AUSTRALIA. 283 



ledge of the best localities he attributed much of his success in 

 this estuary. He added to his specimens many beautiful novel- 

 ties, including " Claudea" ("the Queen of all Algse "). A 

 visit to Mr. Archer at his country seat, forty miles distant from 

 Launceston, and travelling from thence by stage-coach to 

 Hobart-town, enabled him to become acquainted with the 

 interior of the country. 



Before leaving Georgetown the sad news of several deaths 

 among his botanical friends reached him, none of which, he writes, 

 " affected me so much as that of poor Edward Forbes, which I 

 first saw in one of the Launceston papers, but have since heard 

 of from Sir William Hooker. I had a warm affection for him, 

 as well as admiration of his talents and acquirements. He will 

 be a very great loss to British natural history — a loss not likely 

 to be filled up in our time, and which has occurred just when 

 his sphere of usefulness appeared to have been greatly enlarged. 

 If men only worked for fame he has done enough for that, though 

 so young. I remember him as almost a boy. 



On the afternoon of February 25th I left Launceston by the 

 mail-coach for Hobart-town, a journey of ten hours, but which, 

 owing to the time lost on the way, took fully fifteen, as we 

 regularly pulled up at every public-house, whether the horses 

 were to be changed or not, and had a stop of about twenty 

 minutes at each. The only cessation to this drinking was in 

 the middle of the night, when the houses were shut up. 



We had a stoppage for supper at two a.m., and for coffee at 

 daylight, when I mounted the top of the coach to see the 

 country, which is well cultivated, and we rattled along a macada- 

 mized road at a spanking rate. 



On arrival at Hobart-town, having breakfasted, I visited 

 G. W. W., J. Backhouse's travelling companion, and then 

 called on the assistant-controller of convicts, for permission to 

 visit Port Arthur. Eoaming along the wharves I came to the 

 Custom House, where I stepped in to present a letter of in- 

 troduction to a Mr. W. He took it cautiously, looked at it and 

 me, and kept me standing till he had spelled out a good deal 

 of it, when he begged me to be seated and began to thaw. I 

 thought of Wilkie's picture of the " Letter of Introduction." How- 

 ever, having read the letter, Mr. W. became very civil, and our 

 interview ended in his pressing me to dine with him next day. 



