came to a confused mass of coarse, breccia-like sandstone, constituting what is known as the Sugar Loaf, whence they had to toil laboriously among the rocks till they reached the summit. A marvellous panorama was spread out before them; the whole county of Northumberland, with its green forest clothing, was stretched out at their feet in all its sunlit splendour. To the left far in the distance was visible the township of Maitland, and the navigable part of the Hunter River, which wound along like a silver band till it was lost in the distance, where it fell into the Pacific, on whose seething billows the stately ships looked like small white specks on a confused, uncertain back-ground. Far in the distance to the right, half concealed by the forest, was Lake Macquarie. The colonial members of the party described the latter as very difficult of access, but as a veritable paradise for the sportsman, since it is frequented by black swans in hundreds, the Australian stork, curlews, the hook-billed creeper, cormorants, and an infinite variety of water-fowl. The Blue Mountains formed the back-ground of this splendid landscape. The whole neighbourhood is pretty well settled and cultivated. Here and there wreaths of blue smoke indicated where the huts of industrious colonists lay concealed in the forest. Their conductors were not a whit behind the strangers in their appreciation of the panoramic effect; they had never scaled the summit before, although the elder had lived 15 years at Ash Island, and had often been as far as the top of the first rocky ascent in search of strayed cattle.
Lost in delighted contemplation of the beauties of nature, no account was made of the passage of time, so that part of the return journey had to be made in the twilight. It was a delightful, clear, moonlight night. The deep stillness in nature was only occasionally broken by the shrill cry of the curlew (Numenius arquata), from the neighbouring swamps, or the rustling of Wallabies disturbed by the tread of the advancing horsemen. Buried in a sort of dreamy charm that could find no utterance, the riders left their horses to choose their own pace over the sward, hardly able to realize that they were indeed under the unclouded brilliancy of an Australian sky, traversing the forests haunted by the timid kangaroo and the swift but shy emu.
Unfortunately it was found impossible, owing to want of time, to visit the Blue Mountains and the gold regions around Bathurst. We had to content our curiosity as to the products of the gold-fields by examining the nuggets exhibited by the fortunate finders in the jewellers' shops of George Street, Sydney, and the particulars furnished in the daily papers of the well-authenticated riches of the gold-fields of the oldest colony. During our stay a lump of gold was discovered in the Western district weighing 150 lbs., and worth £6000. Such instances of good fortune only tend to raise fallacious hopes of being equally fortunate in the breasts of thousands of men. Shortly before our arrival, on the news being promulgated of the new Eldorado in the north near Port Curtis on the Fitzroy, not less than 16,000 men flocked
thither from New South Wales and Victoria. This enormous influx of human beings to a district totally unprovided with either shelter or provisions for such a horde resulted in unutterable suffering. People had sold their goods in Sydney for whatever they would fetch, in order to be the first in the gold-field with the requisite implements. Many lost their entire means of support, having even sacrificed the most favourable prospects in the eager thirst for gold and sudden prosperity. The streets of Melbourne and Sydney were filled with gold-seekers, who, laden with blankets, household utensils, axes, and spades, were laying down their last farthing for passage tickets, and rushed breathlessly to the ships which were to convey them to the newly-discovered gold-field. The voyage began under the most rose-coloured anticipations of brilliant success. But scarcely a month later came most depressing intelligence from Port Curtis. Here was a set of lawless desperadoes, deceived in their expectations, without food, clothing, or even the object of their search, in a remote part of the country, with the hot season coming on, and no means of returning! Men were seen selling for a few shillings implements that had cost pounds. The whole road from the supposed gold-fields to the landing-quay was strewed with diggers, who, footsore and fainting under the heat, were toiling towards the coast, where they rushed in wild confusion on board the ships which were to convey the victims back to the colonies they had left at so much sacrifice and with so extravagant expectations!
It was only the energetic measures taken by Government, by whom provisions were forthwith despatched to the wretched make-shifts of settlements improvised on the spur of the moment, and gave numbers free passages to Sydney and Melbourne, that prevented some serious disaster. A few months later the place so suddenly populous had become once more a despised solitude, and Rockhampton had resumed its wonted state of a hamlet consisting of two or three houses. In Sydney, however, the famished crowd seeking after work kept wandering about, thankfully accepting the soup which the charity of their fellow-citizens supplied free of charge.
During these various excursions of the scientific staff, the frigate had, thanks to the kindness of H.E. Sir Wm. Denison, been taken into the Government dry dock at Cockatoo Island in order to facilitate her extensive repairs. The Novara was, as the chief engineer himself allowed, the largest man-of-war which had ever been docked, not merely in Port Jackson, but anywhere in the Eastern hemisphere.
The Fitzroy dry dock, which had not long been completed, is 300 feet in length (since lengthened another 100 feet), 60 feet wide, and will accommodate vessels drawing 19 feet water. In preparing this splendid structure, which took eight years to complete, a huge rock 50 feet high was first blasted, the excavation began on the land-side, and on its completion a gate opened towards the sea. All being right thus far, a subaqueous mine was sprung by means of large
diving-bells, the excavations being charged with two or three lbs. of powder. A steam-engine of 40-horse power pumps the dock dry,[18] besides being geared to set in motion the various machinery in the shops, such as lathes, iron planes, &c. The dock gates are iron-plated. Although constructed entirely by convict labour, the expense was enormous, since to overcome the extraordinary difficulty presented by the soil, the entire machinery, down to the very smallest tool, had to be imported from England.