52 HERBERTON chap. 
death by a snake. We all rushed frantically off with 
candles alight to the edge of the jungle ; but the 
creature had gone off out of sight with its prey. 
A cow in the grounds here has now and then given 
us a little excitement in the shape of a run ; I am not 
the only one she has " bailed up/' and one old lady one 
day took refuge in a barrel that fortunately was near 
at hand. But one takes these trifles as all in the day's 
fun. Everything here, for a country hotel, is most com- 
fortable ; being clean, with excellent cooking, plenty of 
milk, cream and eggs, and ice, fresh fish, and fruit every 
day. 
Hbrberton. 
Here I am, on my way to the celebrated Muldiva 
silver mines and the Chillagoe Caves, and if this 
historical document is unusually stupid, I won't take 
any responsibility for its feebleness, for my eneigies 
have been almost spent on our two days' journey to 
reach this place. To-night it is quite cold enough for 
a fire, although the heat in the middle of the day was 
almost unbearable. The noise and bustle in the street 
give one the idea of quite a large town ; but it is only 
a small straggling mining village among hills, not un- 
like the township at Mount Morgan. At present it 
has a dry and barren look, and we are back among the 
gum-trees again ; poor stunted-looking ones, however, 
with a painfully gray, monotonous appearance. 
I left Myola yesterday, at two o'clock, to catch the 
coach to this place ; the country that we drove through 
for many miles was beautiful. We passed over the Cairns 
range and through tropical scrub, with here and there 
glimpses of the sea shining below us, and, in the far 
distance, the dim, blue mountains ; but once over the 
coastal ranges, a feature of these northern latitudes, 
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