Report of a Journey Around the World. 185 



later experienced during our short stay, amounting at times to 

 2S feet . Dismally deserted was the wharf and neither man nor heast 

 nor cart welcomed the passengers on their landing, although we 

 had an important government official in our company from whom 

 we learned interesting particulars of the pearl-shell fisheries in this 

 neighborhood. A few of the empty cars of the Northern Province 

 Railway were dead and scattered on the tracks which extended 

 along the wharves and on the arm which at right angles connects 

 them with the shore. The mails in half a carload of baskets de- 

 layed our departure until 10 a.m. From Mr. Wilson, who made 

 more extensive exploration than my lameness permitted, I learned 

 that there were stores well stocked, also three cows, one belonging 

 to the Administrator-General (this province belongs to the Com- 

 monwealth of Australia and has not the same autonomy as the older 

 States), and two others to the hotel where Mr. Wilson enjoyed a 

 glass of fresh milk after a long diet on the product of buffalo, goat 

 and can. Flowers in the gardens looked well after the night's rain. 

 Bougainvilleas \ Alauiandas, Plumicrias, Ouiscalus, Cassia fistula. 

 etc., were abundant, and the absence of palms was refreshing. 

 It is said to rain here during three mouths 30+ inches while the 

 rest of the year is dry. The Government buildings were rather 

 crowded in a row — low, stone buildings without architectural orna- 

 ment. A small church without steeple or apparent belfry nestled 

 close to the squat dwellings of the Chinese, who were celebrating 

 the anniversary of the declaration of independence of Manchu rule. 

 Many small fishing junks and smaller sampans dotted the coves, 

 and as the tide went out it left many of these stranded. I looked 

 in vain for a vehicle in which to ride about the little town, and 

 there was no evidence of a desire to entertain visitors or profit by 

 their presence. Water is good although not abundant, and the 

 Montoro filled her tanks with what was a great improvement on 

 the rusty compound we had been drinking. Pipes were conveni- 

 ently laid on the wharf, and I noticed an American aerotnotor 

 supplying an elevated tank, supposedly from a rainwater cistern in 

 the ground not far from the Government buildings. A few of the 

 aborigines were around, one gin with apparent Leprosy; but the 

 museum had been dismantled and the contents sent elsewhere; most 

 of these, however, were ores and few, if any, native manufactures. 

 Altogether Port Darwin seemed a healthful if not a desirable place 



[3331 



