quarantine grounds and buildings, which I had eschewed in favour of Sydney. A pilot came on board at Williamstown, the head of Hobson's Bay, and I conceived that all was right, and in imagination breakfasted at Melbourne. But behold, our troubles were not yet over. There are two ways up to Melbourne, one by the Sandridge Railway, and one by the River Yarra Yarra. Unhappily, I suppose to save the owner's expense of railway transit for the cargo, the captain determined on the latter. Yarra means winding, and repeated "very." The river certainly justifies its name.

We were going along, much elated at our speedy prospect of deliverance, when suddenly a bump, and a turn of the bow landwards, and it was soon clear that we were hopelessly aground.

She was backed hard astern, but all in vain. This was about eight o'clock, tide falling rapidly, and we learnt only likely to flow again at half-past eleven! "Those stones, sir, must be covered before we can move," said the pilot.

At

How anxiously we watched those stones! ten o'clock, the Derwent, a Tasmanian steamer, quite light and empty, passed us to take the mail for Tasmania from the Suez boat, the China, which we had heard had followed us into

the bay.

The passengers on the Derwent treated us in

passing to some derisive remarks, which we bore patiently, but I must confess I was delighted when we saw round the next reach, our friend the "Derwent" in a similar predicament to ourselves, hard and fast aground. Here she was speedily joined by another similarly derisive steamer, and we had the cold comfort of believing, that they had changed the side of their laugh to the other side of their mouths. But this is a great reproach to the otherwise go-a-head city of Melbourne.

Three steamers aground within a mile of each other, and all for want of about a mile and a half of ship canal, for which there is the unoccupied marsh land lying ready to their hand, and which would receive, opposite Melbourne, the waters of the Yarra, and be always kept clear.

They tell me it is often talked about, but Ministries are of short-lived duration, and just as one Government has determined on carrying it out, it goes out, and the plans are pigeon-holed by their

successors.

I know nothing of the politics of Mr. Francis, the present premier, but I wish him, most heartily, long political life enough to complete the trumpery bit of ship canal. There we lay fuming and wishing anything but blessings to Victorian soil, which clung so steadily to our bottom, but at length one o'clock came, the stones began to be covered by the flowing

tide, and a Geelong steamer, the Dispatch, coming up, gave us so effective a back-wash, that we fell into deep water, and were once more off for Melbourne.

CHAPTER XV.

MELBOURNE.

HERE we arrived without further let or hindrance, and after wishing the captain better luck next time, and my fellow-passengers good-bye, I chartered a cab, and was quickly deposited at the very comfortable "Hotel Menzies."

There, after the usual operations of warm bath, treating my wounds, for my boils are still bad, and dressing, I soon addressed myself to seeing Melbourne. Considering that this city is about thirty years old, it is perfectly marvellous what piles of stone and cement, bricks and mortar, have been heaped upon the toes of poor old Time. Multiply the present Melbourne by a few more years, and on the present scale, it will be one of the first cities in the world, especially if they make that ship canal.

It has had the advantage over Sydney of having been laid out first of all more recently, and next under the favourable circumstances of gold digging.

Melbourne had wealth to begin with, and, therefore, there is less to pull down than at Sydney. While George Street and Pitt Street are the principal streets of Sydney, Collins Street, Bourke Street, and Swanston Street place Melbourne far above its New South Wales neighbour. The buildings are not only superior, but banks, theatres, churches, and other institutions, have followed suit in the same fine proportions.

Collins Street is very nearly as wide as Regent -Street, and is longer.

The inequality of the ground also gives a picturesque appearance, and they are so laid out as to make a great facility for finding your way about.

The post-office and town hall are buildings which would do more than credit to our Board of Works, and the public hall at the latter is of proportions which would astonish an Exeter Hall speaker.

I shall have to return to that hall by-and-by, but I give it now that passing notice. There is also a building which contains a fine library, a gallery of paintings, and a well selected set of plaster casts from Rome, Naples, and Paris.

In the entrance lobby there is a good selection of native curiosities, and a large room is set apart for produce specimens, corn, wood, ores, among them the "Welcome" nugget, valued at ten thousand pounds. The picture gallery has a few