CHAPTER IV 
Lbttbr TV. Hamblbton.— Back to Townaville— ^^airns— Go-«head Jolm 
Chinaman — A smash-up— Hambleton sugar plantation — A corroboree. 
Lbttbr V. Myola.— Travelling on a cowcatcher--Caudle lectures. 
Hamblbton. 
The day before I left Goondi, I spent hours in 
hunting butterflies, which are found there in wonderful 
variety ; some of the moths are most beautiful, one 
that I caught I have since heard is a new variety ; it is 
over six inches across : the upper gray wings are finely 
marked with threads of white, and the head is of a 
paler shade, the under wings have one large, bright, 
rose-coloured, irregular spot on them. But hunting 
butterflies in this steaming heat is not pleasure, and 
enthusiasm is apt to lead one sometimes into un- 
comfortably near quarters with snakes, as I found to 
my cost. 
From the Johnstone I had to go back to Townsville, 
where it was intensely hot and parched. We left it in 
one of the large steamers, and it lay all in a golden 
haze as the sun was setting. Distance lent enchant- 
ment to the view ; the shore, all dotted with houses in 
the foreground, grew fainter and fainter, leaving at 
last only the outline of Castle Hill, and away in the far 
distance the purple ranges which form the usual back- 
ground to Queensland coast scenery. 
At Cairns the steamer came close to the shore, and 
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