Mr. Gillies was waiting for us at the station, with Chief
Justice Way. We were conducted to a superlative carriage
lined with blue satin, with softest sofas, cushions, armchairs,
tables to be raised or let down at pleasure. A butler was in
attendance in a separate compartment, with provision-baskets,
wine, fruit, iced water, and all other luxuries and conveni-
ences. Thus accommodated we shot out of Melbourne, and for
the first fifty miles were carried along the shores of the great
inlet of Port Philip. The soil was bare and little cultivated
--generally unoccupied and uninteresting. I was struck in-
deed with the extent and solidity of the enclosures--strong
railings of eucalyptus wood--but there was little apparently
to enclose except a few cattle. All was changed as we entered
the hills. Here the land had once been densely wooded. The
trees in many places had been cleared off. Along with the
railings we found thick-set hedges of thorn and gorse; we
passed pretty farmhouses with solid outbuildings, cornfields
and potato-fields, cottages with their plots of vegetable
grounds, park-like pastures, cows and sheep abundantly scat-
tered over them, signs everywhere of vigorous and successful
industry. At intervals the 'bush' remained untouched, but
the universal eucalyptus, which I had expected to find grey
and monotonous, was a Proteus in shape and colour, now
branching like an oak or a cork tree, now feathered like a
gogo birch, or glowing like an arbutus, with an endless variety of
hue--green, orange, and brown. The ground where it had
been turned by the plough was dark and rich. It was harvest
time. The corn-shocks were standing English fashion, red
and yellow, out of the stubble, or were being carted away and
raised into stacks. On the low meadows there was hay. The
dark-leaved potatoes, untouched by blight, were in full blos-
som. It seemed incredible that I was in a new country; that
within half my own life, all this had been a wilderness. Every
moment I thought of Midas--Midas reversed--not wholesome

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