182 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXIV 



himself :— " To avoid describing Hyde Park," he wrote to William 

 Hovvitt, " and calling it Australia, I read some thirty books about 

 that country ; but yours was infinitely the best. . . . Your 

 vivid scenes took hold of me ; and your colours are the charm of 

 many of my best pages .... the thunder of the cradles, the 

 bottles sown broadcast over the land, with other happy touches 

 of the sort, and one divinely felicitous phrase — ' the sentences 

 measled with oaths and indelicate expressions,' In short, I have 

 taken from you far more than I could have taken with decency 

 if our two works had not been heterogeneous." William Howitt's 

 book is by far the most interesting and brightly written account 

 of the many dealing with the early days of Victoria. 



After a voyage out of one hundred and two days they reached 

 Melbourne, purchased a cart and two horses, and started up 

 country for the Ovens diggings, experiencing to the full all the 

 difficulties of travel in a wild country, until, after an arduous 

 journey of nearly two months, they reached the field, only to find 

 some twenty thousand people already camped there. William 

 Howitt was at least as much interested in studying people and 

 nature as in digging for gold, though he and his party did their 

 full share of prospecting, moving about in the approved style 

 from place to place — from the Ovens to the Yackandandah, then 

 back again and on to the Murray at Albury, which then consisted 

 of a number of inns, a shop or two, a bakehouse, and a few 

 wooden huts. After a time they returned to Melbourne, where 

 " Canvas Town " had sprung into existence since they had left. 

 In 1854, after several .months further wandering and visits to 

 Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, William Howitt, with his son 

 Charleton, returned to England, leaving Alfred, then twenty-four 

 years of age, in Melbourne. By this time the latter was not only 

 an accomplished bushman, but, endowed naturally with keen 

 powers of observation, he had begun to study nature as no 

 ordinary bushman does. For some time he remained near 

 Melbourne, farming on land near Caulfield that belonged to his 

 uncle, Dr. Godfrey Howitt, who then lived at a house which still 

 stands — a relic of those old days when Melbourne was a mere 

 township — at the far eastern end of Flinders-lane. Here also 

 the Doctor was forming his well-known entomological collection, 

 which subsequently he left to the University, for the Doctor's 

 instincts were scientific, just as were those of his nephew. And 

 here also the latter must have often met all who were interested 

 in natural history in those early days. The humdrum life of a 

 farmer was not, however, likely to be congenial to Alfred Howitt, 

 and, accordingly, he turned to the more exciting and varied work 

 of cattle-droving, bringing down mobs of cattle from the Murray 

 to Melbourne. Curiously enough, it was on one of these 

 occasions that he chanced to meet Lorimer Fison, who was also 

 working up country. They met and parted, little thinking that 



