ur time--not having the fear of the Ancient Mariner
before our eyes--in shooting albatrosses, Cape pigeons, and the like; in
picking up a porpoise, a bonnitta, or a dolphin. Books, backgammon, and
whist, filled up the measure of the day. _Mem_.--had we been favoured with
less wind, we should have got more porpoises. We speared
many--_first-raters_; but the speed at which we cut along, prevented our
securing them.

But we have cast anchor. The harbour of Hobson's Bay is a splendid inlet
of the sea. The bay is very narrow at the entrance, but the moment you get
past the Heads, it extends to a breadth of eight or ten miles, and to a
length of twenty-two miles, from the mouth to the anchoring place. The
land around the bay is flat and sandy, and covered with wood almost to the
water's edge. The tree there resembles our common mountain fir: it is
exactly like it in the bark; but it is called by the settlers, _the
she-oak_. I reckon it to be the beef-tree, for it has its appearance when
cut up, is hard, and takes a beautiful polish. Inland, this wood grows to
a considerable height and thickness; but the principal part of the
interior is thickly covered with the various species of the gum and
peppermint trees, many of them of a singularly large growth: but more of
the interior anon. Immediately opposite to the anchorage ground, there is
a pretty little town called _Williamstown_, in which the water-police
magistrate, an old seafaring gentleman, Captain ----, has his residence.
The gallant captain has enough to do with the jolly tars, who invariably
attempt to cut and run as soon as they have got here. A sailor
misconducting himself on the voyage, has at least two months' reflection
in the jail of Williamstown, commencing immediately upon his arrival. The
news of this prison establishment will probably reach England before my
letter. Should it be spoken of in your presence, say that it has been
found absolutely necessary for the protection of shipmasters, and that an
act was passed accordingly for its erection. _Gordon law_, so called after
the first magistrate, is proverbial, and very summary. Every fellow found
drunk gets two hours in the stocks, and he becomes sober there much sooner
than if he had been simply fined five shillings.

The town of Melbourne is beautifully situated on the face of a hill, in
the hollow of which runs the noble river called the _Yarra-Yarra_, words
which signify in the native language, _"flowing co