4-2 Voyage of the Novara. 



now perceived the small space within which ourselves, three 

 persons, had passed the night on benches, chairs, and tables. 

 The light of day did not belie the hospitality of our reception. 

 The furniture was rude but clean. What most surprised us 

 was the number of massive books which stood on a small shelf, 

 carefully arranged. They were by much the most valuable 

 part of the furniture, and the proprietor seemed to be aware 

 of this. The books had been the property of a schoolmaster, 

 who had exchanged their spiritual contents against spirits of 

 another nature. The host gave '' tick " to the schoolmaster, 

 and thus gradually possessed himself of the entire collection, no 

 inconsiderable number, of interesting works, which now passed 

 from hand to hand on holidays or after the day's work was 

 over ; the desire for knowledge of the settlers in this primitive 

 Australian forest thus finding ample room to expand itself in 

 many useful and learned particulars of foreign lands and peoples. 

 Towards 1 p. m. we reached Campbelton. At the hotel 

 where we alighted was installed a lodge of Odd Fellows, 

 newly instituted. The first visible result of its organization 

 was almost universal intoxication ! In the streets and the 

 public-houses, everywhere crowds of drunken men were stag- 

 gering about. Every third house in Campbelton is a whisky 

 shop ! Throughout the colony the consumption of ardent 

 spirits has reached an alarming height, being estimated at £6 

 per head of the entire pojDulation annually ! Besides the spirits 

 manufactured in the colony itself. New South Wales imports 

 annually £1,000,000 of wine, beer, brandy, and other descrip- 



