based on hope, for, all going 32 TRAVEL AND TJJOUT. well, in thirty hours I shall be in the neighbourhood of trout, and ready to have at them. The Yarra Yarra, down which we sail into Bass Strait, has hitherto been famous for its defects as a means of approach to Melbourne, and fur its offensive impurities; although in its highci 1 reaches it is a picturesque little stream, thanks chiefly to the profusion of willows along its banks, which willows sprang from a cutting brought from Napoleon's tomb at St. Helena, by an American ship which put in there for water. But the Yarra has been now surveyed by an eminent English engineer, who lias produced a scheme that is to make it a second Clyde, and is to reclaim the marshes which mark the dreary interval between the river and portions of the city. As we steam down the muddy tide, it is forced upon the observant mind that passengers occupying the decks of steam-vessels sailing out of the river Yarra present a comical appearance to spectators watching them from the unlovely banks. Fortunately, however, for sensitive persons who have a constitutional objec- tion to being laughed at, the swampy country around is of so desolate a character that none but ill-fated individuals, compelled to be there for business purposes, will linger near the stinking stream. And hero you may observe how admirably in this world one thing compensates for another. You may leave the Queen's Wharf, Melbourne, bowed down with grief and heavy with sorrow; yet long ere you have passed the fell- mongering establishments which pollute the Yarra and poison the atmosphere, you shall have forgotten all your troubles in the bad odours which force themselves upon your attention. In the spring of the present year (1879), the inspector of fisheries has reported FIRST BLOOD. 33 salmon of from nine to twelve inches long in the Yarra, making their way from the breeding places to the sea. I pity them when they arrive at this point. To-day is highly favourable to the potency of stench, so that, perhaps even more than according to custom, the passengers, on nearing the fellmongering quarter, clap their handkerchiefs to their noses ; and the spec- tacle of thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen in such an attitude is so grotesque that some of us, by one consent, burst into laughter, albeit we are soon forced, in self- defence, to adopt the same precaution as that which provoked our mirth. But we shall sniff " The odour of brine from the ocean " with double zest after this experience, and, it must be admitted, hope is not long deferred. The boat glides quickly out of the river amongst the ships and yachts of the breezy open roadstead, and the city of Melbourne, with its populous suburbs rising solidly up from the stretches of sandy beach, adds much and is indis- pensable to the fullness of the prospect. It is well, perhaps, after all, that the surroundings of Melbourne from this point of view are so miserable ; the dismal levels are a good foil to the larger buildings and rising masses of houses conspicuous beyond. The run across Bass Strait is for once short and comfortable. For a few hours only are you without sight of land, and on the morning of the second day the impalpable cloud far away to the south-west is known to be the interesting island that waits so patiently for the tide in its affairs that will lead it on to prosperity, and that only requires to be better known to be better appreciated. 34 TRAVEL AND TROUT. Melbourne and Launcoston are not much more than four and twenty hours apart, should wind and weather permit, and the Tamar monopolizes three or four hours, reducing the terrors of the sea by that space of time, offering the passengers relays of landscapes on either side, and altogether predisposing a new-comer towards the country. " Where streams abound, How langhs the land with various plenty crowned ! " Verily ! Beyond the region of the river there are evidences of drought far and near. The herbage on the further hills is almost yellow, and the foliage of the trees upon the ridges seems to be thirsty and spiritless ; yet close to the life-giving stream, grass, corn, orchards, and gardens give signs of green abounding life, and refuse, so long as the friendly river ebbs and flows, to wither or decline. The Tamar does not, as many of the Tasmanian rivers do, rush furiously between prison walk of hoary crag, perpetually angered at the check imposed upon its freedom. It rejoices in, and is, ap- parently, proud of, a broad smiling valley which it diligently fertilizes to the very feet of the mountains bounding the verdurous expanse. Launceston, where we first touch Tasmanian soil, when you improve your acquaintance with it, is a pretty agreeable town ; seen from the river at low tide, when the steamer has to anchor in mid-stream, and tho passengers have to land in small boats, it does not impress you very favourably, the adjacent wharves and streets being a trifle straggling in appearance, espe- cially to people who are influenced by the bustle and anxiety consequent upon going ashore, and whose glance is therefore hurried and unconsidered. Around tho town there are fine drives, and views FIRST BLOOD. 35 from the hills beyond. Naturally, there is a spirit of rivalry between Launceston in the north, and Hobart Town in the eouth ; they would not be colonial towns if this curious condition of things did not exist. In Victoria and New South Wales the metropolitan cities are so much beyond any other towns in their respective colonies that this rivalry is scarcely felt ; but in Queensland, where there are four or five good seaport towns, each claiming place in the front rank, it is carried to such a degree that, at an election in one of the metropolitan constituencies, the friends of the two candidates raised the cry of North and South Brisbane interests, the two being only separated by a river, and the population of all Brisbane not ex- ceeding thirty thousand. But Launceston is less favoured by circumstances and by nature than Hobart Town, and must content itself with whatever self-satisfaction arises from the fact that it is the only port of arrival and departure at the northern end of the colony. Yet on the evening of my landing I find some lovely bits of scenery while accompanying a moonlight boating party up the picturesque gorge of the South Esk, to the Cataract. The river is here walled in by precipitous rocks ; the young ladies of the party declare with unques- tioned truth that the channel of the river has been specially formed to re-echo boating songs and glees ; and they might have added, if familiarity had not accustomed them to it, that under the reign of the Southern Cross there is such moonlight as British islanders never dream of. In the colonies introductions are generally made without much formality, and there still remains a preponderance of really hospitable people, who love 36, TRAVEL AND TROUT. to entertain strangers out of p\iro kindliness of travel. This is especially the case in country towns and districts, and amongst men who have in common the \iniversal freemasonry of sport. Thus, next morning, I am taken in hand by a couple of worthy Launces- tonians, shown the sights of the place, and taken out in a buggy to Cora Linn in the Perth district. By way of the racecourse we drive through a lane almost impassable with boulders and briars, but, as usual, the end gained is full compensation. Below, enriching the fat glebe, is the Esk and its pastoral valley, telling a tale of corn, and wine, and oil. At one point glimpses are obtained of the two rivers the North Esk, winding slowly through golden cornfields, and meadows inhabited by lowing herds; and the Tamar, a broad silver shield in the distance. At Distillery Creek a visit is paid, that the stranger may see with his own eyes the rivulet in which the first trout was put ten years ago. The fish have thriven apace ; so much so that, during the last season, a big brown trout, roaming from his pool, was sud- denly surprised in the stream in the garden a stream so tiny that a child might step across it. The mill, without warning, stopped, and his troutship, having neglected to secure a line of retreat, was, in colonial parlance, " bailed up." Though but thirty-two inches long, this noble specimen of the Salmo fario turned the scale at fifteen pounds. Turning out of the road, we are ere long in a miniature paradise. Overhung with weeping willows, laburnums, lilacs, and periwinkles, drooping downward until the glossy leaves kiss the crystal flood, the brook makes everlasting music, and the foliage overhead gives never-ending, but always-varying, shade. Rustic FIRST BLOOD. 37 bridges cross it; rustic seats invite the indolent to Depose in all sorts of nooks and corners. The garden at once recalls the words of the banker poet : " Mine bo a cot beside the hill, A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear j A willowy brook that turns a mill, With many a fall, shall linger near. " Tracing ihe brook upwards, we trample through long grass, wild brier, and shrubs in which the silver wattle and the Lornbardy poplar grow in beauty side by side, and amongst which I observe a marsh-mallow flourishing as a tree two feet higher than myself : then comes the time-worn, dripping mill-wheel, which the stream turns in its passage from the parent dam thirteen hundred feet above the sea level. The road, after this halt, continues over the valley, and through quiet English village scenery. Here is a closely clipped hedge of sweet-brier, at least ten feet high and six feet through ; there, rustled by the passing breeze, and warm in the afternoon sun, are shocks of full-eared wheat. Now theie are ricks of corn, and now dark-bro\vn stacks of silver wattle bark ; sleek Berkshire pigs rooting in the stubble; grey rocks pushing themselves outward to remind you that basalt country will produce a crop of its own in spite of high cultivation. In the village of St. Leonard's turkeys gobble in the street, and children make mud- pies on the edge of the pavement. It is thoroughly English, save and except the vast white pyramids of smoke indicating bush fires in the further mountain range. Cora Linn is a wild and imposing ravine, a deep rocky gorge, through which the North Esk madly rushes. The rocks, some of which stand pulpit-like out of the 38 TRAVEL AND TROUT. foaming flood, are most fantastic in shape, and tlio platforms and terraces of rock on either side of tho bridge afford you standing points from which many strikingly contrasting views may be obtained. Mosses, lichens, ferns, flowers, and shrubs spring blooming from the fissures, and you have a distant panorama of low- land beauty where the impetuous charge of the river is exchanged for the most placid of currents, and soft verdure offers living green in lieu of the sombre tints of hoary rocks. In his delightful essay on Trout Fishing, the author of " Country House Essays" quoting, by the way, from an innocent paragraph in one of my own chapters says, not of me, but of the apologetic angler in the abstract, " The hypocrite ! As if the scenery were the inducement, and not the rod." We should, of course, be hypocrites, consummate and self-condemned, if we pretended that scenery was the sole inducement ; but I can honestly say for myself that the angler has to contend against so many adverse conditions, and must prepare himself for so many blank days, that angling would never have been my passion had there not been that other induce- ment, offered without money and without price, by nature, in compensation. The two always go together. At Cora Linn, therefore, I first survey the surround- ings, all the time conscious, no doubt, that the surface of the water in the immediate neighbourhood is being involuntarily watched, as it were by one eye, eager to detect upon the outskirts of the agitated foam, or upon the gliding or rippling stream, the faintest disturbance indicative of trout. Two or three small fish leap out of the water in that peculiar and unmistakable plunge which the angler does not care to see, for, if anything, it generally means, " Not to-day, my friend ; not to-day." FIRST BLOOD. 39 But did ever the promise of no sport keep the angler from making an attempt ? Out comes the rod from the apron- straps of the buggy ; my friends give me ten minutes as the limit of their patience, and in two minutes over that span I return with an eight-inch trout picked close from a bit of overhanging rock on the opposite margin, with a small black gnat. It is not much to brag of, but it is first blood, and on that account, as an act of grace, I give the fish its liberty, and watch it disappear, apparently none the worse for a temporary absence from its native element. A twelve-mile ride in a spring cart over a hilly road liberally paved with bucket-sized boulders, and in the cool air of early morning, gives one a fine appetite, and has other effects less desirable, but to reach St. Patrick's river a stoutly built cart is the most suitable means of conveyance. The scenery is wild, and the stream to- wards which we jolt of favourable repute amongst anglers. It is affected by a few Launceston trouting gentlemen, is crossed by an ingenious wire suspension bridge, and offers for the sportsman's accommodation a rustic temple of "Walton close to the stream. There is no lack of trout, though they are disagreeably shy of me, and also of the young gentleman whom I may term so energetic is he in preserving the water the high- priest of the temple. The fish at this time are gorged with grasshoppers,, and will not rise at a fly. For a while it seems incredible that the fish which I know to be here will refuse the flies culled in the old days at Winchester, Worcester, Dublin, South and North Wales, Derby, Scotland, and Yorkshire. I try them all with but poor result, and my guide, the high- priest, tells me the best sport is had fishing with grass - hopper, and that, amongst artificial flies, the favourites 40 TRAVEL AND TROUT. are the Cholmoiidcley-Pennell description. It is small consolation to be told further that I am two months late in the season, unless I swallow my prejudices and descend to the coarser hires, and that the only periods at which the artificial fly is effectual are early spring to late autumn, when the grasshoppers are not. How- ever, we do get trout, brown trout, well fed and coloured, and we see numbers of big fish too lazy to move. Upon the weatherboards of the temple walls, limned with charcoal from the wood fire, are the rough por- traits and measurements of notable trout taken from the river, some remarkably broad and thick in proportion to their length. The gentlemen who own this temple of Walton, as I christen it, come and camp hero, when they have an opportunity, for three and four days together; and very pleasant it must le, for, in addition to the bush surroundings, there is not a river in Tas- mania that has generally a more trouty look. Seated on a log outside the temple, at our mid-day rest, I can but romember romantic Dovedale, in our English Derbj'shire, and Cotton's fishing house, and how Cotton says he has dedicated it to anglers, and twisted the first two letters of father Walton's name and his own in ciphers over the door. I remember how he promises that his honoured visitor shall sleep in the same bed occupied by the immortal Izaak, and have welcome country entertainment. To be sure, our Tasmanian Waltonians have no lavender-scented sheets when they come hither ; sacks of straw on bare boards answer very well, and they cook their own viands and rough it, angler-like, in a hearty and lovable manner. If I can find it, I will send to my good-natured high-priest a copy of the rules drawn up by Brinsley Sheridan for the once famous Hampshire Angling Club at Leckford. He may FIRST BLOOD. 41' post them up beside the great seven and nine pound St. Patrick's trout, whoso portraits, as I have said, are sketched in bold outline upon the slabs within. Up the stream an object which cannot be fish, is not fowl, but which does appear to be flesh of some descrip- tion, is coming at intervals to the surface. The river at that point is broad and sluggish, for there is a weir intervening. On hands and knees, looking out for snakes (two venomous specimens of which I have en- countered already), I crawl up to reconnoitre. The object is apparently aware of my manoeuvre, for it no longer comes to the surface. I can wait, and if it be anything in the amphibious line of life I shall have- the best of it in the long run. As I do. The object slowly, and without creating a ripple,- emerges a dark-brown, sleek, velvety affair. By-and- by it emerges a little more and more, finally scenting strangers, and going down swiftly and in silence. At first I imagine it is a beaver who has borrowed a duck's bill for masquerading purposes, and then I remember the duck-bill platypus pictures of the natural history books, and recognize that the object is that curious, creature. Within an hour I see another in the same reach of the river ; it is basking on the top, and, catch- ing sight of me, turns a hasty somersault before it goes down to look after its private business. Its habits are so little known * that it is not clear what that private * After I had written the above I had an opportunity of com- paring notes with a gentleman (Mr. Armitt) who, during fourteen years of duty in the native police in tropical Australia, amongst other scientific inquiries, made a study of the duck-bill platypus. He says that it seldom shows more than its bill above water ; that it lays black eggs more round than, but nearly the size of, a pigeon's egg; that it tunnels a passage horizontally into the bank, from one to three feet under water, gradually bores upwards until it has 42 TRAVEL AND TROUT. business may be, or where its offices and storehouses are situated, but the duck-like bill undoubtedly plays an important part in its daily avocations at the bottom of the water. The platypus is as common in Tasmania as in Aus- tralia ; it occurs in all the colonies, but is a comparative rarity everywhere. The trout do not appear to have any constitutional objection to the Ornithorhynclius para- doxus. There were two rising within a couple of yards of the second specimen, as it lay like a small turtle on the surface of the water, and the part of the river in which it and its mate were presumably located, seeing that they were often visible on quiet summer evenings, was known to be the head-quarters of several large trout. reached a point above the water level, and then hollows ont a chamber for a nest ; that the blackp, who eat it, drive it into a passage, the month of Which a diver, relieved as often as necessary, keeps closed with grass ; that the spurs on the legs, generally supposed to be non-venomous, are always treated as poisonous by the natives, who do not commonly err in such matters ; and that the animal does not roam beyond the hole over which he has fixed hia home. W. S. CHAPTER IV. CAVES AND CATTLE. Old country names Launceston and Western Bailway The Meander Bush on fire Phantom, horseman Kavages of the fire Caves Unadorned nature The young Tasmanian Fan and frolic on the road Wild cattle Full chase The strawberry bull : a noted character. FROM Launceston you may journey, by the ably managed little Government railway, west, and become acquainted with many of the rivers which, running in a direct northerly direction, fall into Bass Strait. There is no portion of Tasmania that is not freely watered ; but the northern counties, Wellington, Devon, and Dorset, are unusually well supplied with per- petually flowing streams, rejoicing, according to the custom of the land, in names borrowed from the old country. We have the Tamar, Esk (North and South), Mersey, Liffey, Cam, Trent, Don, Forth, and Leven. Most of these are, or will be, trout rivers, and dwelling upon each, though it may not far exceed the dimen- sions of a rivulet, you shall ever find persons who tell you confidentially that to them, and them alone, was entrusted the honour of depositing the first young fish. It is evidence at least of the importance they attach to 44 TRAVEL AND TROUT. the subject that, according to their own showing, three- fourths of the male population of the country have with their own hands deposited salmon and trout in the rivers. The district we traverse by the Launceston and Western Railway is in many respects the most highly cultivated in Tasmania ; it bears the aspect of com- fortable and mature settlement the aspect of level grain lands, and gently watered pastures. The moun- tains, as the journey progresses to its terminus at Deloraino (which is forty-five miles duo west from Launce>ton), show out grandly in the eager air of a somewhat frosty evening. From the railway train a magnificent view is afforded of the Western Tier, some of whose summits and peaks in the peculiar atmosphere assume lovely tints of purple ; while Quamby's Bluff, an abrupt and notable mountain, appears through an impalpable gauze of delicate French grey. The unseasonable coldness of the weather, and the continued lowness and brightness of the water, induce a resolve not to waste time in fishing the Meander, which runs through the village of Deloraine. We accordingly, after some trouble, procure a conveyance : one of the practical carts of the countiy which, by its severe restraints, inflicts the cramp upon him who rides in front, and, by its unyielding construction, subjects him who rides behind to terrible joltings. In this machine we are to visit certain renowned caves, of which we have heard much, and are to halt for the night, en route, about four miles out of Deloraine. As wo drive across the bridge, watching the anglers on the river banks below, I am nearly tempted to upset all previously made arrangements, a lady sitting by the side of a gentlemen having, at the moment the cart CAVES AND CATTLE: 45 rumbles past, switched a nice trout boldly out of the water and far into the bushes behind her. Hero the river, moreover, has a most likely appearance. But my comrade pronounces strongly against vacilla- tion, and the cart thereupon jogs up the road, as the twilight becomes no light at all and the brilliant stars announce the positive advent of night. The hospitable gentleman at whose house we are to sleep is from home when we alight, and a ruddy glare in the sky beyond the crown of the hill explains the cause of his absence. The bush is on fire, and he is an extensive landowner. Partly to warm ourselves after our cold ride, and partly to meet our host, having deposited our luggage, we stroll towards the brow which intercepts our view of the burning country. From the eminence a strange spectacle lies before us. It is singular and even grand in its weirdness. The white glistening trunks of the gum trees reflect the flickering shadows thrown up by the blazing under- growth ; wreaths of smoke roll, blood-tinted, into the darkness ; and the fire and the smoke combined make the bush for the time being resemble a great, gloomy pine forest of illimitable space, while the men and women, busy in their endeavours to save the fences, are converted into the grotesque spirits of some infernal region. In their midst, a phantom man, upon a phantom horse, both of gigantic size, directs their movements, and, as he moves hither and thither, seems to be at times swallowed up or absorbed by the huge, awesome shadows. Soon a heavy gust of wind passes by, raising showers of sparks, fanning the noisy flames, and dispersing the curtains of smoke. It carries the swift destruction of merciless fire on its wings, and a hoarse sound, like the distant sea moaning and rising, 46 TRAVEL AND TROUT. accompanies its march through the woods. Crashes, invested with new terrors in the unseen associations of flame-haunted night, resound from afar, telling of ponderous trees laid low. Scenes somewhat similar I have witnessed in the Queensland bush, but they are new to my companion, tipon whom they make a strong impression, which im- pression is tbe more firmly fixed by the report next morning that, within a few miles of the place where we rest, two brothers have been killed by the fall of the same tree, about the hour when we stood watch- ing the conflagration. Bush fires have unfortunately been very rife of late in this district, and numerous mishaps have occurred. The phantom rider turns out to be the host himself, from whom, amidst many apologies for his grimy ap- pearance, we receive a welcome truly colonial in its heartiness. A cheerful fire blazes in the wide chimney of his roomy house, and while the host and my com- rade, with a neighbour who has dropped in, talk of cattle and sheep, and wheat and land, your humble servant, musing before the burning logs on the hearth, dozes and dozes in his armchair until ho is lost in the fascinations of dreamland, which now take the shape of an enchanted recess of the Hartz Mountains, peopled with gnomes and imps, rioting in some fiendish revelry. The movements of dairy cattle and clatter of milking pails tinder the windows rouse us in the early morning, and while breakfast is preparing we walk into the garden, to enjoy the crisp air and freshen our palates with newly gathered fruit. Cherries hang overhead like semi-transparent globes of ruby glass ; herbs and flowers, ivy and woodbine, fruit and vegetables, flourish CAVES AND CATTLE. 47 in profusion, convincing philosophic visitors, like our- selves, more than ever that Tasmania ought to be not only the sanatorium, but the great kitchen garden, of the whole of Australia. During our drive after breakfast we meet with over- whelming evidence of the ravages committed by the conflagration of the previous evening. Immense trees, partly charred and still smouldering, lie across the highway ; into the trunks of others close to the road the fire has eaten until but a few inches of frail support is left; twice, in short -succession, trees fall without warning within a few yards of the cart ; the horse's fetlocks are singed during a detour into the bush, rendered necessary by a fallen blue gum which lies breast-high across the path ; sometimes we fain hold > our breath while close to a tree, the smell of whose burning comes hot in our faces, and which cannot stand half an hour longer. It is like travelling through a yellow fog in Fleet Street on a November day; but after four miles of suffocation, crackle, and some danger, the limits of the fire are passed, and the cart emerges from the smoke into the delicious freshness of pure morning air and the brightness of open country enclosed with the customary hedges of hawthorn, sweet-brier, and gorse. Yonder are the mountain ranges bat lied in bland sun- shine, and were we able to ascend Quamby's Bluff, which we now survey from another aspect, we might, in the singular nearness of all distant objects, behold one of the sights for which the district is famous. But we are bent upon exploring certain caves, and to the caves we are guided by a young urchin at whose father's homestead the horse and cart are left. This show place certainly deserves all the praise which is 48 TRAVEL AND TROUT. lavished upon it, and as much because of the mountain scenery of the neighbourhood as of the extraordinary caverns in the limestone to which pilgrimages are made. How many caves, spacious enough to accommo- date large congregations, there may be, has never been decided, but they are very numerous, though the most popular arc termed respectively the New and the Old C'aves. To us, who have visited the caves at Cheddar, in Somersetshire the most perfect stalactite formations in miniature to be found probably in Europe fho .striking features of these Tasmanian caverns are their vast extent, and the exquisite natural grotto-work marking the descent to them. No showman has laid his improving hand upon the approaches ; everything bears the wild picturesqueness of unadorned nature, and is therefore adorned the most. Rare ferns and rich, cool, damp green mosses cover the stones, from which you step across the limpid brook, with bottom of bright golden sand, issuing icy cold from the dark mouth of the main entrance. In one of those caverns you may penetrate for two miles under the white stalactite roof, which, as in all stalac- tite and stalagmite formations, assumes the most fan- tastic forms and combination of forms ; the icy rivulet is ever present at your feet, continuing its dark journey .from some upper spring in the heart of the rock. The light of the candles carried by the visitor, of course, gives enchantment to the silent underground halls, with their numerous ante-caves and dark abysses. Not caring to wade continually across the brook . rushing down from its unknown source in the bowels of the earth through the pitch darkness, we are content ivith half a mile or so of penetration into the cavern, CAVES AND CATTLE. 49 and, having duly admire! the puculiaiities of the chief apartment, return to daylight and to luncheon, out- spread upon a mossy stone at the entrance. In the mountain ranges of this part of the island there are a number of wild cattle, the hunting of which, partly for business and partly for pleasure, affords the inhabitants around exciting sport. Occa- sional hunting expeditions are accordingly got up, and the meet having been announced to the few, the ride to the scene of action is one of the pleasantest portions of the day's proceedings. It so happens that such an expedition has been fixed for one of the days in- cluded in our stay in these parts, and as there are some romantic falls to be visited, estates to be ridden over, and trout, cucumber mullet, blaekfish, and tench to be caught in the interim, it is no hardship to remain in order to witness, and perhaps take part in, the sport. The landlord of the inn at which we stop during our stay is a most obliging young fellow, and by his aid the chief difficulty, namely, the procuring of horses, is surmounted. The trip gives us an admirable opportunity of ob- serving the sort of stuff of which young Tasmania is made. I have often heard it said, in other colonies, that Tasmania is so poor a place commercially that all the young men emigrate when they arrive at years of maturity, and here I already begin to perceive that the accusation is not without its understratum of truth. Young men in Tasmania are not numerous, but they are a good specimen of strong, healthy complexioned humanity, and altogether more robust in appearance than the " cornstalks " of the more wealthy Australian colonies. It is a merry party that sets out in search of wild E 50 TllAVEL AND TROUT. cattle. Starting from the village after an early breakfast, when the riine still whitens the grass in shady spots, when the edge of the cold is blunted, yet when the sun is not too high in the heavens, everybody is in high spirits, or will speedily arrive at that enviable condition through contagion. The sportsmen are well mounted, for Tasmania still maintains its prestige in horse-breeding; the country to be passed over offers fair going, and no rider seems to fear knocking up his horse before the actual business begins. The animals, recognizing by the tone of their master's voice that it is to be a stick-at-nothing kind of day, are in bound- ing high spirits also, and enter into the fun and frolic of the road out of pure equine delight. With whoop and laugh the youngsters career off the track through the bush, or into the paddocks, flying over all that comes in their way. Booted and spurred, but other- wise dressed without any regard to pattern or fashion, they are a good type of the free, independent, lusty colonial, who enjoys life with a gusto Old World city men can little understand. Riding after cattle is a sport which requires ex- perience, and I am free to confess myself a novice in the true sense of the word. My comrade, as a young squatter, is, of course, familiar with the work ; but he is not well mounted, and the country for which we are bound is extremely mountainous and rocky. The most we can, therefore, hope to do is to see the be- ginning of the hunt, and follow the chase as closely as we can when the pace waxes too hot. Well mounted, strong- wristed, fearless and quick, and ready with spur at the right moment, you need apprehend little danger from the cattle themselves ; but the sport is extremely exciting when the beasts, like CAVES AND CATTLE. 51 those we seek, are thoroughly wild born wild of ancestors which have inhabited the mountain fastnesses for perhaps more than half a century. " Wild," how- ever, is a word which can only be applied by courtesy. The pedigree, if it had been recorded, would end, after all, in a snug farmyard, stall-feeding, and the milking pail. The cattle are not naturally wild like the buffalo, nor even wild after the manner of the Chillingham cattle, which distinguished personages shoot from a hay-cart. But they run for their lives. They look upon man as their foe; and, when hard pressed, they will turn about and do their best to rend you. Ordinarily the wild cattle, so called, of Australia may be tamed, and are frequently tamed sufficiently for marketable pur- poses ; but the Tasmanian mountaineers are not of that ilk. No efforts to reduce them to even a show of docility succeed, and all attempts to utilize them, save for sport, fail. Dogs, of course, accompany the party dogs of all sorts and sizes. Breed, colour, and general moral character are not inquired into ; the only requisite insisted upon is that the brutes should be au fait with cattle. The finest dog in the present company and the exceptional circumstance is noticed is a grand old deerhound, the description of dog Landseer loved to paint. But there are retrievers, kangaroo hounds, a pointer or two, and a host of nondescripts. Once on the ground, men and dogs disperse and spread through the mountainous forest. On the flat, or downhill, the horse, in the long run, can out distance cuttle ; though for a burst of ten or fifteen minutes, when the cattle are in good condition which with wild cattle means the reverse of jrood from a farmer's 52 TRAVEL AND TROUT. point of view and when the herd p\irsued are cows, which arc as a rule the fleetest, a fast horse has to put forth his best powers to keep alongside the game. The country now hunted is, therefore, in favour of the cattle, and, by long experience, they seem quite aware of the fact. On the side of the hunters there is this advantage there is no scrub (into which hunted cattlo always fly for refuge) within several miles of the range. Inaccessible gullies and ravines, however, abound. By-and-by the dogs give tongue, and there is a sound, not far distant, indicating a stampede. The horsemen, neck or nothing, set off in pursuit. How, on these occasions, man and beast escape braining from the branches under which they dash, or general smashing from the great trees between which they gallop at full speed by what instinct a horse madly galloping knows that a dozen yards more will bring him to the edge of a precipice, and, acting upon that knowledge, swerves of his own accord at the precise moment, and saves his own and his rider's neck by taking a sideling cattlo track how, on a sudden emergency, the sensible animal will instantaneously check his impetuosity, " prop," and swing round at a tangent these are questions which the neophyte asks himself many a time during one of these exciting mornings. You may not intend joining in the hunt, but when the party has warmed into excitement, and the horses have imbibed the intoxicating spirit of the chase, you ooner or later find yourself going with the rest, and revelling in the work. At first the course is along a ridge, and then, without reflection or check, down a steep declivity. Quite unused to this style of riding, though not greatly a coward, I am wide awake to the CAVES AND CATTLE. 53 possibilities of mischief, and find time to say to my comrade, as we gallop for a moment neck and neck " We're in for it, I suppose ? " "Yes," he shouts, half pulled out of the saddle. " Leave it all to the horse. There's nothing for it now." The foremost men in the hunt have crossed the gully at the bottom of the slope, are at close quarters with the laggards of the herd, and taking flying pistol-shots at them as they race abreast over rocks, through dense bush, and upon ground which, in sober moments, the most daring would shrink from. For the remainder of my own share in the sport I shall maintain silence whether of prudence or modesty signifies nothing. Suf- fice to say I am learning what everybody does learn in the colonies that you may pass through a marvellous number of accidents without coming, as the saying goes, to grief, and that when you are, unknown to yourself, mounted en a trained stock-horse, you. pay for discovering the clever tricks which a stockman delights in. The herd, which is of bulls, has, according to their custom, dispersed as quickly as possible after the chase begins, and are now singly, or at most in twos or threes, seeking safety by the exercise of their stratagem and speed. Between two ridges there runs, for perhaps half a mile, a glade with level grassy bottom. At one end it terminates in a cul de sac, and a splendid straw- berry bull has been chased towards the mouth of the glade just at the moment when a young farmer, cautiously steering his horse down the rocks at the closed end, has reached the level ground, and is in full gallop towards the opening. Another sportsman is descending sideways into the arena, and perceives his friend's danger. 64 TRAVEL AND TROUT. " In with your spurs, old man," ho shouts. To the best of his means he follows this advice, but the beast is gaining upon him much too surely. Look- ing over his shoulder, he sees the ferocious eyeballs and frothy muzzle of the bull, and hears his breath- furnace in angry operation. It has been possible to walk by careful steps down the side of this natural barrier ; it is another thing to force a partly spent horse up a broken shelf, sloping like a house-roof. Forty yards of turf, barring some providcntal interposition that will savour of the miraculous, contain the man's chances of life. Ho knows it, and, still galloping hard, sets his teeth. Then he feels the hind quarters of his horse lifted once, twice, clean off the ground, and " Crack ! crack ! ! crack ! ! ! " The revolver, pointed close to the bull's flank, has, at the third shot, found out a vital part and brought him down. The hunt is over for the present. Men and beasts have had enough ; more than enough the horse, which has been gored by the bull underneath its flank, and now shows a streaming wound which, to all outward appearance, must speedily prove fatal. It may, how- ever, bo hero stated in advance that not only does the animal survive the mishap, but that, after careful doctoring and six months of freedom in the paddock, it is as lively as ever, though it thenceforth goes with a peculiar action which gains for it the sobriquet of " bandy-legs." This bull is a noted character in these parts, and has been hunted for years. He is known by his peculiar colour, and also by his horns, which are tremendously long, symmetrical, and upturned. The men who skin it subsequently declare they take fourteen bullets from CAVES AND CATTLE. 55 beneath the hide, the majority from the shoulders and rump, and some of them have doubtless been working their outward passage from flesh to skin for years. He is not a large beast. Like most of his tribe, he is small and wiry, with masses of sinew, and very little beef; but he is of superb proportions, and has a handsome, massive, shaggy head. After an al fresco luncheon outside a bushman's hut, we return home at a funereal pace. The conversation turns upon snakes. The young landlord, who has accompanied us, offers to bet any small sum that we shall see a black snake before we have proceeded a mile further. We turn off the road and ride near the fence, amongst a good deal of dry dead timber. My horse gives a feeble shy, and stops. Sure enough, there is a snake in the grass. The landlord is out of the saddle in a twinkling, and, picking up a stick, aims a blow at the reptile just as it is escaping under the foundation logs of the rude fence. The blow partly disables it, but, as the stick was rotten and flew in pieces at the blow, does not kill it. The young man thereupon seizes the snake by the tail, pulls hard with both hands at the tail end, and dragging it by sheer force from its leverage, hurls it backwards into the dusty road, where it is soon despatched. It is a bit of moral courage which I envy. The snake is five feet long, and one of the most deadly. 56 TRAVEL AND TROUT. CHAPTEE V. COACHING : OLD STYLE. Last opportunity The Tasmanian Royal Mail Coaching in Tas- mania Old friends Counties and townships Roadside inns Antique waiter The morning star .Descending to Hobart Town. BOOKS and people have so uniformly recommended me 1o travel across the renowned convict-made road, by the mail-coach running between Launceston and Hobart Town, that I determine to adopt the recommendation, more especially as it is rumoured that the opportunity may not offer in future years.* I have to miss St. Mary's Pass; the northern coast to Circular Head, remarkable as a natural rocky fortress, five hundred feet high, with a summit of eighty acres ; and thereby miss, as I am warned, some of the most effective scenery of Tasmania. But the trout country is at the other end, and I perforce forsake such pictures as a Tasmanian poetess (Mrs. Meredith, author of " My Home in Tas- mania ") thus describes : ' Flowers in legions bloomed around in forest, scrub, and marsb, Dropping soft petals o'er the brook, or on rocky ridges harsh, Nestling in crevices and chinks, like jewels in the mine, Or peering out with merry eyes into the noonday shine. The Tasmanian Royal Mail performed its last stage in 1877. COACHING: OLD STYLE. 57 There grew the ' helmets ' green, like elfin knights together ; Some wore their armour plain, some with a flaunting feather. And caladenias quaint, with hoods and fringes rare, Couched by old mossy trees 'midst delicate maiden-hair ; Acres of peaty swamps glowed purple with the shimmer Of gay rush-lilies ; and in dells where the forest-shades fell dimmer In deep, green, silent glens, silent, except the fall Of tinkling streams that made a monotone most musical The feathery fern trees dwelt, with palmy crests outspread, Close interweaved and overlapp'd in canopies o'erhead ; Upborne on massy columns whence taper ribs npspring, And leafy traceries flow from their mazy clustering, While round each pillar, wreaths of polish'd verdure cling With long and shining fronds, in graceful garlands, drooping Adown and down, till into the spray of the tiny cascade they're stooping. But the rill goes wimpling on, round island-rocks all mossy, By groves of fragrant sassafras, and myrtles dark and glossy, 'Neath bridges of great fallen trunks, under whose dark shadows slipping, It whirls to the deep and silent pool where the miner-birds are dipping ; And parrots, skimming to and fro thro' a sunny gleam together, Are bright, as though the sun had set a rainbow in each feather ! " At six o'clock, therefore, on a fine evening I am one of the travellers at the Post Office taking their seats on the outside of the coach. It is a plethoric and imposing equipage, like an overgrown mail-coach of the olden time in England. A few years ago her Majesty's mails in Tasmania were conveyed by a coach not a whit inferior to the smart highflyers and expresses that some of us can remember in association with school holidays, and all the other material that puts gold and silver threads into a boy's life. But although in Tasmania the mail-coach still holds its own, when the march of science has caused its English brethren to be put, like brave old war-ships, out of commission, it is recognized 438 TRAVEL AND TROUT. that a utilitarian ago requires a vehicle heavier and more roomy for the purposes of the colony. The pre- sent mail-coach, that carries nine passengers inside and fourteen outside, besides a few tons of luggage, accordingly comes upon the scene, although the scarlet-coated coachmen and guards pull a long face as they tell you that the days of the mail-coach, as a Tasmanian institution, are numbered. It is a very good copy of the home article. Scarlet coats, horn, royal arms, mail-bags, ostlers, horses im- patient to be off, loungers finding excitement in our ach is out of sight. It is one of the few excitements the dull times have left to Launceston, and the inhabit- ants are not so heathenish as to be slack in living up o their privileges. It is not easy to give, in brief, a description of a coach