VI 
HEAT 
67 
every room overflowed, and rest was impossible. They 
gave me my tea in my bedroom and I spent the rest 
of the evening in the manager’s tent, then back to the 
hotel, and at seven the next morning mounted on the 
box seat of the coach, on the return journey to 
Herberton. The five horses started off with a gallop, 
breaking the drive once only at a small wayside hotel, 
where I stayed the night Oh dear ! how hot it was ! 
There was no putting it on one side, and animal life 
in every shape abounded. Mosquitoes, revelling in 
fresh society, completely took possession of me on this 
occasion, out-manceuvred me, for I had brought no net 
with me, and got up next morning a sorry -looking 
object. The iron sides and roof of the room I was 
in were literally scorching ; so hot that I pressed a 
piece of paper against the wall and in a second it 
turned brown, but unlike most of the places I have 
come across, it was clean, and the sheets of my bed, 
though they were of the coarsest description of un- 
bleached and unwashed calico, looked at any rate as 
if they had not been slept in more than half a dozen 
times before. 
Next day we made another early start, and by half- 
past five we were many miles on our road ; it was not 
quite so hot at first as on the day before, and the 
way did not in consequence seem so long, but towards 
Herberton the heat became excessive and, as a climax, 
at our last stopping and changing place the new team 
of horses smashed the pole. It was a consolation to 
find that other passengers besides myself were nervous, 
and several times they insisted on getting off the 
coach. Jack, our driver, had drawn the winner in the 
Melbourne Cup sweepstake, and all along the road he 
was greeted with congratulations and offers to “ shout,” 
— a most universal custom in this thirsty country. 
