AUSTRALIA. 287 



" When the archangel's trump shall sound, 

 And souls and bodies join, 

 What crowds will wish their lives below 

 Had been as short as thine." 



My principal object in visiting the island was to explore the 

 shores with dragging-nets for Alga?. I proceeded round the 

 harbour, dragging with various success. We were terribly- 

 plagued with the huge floating kelp of this country, which 

 would get tangled in our hooks and hold us fast, so that we were 

 often baffled. However, I collected some good specimens. In 

 the evening we had about an hour's " sport " catching crayfish, 

 a large animal resembling a lobster, but more thorny, with 

 smaller claws, &c. We moored the boat to some of the kelp 

 near the cliff, where the water was twenty or thirty feet deep, 

 with a clear bottom. All had nets fixed to round hoops, which 

 were let down, a bait was put in each net, and the crayfish came 

 nibbling round, and when one got over the hoop into the net, 

 the rope was hauled in and the prize secured. The water was 

 so clear we could see all that was passing below. Excellent 

 eating they proved to be. I should mention that the boat's crew 

 consisted of six convicts under sentence, and that the steersman 

 and a constable in charge were armed with loaded revolvers, to 

 maintain discipline. Howbeit you would not have known this 

 without being told, as the crew were very civil and attentive, 

 assisting me in seeking for seaweeds, and anxious to procure me 

 good specimens. One of the convicts in fishing hooked a small 

 shark, which he immediately cut open, and extracted a pair of eggs 

 (mermaids' purses), which he presented to me, and which are now 

 on the way to Trinity College, Dublin, on board the Kory O'More. 

 Next day being Sunday, I went to the convict church. The dis- 

 course in the evening was on the parable of the unjust steward, 

 which I thought rather a queer subject to select for such a con- 

 gregation, where so many " artful dodgers " might, if they 

 listened at all, rather chuckle over the story than profit by it. 

 31any were very heavily ironed, an iron chain being fastened 

 round each ankle and linked to their waistband. The clanking 

 of chains, as they shifted their positions during the service, had 

 a strange effect, as it had also to hear men thus heavily ironed 

 singing "The Evening Hymn" of our Prayer Book. Yet you 



