120 TASMANIA AND THE ANTAKCTIC 



And Lieutenant Dayman, who remained here to mamge 

 the magnetic observatory, writes Hooker at Sydney a good 

 deal of chaff about their shipmates, who had had the field to 

 themselves before H.M.S. Favourite arrived : ' The Favourites 

 say, if they speak to a girl, they are told she is engaged to one 

 of the " diskivery officers." But he has no shaft to let fly 

 at his friend ; he cannot recall any ' particular admiration ' 

 of his to give news of ; * I suppose you are something like 

 myself, a general admirer of the fair sex.' 



From Tasmania a short visit was paid to Sydney in connection 

 with the magnetic observatory, lasting from July 7 to August 5, 

 1841. Sydney in those days, only one year since the importa- 

 tion of convicts had ceased, could boast no shops finer than 

 the Hobart Town ones ; round the beautiful harbour stood 

 a few fine houses, in particular the new Government House, 

 still uninhabited, built in the Elizabethan style, the new 

 Custom House and Mr. McLeay's house with its garden full of 

 interesting plants. 



The town itself lay in a hollow ; its long streets ending at 

 The Cove in dirty wharves where Hooker was nearly drowned 

 in the pitchy darkness one night. It showed some fine buildings 

 of a reddish sandstone ; but more were dirty and insignificant, 

 public-houses predominating. George Street was disfigured 

 by the dead wall round the large, barracks ; the architecture 

 of the churches displayed a sad lack of taste. The streets were 

 lighted by gas and patrolled by abundance of constables 

 at night to keep the peace ; but though broad they were ill 

 paved and muddy in the rain. Between the actual town and 

 a wildness as of the far west there were hardly any houses ; 

 not even a public-house, such as abounded within ; it was a 

 city without suburbs. A few gentlemen's houses were scattered 

 up and down the bay, but no snug cottagers' or farmers' 

 dwellings were to be seen, nor smiling cornfields. An ill- 

 kept Irish hovel on the north shore had no parallel in 

 Tasmania. 



Colonial unconventionality is measured by the use of 

 tobacco : ' smoking along the street seems very much practised, 

 to such an extent that notices are often to be seen prohibiting 



