12 
ROCKHAMPTON 
CHAP. 
The vegetation along the roads was thoroughly tropical, 
quantities of bananas and several South Sea Island 
plants were growing wild, and a Mexican fruit called 
papaw, the milky juice of which is said to be a great 
specific for diphtheria. 
At Mackay, Mr. R. met me and drove me to “ The 
Rocks.” On both sides of the road were sugar-cane 
plantations, and I saw numbers of creeping plants in 
blossom which were quite new to me. We stopped 
half-way for tea with Mr. and Mrs. K. — such a pretty 
bungalow house theirs was — and the climbing plants 
over it, in full blossom, were a sight not easily for- 
gotten ; an old grey stump of a tree was one glorious 
mass of crimson bougainvilleas, against a background 
of forest jungle, almost as beautiful as that at Colombo. 
The house inside was so like an Indian bungalow that 
it was hard to realise that it was not one. It was 
half- past five before we reached our destination, and 
until we were actually in through the garden gate, I 
did not know what a view awaited me. At the foot 
of a hill on which the house stands runs the winding 
river, the Pioneer. It eddies round great rocks (from 
which the house takes its name) and small islands, just 
now splendid with the crimson flowers of the bottle 
brush ; — then it tosses and tumbles away into the 
distance over the stones, with a fall here, another there, 
and again plunges or glides into deep pools, the homes 
of alligators, which occasionally come out to bask upon 
its sandy banks. On the opposite shore there is a 
wonderfully varied bit of jungle, and far away in the 
distance are ranges of blue mountains. 
The wide verandah is furnished with easy -chairs, 
comfortable lounges, cushions, books, tables, and nick- 
nacks ; everything is left there at night, and the doors 
and windows are never shut. There is a great chattering 
