The Great Barrier Reef, 309 



is monotonous. One of these gentlemen, who has made his 

 fortune in Queensland, goes so far as to say that if we have 

 come hither for romantic scenery, we have come to the 

 wrong shop. That is how he puts it. But his attempt to 

 prejudice the strangers fails, for they had already discovered 

 that he had not a soul above hides and tallow. His com- 

 panion, living up to his privileges as a son-in-law, told him 

 he was a noodle, and told us that if we had an eye for the 

 beautiful, Queensland would amply gratify it. They have 

 both dwelt long in the land ; which are we to believe ? The 

 information vouchsafed touching the first glimpse of the 

 mainland was undeniably true. When the almost impalpa- 

 ble cloud on the horizon became a distinct " loom of the 

 land," and Australia was visibly though indistinctly before 

 us, there stole over the mind a general impression of sterility 

 and monotony. Then the man of hides and tallow was, 

 after all, in the right ! 



But, patience. By-and-by the indistinct line of hills 

 becomes a succession of billows of upheaved land, rising 

 sometimes into sharp peaks. Closer in you may notice that 

 there are trees, but trees struggling as if for bare life. At 

 last, the sober grey prospect develops into an expanse of 

 woodland that is just a little monotonous, This is our 

 first acquaintance with the famous gum-trees of Australia. 

 It is autumn, but autumn without the radiant reds, umbers, 

 yellows, and browns that glorify decay in the English copse. 

 So that things are not so bad as they seem. We must make 

 allowance for the time of the year, though St. Patrick's Day, 

 to be sure, is a strange period of the year to offer an apology 

 on the score of autumnal advancef The country, too, as 

 we learn later, has been suffering from one of the too often 

 recurring droughts. 



A nearer acquaintance teaches us how unjust it is to rush 



