I 
COMFORTLESS QUARTERS 
7 
with tobacco and cigars, how the mermaid was “ built 
up ” out of the monkey and fish’s tail, and how the 
Chinaman whom they wanted to prepare as a New 
Guinea mummy wouldn’t die, and eventually “ spited ” 
them by getting well. With their voices still jingling 
in my ears I fell asleep, and did not awake until I 
heard the engines stop, the shrill whistle ring out, and 
the rattling of the anchor going down at three next 
morning. Then we were unceremoniously bundled 
out of our berths, and had to sit waiting for two 
hours more in the stuffy, dimly-lighted saloon for the 
tender which was to take us up to the town. We 
were a draggled and limp-looking set of beings when 
she finally started. I rolled myself into a berth and 
tried to get some more sleep, but some one in the 
berth below me snored so lustily that this was im- 
possible, and something running over my face brought 
visions of cockroaches, which grow to an alarming size 
along this coast, so, wrapping round me my sealskin 
cloak, which I was most thankful you insisted on my 
bringing, I went on deck, where they gave us coffee 
while we sat and watched the cold grey dawn of the 
morning break as we steamed up the bends of the 
flat, uninteresting river. 
We passed the central works of the Queensland 
Preserving and Refrigerating Company, and saw droves 
of cattle on their way, and I was not sorry when we 
came to the end of our thirty-five mile journey. We 
reached Rockhampton at nine, — a two minutes’ drive 
to the Criterion Hotel, breakfast, with plenty of good, 
unwatered milk, a bath, and all our morning’s dis- 
comforts were forgotten. Here, to my astonishment, 
I met Mr. A. in the breakfast-room, and, later on, several 
other friends, so we hired a trap and did the lions of 
the town together. 
