March, 1908] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 173 



large numbers of aboriginals, nearly every home of any preten- 

 sions having one of them at least as help ; some residents, as, 

 for example, the Olives, Gibsons, and others, having had blacks of 

 both sexes from childhood, some of whom have married and had 

 families, all appearing to be well fed and kindly treated. The 

 " casual " hands live together on an island close to Cooktown, 

 and, as the eight hours question is unknown to these children of 

 the forest, they may be seen about 3 p.m. wending their way 

 towards their canoes, which are fastened during the day to the 

 mangrove bushes which fringe the harbour, 10 till 3 being their 

 usual hours of work. The little nude children are carried on 

 the shoulders of their mothers, the usual troop of mangy- 

 looking dogs completing the picture. My wife, who had not 

 before been accustomed to such scenes, was greatly disgusted to 

 see the ladies (gins), both young and old, smoking dirty black 

 pipes. We saw one lady, the daughter of a squatter, accom- 

 panied on horseback by a young gin who was puffing away for 

 all she was worth. In the early days of Cooktown the blacks 

 were both numerous and hostile, many an unfortunate teamster 

 having been speared and robbed by them. A few miles from, 

 here, across the water, at Cape Bedford, is a large mission 

 station for the blacks, where all seem to be well cared for. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Olive we procured excellent 

 accommodation at a place, Mrs. Allen's, where we were told 

 friend Gabriel, of our Club, and other naturalists, including Mr. 

 Saville Kent and Dr. Roth, had stayed during their visits to these 

 ])arts. I was very pleased with Cooktown, its main streets being 

 lined with superb specimens of Mangoes, Barringtonias, Leichhardt 

 trees, and a splendid umbrageous tree with flowers not unlike an 

 enlarged flower of Hakea eucah/ptoides, but which I could not 

 recognize. Although the town is not the busy place it was of old 

 when the Palmer diggings were at their zenith, it is very pretty, 

 and much more Australian in character than are either Cairns or 

 Townsville. Mount Cook forms a splendid background and 

 shelter for a portion of the settlement. 



We saw a good deal of Cooktown, and its cool climate seemed 

 quite a pleasant change after the hot and vitiated air of both 

 Cairns and Townsville. In the public gardens there are magnifi- 

 cent specimens of Crotons, splendidly' grown and coloured to 

 perfection, whilst our choicest Caladiums, Ixoras, Combretums, 

 Allamandas, Acalyphas, and other plants of our hot-houses thrive 

 like weeds in the open air. The beautiful Frangipani was every- 

 where to be seen in full flower, and the further north one goes 

 the more deciduous does this plant become, as in Cooktown the 

 flowering plants had hardly a leaf upon them, while in Brisbane 

 and Sydney the foliage was present. 



About a mile from the township resides the Olive family, 



