SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE. 155 



But are there no drawbacks to all this happy state of things ? Well, yes ; about the 

 worst is a hot blast which sometimes blows from the interior, known popularly in Sydney 

 as a " brick-fieider " or " southerly buster." It is much like that already described, 

 and neither the most closely-fastened doors nor windows will keep out the fearful dust- 

 storm. " Its effect/' says Professor Hughes, " is particularly destructive of every sense of 

 comfort; the dried and dust-besprinkled skin acquiring for the time some resemblance to 

 parchment, and the hair feeling more like hay than any softer material." 



Should Jack or his superior officers land during the heat of autumn, he may have 

 the opportunity of passing a novel Christmas very completely un-English. The gayest 

 and brightest flowers will be in bloom, and the musquitoes out in full force. " Sitting/' 

 says a writer, " in a thorough draught, clad in a holland blouse, you may see men and 

 boys dragging from the neighbouring bush piles of green stuff (oak -branches in full leaf 

 and acorn, and a handsome shrub with a pink flower and pale green leaf the " Christmas" 

 of Australia, for the decoration of churches and dwellings, and stopping every fifty yards 

 to wipe their perspiring brows." 



Before leaving Sydney, the grand park, called "The Domain," which stretches down to 

 the blue water in the picturesque indentations around Port Jackson, must be mentioned. 

 It contains several hundred acres, tastefully laid out in drives, and with public walks cut 

 through the indigenous or planted shrubberies, and amidst the richest woodland scenery, 

 or winding at the edge of the rocky bluffs or by the margin of the glittering waters. 

 Adjoining this lovely spot is one of the finest botanic gardens in the world, considered 

 by all Sydney to be a veritable Eden. 



Port Phillip, like Port Jackson, is entered by a narrow passage, and immediately inside 

 is a magnificent basin, thirty miles across in almost any direction. It is so securely 

 sheltered that it affords an admirable anchorage for shipping. Otherwise, Melbourne, 

 now a grand city with a population of about 300,000, would have had little chance of 

 attaining its great commercial superiority over any city of Australia. Melbourne is 

 situated about eight miles up the Yarra-Yarra (" flowing-flowing ") river, which flows into 

 the head of Port Phillip. That poetically-named, but really lazy, muddy stream is only 

 navigable for vessels of very small draught. But Melbourne has a fine country to back 

 it. Many of the old and rich mining-districts were round Port Phillip, or on and about 

 streams flowing into it. Wheat, maize, potatoes, vegetables and fruits in general, are 

 greatly cultivated; and the colony of Victoria is pre-eminent for sheep-farming and cattle- 

 runs, and the industries connected with wool, hides, tallow, and, of late, meat, which they 

 bring forth. Melbourne itself lies rather low, and its original site, now entirely filled in, 

 was swampy. Hence came occasional epidemics dysentery, influenza, and so forth. 



