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banks were as desolate-looking as ever, the boiling-down establishments defiled the air with
their usual smells. When we reached Hobson's Bay a breeze sprung up, and carried us gaily
onward in a southerly direction. In about two hours we bore westward, and entered the fine
sheet of water called Geeiong Harbour. We soon crossed the Bar, and steamed alongside of
the wharf. In a few minutes I entered a fine freestone palace-looking place, called Mack's
Hotel, where I slept, partially interrupted in my slumbers by the drunken roarings of a rich
proprietor in the neighbourhood, who was trying to force his way into somebody else's room.
'6 August: As I sat at breakfast in the coffee-roome of Mack's Hotel, a coarse-looking person,
well-dresssed, entered into conversation with me. He told me that he was one of the early
settlers in that part of the country, and that he had several sheep-runs, which he was about to let
for two or three years, that he might make a visit home to England. He said that his property
was worth to him from £2,500 to £3,000 a year; and did I think that he could get on in England
with that? I asked him if he was a married man. He said, No. I answered him that, as he was a
single man, I thought he might, with strict economy, make two ends meet in England on £3,000
a year. I don't think he quite liked my answer. I afterwards leamt that he was as rich as he
represented himseif to be, that he came to the colony very poor, that his character did not stand
very high, and that he was much given to boast of his wealth. This being so, I am giad I
answered him as I did.
'After breakfast, took a survey of Geeiong. This city, which from its situation is more worthy to
be the capital of a colony than Melbourne, is built on a steepish declivity, which commences
from the water. It has fine wide streets, and the houses are for the most part freestone. Behind
the city, a mile or two away, runs the river Barrabool, which sometimes makes sad
devastations. From every part of Geeiong is an exquisite view of the harbour: on the right are
high downs, with a soil of wonderful fertility; turning round, one sees in the background the
picturesque summit of Station Peak, which some one told me bears evidence to being an extinct
volcano. And all the time ! was looking about, there was a glowing sun and a cloudless sky, and
a pure elastic air quite fife-giving. In Geeiong, I hear, there is a great deai of dust in summer and
inexpressible mud in winter. For morality, Geeiong is no worse than its bigger neighbour. The
crying vice is drunkenness, and that arises from the filthy adulterations practised by the publicans
more than from the quantity drunk. The tobacco that should be in the
100
cigars which they sell, is put into weak rum and water, to give it flavour and force and make it
intoxicating. It may be supposed how pernicious such intoxication is.
My hospitable friend came into Geelong expressly to meet me. So at two o'clock in the
afternoon we mounted, and rode over the elastic turf 19 miles, without drawing bridle, in two
hours and a half, till we came to his station near the Anakie Hills.
7 August: My friend's place is situated at the commencement of a forest, which extends over a
hill at the back. The gum-tree, the sheacke, vulgarly called the she-oak, and the mimosa, flourish
abundantly there. The house in which he lives is rather a collection of many houses or huts,
accumulated as necessity required. It is, however, rendered very comfortable, and as he has a
good garden, his table is well served. The annual income which he derives from the wool of his
sheep cannot be less than £2,000 sterling. After breakfast read a little of the Canterbury
Pilgrimage, which I found in his library, then mounted on horseback, and rode to the base of the
left-hand peak of the Anakie Hills. It consists of enormous fragments of rock in grotesque
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