50 THE AUSTRALIAN COAST. 



CHAPTER III. 



8ombre appearance of the Australian coast — Feelings of an 

 emigrant on approaching it — Improvement of Sydney — 

 Fruits produced in the colony — Extent of the town — Cul- 

 tivation of flowers and culinary vegetables — House-rent — 

 The streets — Parrots — Shops — Impolicy of continuing the 

 colony as a penal settlement — The theatre — Aspect of the 

 country in the vicinity of Sydney — The grass tree — Floral 

 beauties — Larva of a curious insect—The colonial mu- 

 seum — Visit to Elizabeth Bay — Valuable botanical speci- 

 mens in the garden of the Honourable Alexander Macleay 

 — New Zealand flax— Articles manufactured from that 

 vegetable — Leave Sydney — Residence of Mr. M'Arthur — 

 Forest flowers — Acacias — Paramatta — Swallows. 



As we sailed by the Australian coast, its barren 

 aspect neither cheered or invited the stranger's 

 eye ; even where vegetation grew upon its shores, 

 it displayed so sombre an appearance as to im- 

 part no animation to the scenery of the coast. 

 To an emigrant, one who has left the land of his 

 fathers, to rear his family and lay his bones in a 

 distant soil, the first view of this, his adopted 



