VIII COOLER TEMPERATURE 113 
with foliage of every shade of green and russet, rose 
the highest peak, 4000 feet. This garden forms the 
foreground with a fringe of cocoa-nut palms, mango 
trees, tall hibiscus, and other flowering shrubs. It was 
like entering paradise after leaving that low-lying fever- 
stricken bit of ground on the other side of the river. 
It was so cold last night that I sat with my coat 
on ; one can hardly realise that there could be such a 
difference in the temperature between this place and 
Cooktown. We sit all day in the room in which I am 
writing, which is quite open at both ends, and through 
a trellis-work of grenadillas we look at the mountains 
beyond. To-night, as I write, we hear far away in the 
distance the peculiar cry of the natives mourning over 
one of their number who has died ; then the wild, sad 
cry of the curlew and the homely tinkling of the cow- 
bells remind us that we are still in a land of civilisation. 
This is a cattle station now, but when the plantation 
was formed they grew sugar-cane along the valley, then 
tobacco, which grows splendidly and took a first prize 
at the last Melbourne Exhibition. Rice, too, grows 
well, as also do tea, coffee, and all kinds of tropical 
fruits. 
To-night Mr. H.’s two sons brought home over a 
hundred pounds weight of fish which they had caught 
in nets at the mouth of the river — trevalli (a fish not 
unlike a cod), John Dory, mullet, fresh and salt water 
bream, flat-heads, skate, flounders, and several others. 
Bread, butter, everything they use is made on the place ; 
the only help they have is from the native girls who take 
it in turns to come up on different days. Very little 
amuses these dusky maidens and all day long they are 
laughing. I do not wonder now that the native to 
whom I gave the note to deliver refused, as his “ gin ” 
(who lives here) preferred another husband and went 
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