120 TASMANIA AND THE ANTAECTIC 
And Lieutenant Dayman, who remained here to mamge 
the magnetic observatory, writes Hooker at Sydney a good 
deal of chaff about their shipmates, who had had the field to 
themselves before H.M.S. Favourite arrived : ' The Favom'ites 
say, if they speak to a girl, they are told she is engaged to one 
of the " diskivery officers." ' But he has no shaft to let fly 
at his friend ; he cannot recall any ' particular admiration ' 
of his to give news of ; 'I suppose you are something like 
myself, a general admirer of the fair sex.' 
From Tasmania a short visit was paid to Sydney in connection 
with the magnetic observatory, lasting from July 7 to August 5, 
1841. Sydney in those days, only one year since the importa- 
tion of convicts had ceased, could boast no shops finer than 
the Hobart Town ones ; round the beautiful harbour stood 
a few fine houses, in particular the new Government House, 
still uninhabited, built in the Elizabethan style, the new 
Custom House and Mr. McLeay's house with its garden full of 
interesting plants. 
The town itself lay in a hollow ; its long streets ending at 
The Cove in dirty wharves where Hooker was nearly drowned 
in the pitchy darkness one night. It showed some fine buildings 
of a reddish sandstone ; but more were dirty and insignificant, 
public-houses predominating. George Street was disfigm-ed 
by the dead wall round the large barracks ; the architecture 
of the churches displayed a sad lack of taste. The streets were 
lighted by gas and patrolled by abundance of constables 
at night to keep the peace ; but though broad they were ill 
paved and muddy in the rain. Between the actual town and 
a wildness as of the far west there were hardly any houses ; 
not even a public-house, such as abounded within ; it was a 
city without suburbs. A few gentlemen's houses were scattered 
up and down the bay, but no snug cottagers' or farmers' 
dwellings were to be seen, nor smiling cornfields. An ill- 
kept Irish hovel on the north shore had no parallel in 
Tasmania. 
Colonial unconventionality is measured by the use of 
tobacco : * smoking along the street seems very much practised, 
to such an extent that notices are often to be seen prohibiting 
