SEAFOWL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 73 



" miner/' one martin, and one bird similar to our titlark. 

 Standring one magpie, four parrots, and one titlark. We found 

 rooms at an hotel, and the next morning returned by the 

 " Express " to Melbourne. 



On the 2nd of November following, I and a couple of friends 

 took a cab from our lodgings to the station. The cabs in Mel- 

 bourne were queer two-wheeled concerns. They were open 

 vehicles, and the passengers sit back to back over the axle. There 

 is a framework of hoops, which in wet weather is covered and 

 closed in by waterproof canvas. The charge was only 3d. per 

 mile, but then the cabman could pick up passengers who might 

 be going the same way as yourself. At the station 1 was joined 

 by a young man from Oldham, as per previous arrangement. 

 We took railway tickets to Sandhurst (Bendigo), a distance of 

 100 miles. 



There was nothing much to see on the way except a very 

 large flock of sheep. The country was bare and flat, and very 

 uninteresting. There are, however, a few mountains covered 

 with trees. We saw no game. The name of one of the stations, 

 " Duck Ponds," was very suggestive, but no ducks did we see. 



We were from three o'clock until eight in doing the journey. 

 Arrived, we took a cab to the Noah's Ark dining-rooms, where 

 we stayed the night. Next morning, at 7 30, we got up, and after 

 a good breakfast went for a walk in the reserve or park, where 

 we looked around us, but there was very little to see a very 

 muddy creek, plentifully bordered by weeping willows, being 

 the main feature of the place. We ascertained that the coach 

 for Tyler's Flat Diggings, on the Berlin Rush, did not start until 

 the following morning. The streets, cabs, &c., were same as 

 those of Melbourne. The kerb " stones," I noticed, were of 

 wood. I may observe there was no ~oal burned in Sandhurst. 



At half-past eleven the following morning we left by 

 " Cobb's " coach for a 4o-mile ride through the bush. The coach 

 had leather springs and no glass in the windows. It was drawn 

 by two horses. I rode part of the way inside and part outside, 

 but either place the mosquitoes were equally troublesome. One 

 of the passengers was a Chinaman, of whom there are great 

 numbers in the Australian colonies. The " road " was all 

 through trees or bush. In fact, we could see nothing but trees 

 with one small opening in front, where the road disappeared on 

 the horizon. Slight showers of rain fell at intervals, and fre- 

 quently we had to drive amongst the trees, the high road being 

 in such a bad state It was, of course, nothing but a track made 

 by levelling the bush. Twice we changed horses. At the first 

 stage I went a little way in the bush, and having put my gun 

 together, I tried to stalk a bird. As it kept just out of range, I 

 tried a bullet at it, but, as usual, with such a missile, managed 



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