224 Voyage of the Novara. 



almost magical colourinir. Worcester, a creation of yesterday, 

 has about 4500 inhabitants, chiefly employed in vine growing 

 and sheep pasture. There are some of the peasantry here who 

 own flocks of 30OO to 4000 sheep I The rich vegetation of the 

 valley has an eminently northern character. Alongside of oaks, 

 pines, poplars, willows, will appear a tree of Australian origin, 

 of the order of Myrtacea), the blue gum-tree (^Eucali/ptus Glo- 

 bulus), which, on account of its rapid growth, is planted before 

 each door for the purpose of shade. One of these trees was 

 shown to us of but four years* growth, the stem of which was 

 already twenty feet high ! The leaves have a highly aromatic 

 odour, and must be especially suitable for the extraction of oil, 

 as the rind is full of camphor ; as yet, however, the tree is not 

 used by the colonists for any other purpose than to supply 

 shade to their gardens. 



It is surprising what comfort the traveller encounters among 

 these new settlements, from which, even already, all traces have 

 been eradicated of the difficulties that originally beset the 

 colonist ; so that at every turn one meets with evidences of the 

 highest European civilization. Whenever, indeed, he finds 

 himself at a settlement, he will remark that it is not merely 

 provided with the necessaries of life, or the mere products of the 

 soil, but that it sparkles with numerous objects of luxury and 

 refined taste ; such as handsome furniture, pianos, and other 

 musical instruments, engravings, English classics, besides 

 telescopes, barometers, thermometers, and other similar evi- 

 dences of high cultivation. At the hotel at Worcester, we met 



