10 
ROCKHAMPTON 
CHAP. 
nothing at all, and so they go on in a delightful state 
of uncertainty as to what is coming next. 
Twelve hundred men are employed in the mine, and 
it costs from £8000 to £10,000 a month to work the 
whole concern, but even with this large amount for 
expenses the mine has, in seven years or less, paid two 
and a half million pounds in dividends. 
We left early next morning again and reached Rock- 
hampton in time for lunch. I drove to the Botanical 
Gardens on the Murray Lagoon in the afternoon, to see 
the native lilies there in full blossom, blue, white, yellow, 
and pink, the latter a lotus : some of them being as 
large as a cheese-plate. Numbers of big dragonflies 
were skimming over the surface of the water, and several 
small birds near us were turning over the lily-leaves 
hunting for insects. Two large grey cranes peered at us 
through the rushes, and there were dozens of wild ducks 
looking quite at home and secure in the knowledge that 
here they are not allowed to be shot. We finished up 
our day in a garden on the other side of the river, 
almost entirely filled with native plants, and had our 
afternoon tea under the shade of a jujuba tree with the 
golden yellow fruit hanging in bunches everywhere, and 
we came home laden with enough new flowers to keep 
me contented for a week. 
The Criterion is a capital hotel, prettily situated 
on the bank of the Fitzroy River, and I was most com- 
fortable there. Mrs. Eaton, the hostess, was kindness 
itself and couldn’t do enough for us, and the ever-smiling 
Bridget was ready to wait upon me day and night. 
She even went so far as to cut the stems of my flowers 
each day to keep them fresher, a piece of thoughtful 
devotion I did not forget. “You’re never idle, mum,” 
and “You’ll wear yourself out entoirely,” she was always 
saying, but I felt fresh again, and ready for anything, 
