CHAPTER VIII 
Letter IX. Cairns. — Painting. 
Letter X. Cooktown. — Port Douglas— Cooktown— The sympathetic 
black maid — A good man’s grave — The German missionary’s appeal — 
Native habits. 
Letter XI. Bloomfield River.— O n H.M.S. Lizard— Rough quarters 
— -A perilous situation — Alligators — Rescued — Borrowed majesty — 
Fishing — At Wyalla Station — Throwing the boomerang — Gladiators — 
Religious customs — Various fungi. 
Cairns. 
I RESTED up at Myola for ten days, and on the 
eleventh morning I wished it all good-bye, staying one 
day more here in Cairns, where I have been spending 
my time among birds, butterflies, lizards, young alli- 
gators, and other reptiles at a naturalist’s establishment, 
and where I painted a small, very lively black snake, 
with the figure 2 in white most perfectly shaped on the 
middle of its head. On the return journey I called to 
inquire after its welfare, and found it in spirits ! it having 
the day before bitten the proprietor. To-night I catch 
the steamer up to Cooktown. 
Cooktown. 
After leaving Cairns our next stopping place was Port 
Douglas, a small town built on a narrow promontory of 
land. The only feature of this deserted and grass- 
grown little town is the long stretch of beach which 
curves away for many a mile and forms the racecourse 
H 
