AUSTEALIA. 



ITS CLIMATE. DISEASES, PEOPLE, NATIVES, SYDNEY, HOS- 

 PITALS, MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



The voyage from Auckland to Sydney takes four 

 days. The first two days we encountered a strong 

 northwesterly gale which, on shifting to southwest, 

 brought with it the cold breath of the south polar re- 

 gion. Sailing in a southwestern direction the cold 

 gradually increased until we entered the magnificent 

 harbor of Sydney, Saturday evening, July 30. It was 

 soon after leaving Auckland that it became apparent 

 that we were in the vicinity of an entirely new world, 

 with strange animals, trees, plants and flowers, by the 

 appearance of a rare and strange bird — the albatross. 

 About half a dozen of these giant sea-gulls accompanied 

 us from coast to coast, but carefully avoided the har- 

 bors. It is a magnificent bird with snow-white body, 

 yellow straight bill, the upper part of which at its 

 distal end is bulbous and its tip sharply curved down- 

 ward, overlapping the lower; the enormous wings, 

 measuring from tip to tip from eight to twelve feet, 

 are white underneath, and the upper surface brown with 

 the exception of its inner fourth, which is also white. 

 These birds live on waste material which is thrown 

 overboard by the passing vessels. They fly with and 

 against the wind nearly with the same velocity and 

 with very little effort on their part, three or four strokes 

 of their immense wings sufficing to start their graceful 

 sailing movements, and by poising their body and wings 

 in proper attitude they ascend, descend and make all 

 kinds of curves and circles with little if any effort until 

 a few active movements of the wings again become nec- 

 essary to keep up the necessary momentum. They are 

 very fast flyers, and multiply many times the distance 



