ff his clothes, all but his
flannel shirt and drawers, strapped them to the pommel of his saddle,
threw the stirrup irons over the saddle, and stopped them with a
string under the horse's belly to keep them from getting foul in the
trees and scrub. In some places the horses had to climb over logs
under water, sometimes they had to swim, but in the end they all
arrived safely at the hut. They were very cold, and ravenously
hungry; and while their clothes were drying before a blazing fire,
they drank hot tea and ate up every scrap of food, so that Scott was
obliged to accompany them to the next station for rations. He left
the gin behind, having no anxiety about her. While he was away she
could feed sumptuously on grubs, crabs, and opossums.

In March, 1852, when everybody was seized with the gold fever, Davy
took it in the natural way. He again left Port Albert without a
pilot and went to Melbourne to resign his office. But Mr. Latrobe
promised to give him a salary of 500 pounds a year and a boat's crew
of five men and a coxswain. The men were to have twelve-and-six a
day and the coxswain fifteen shillings.

By this time the gold fever had penetrated to the remotest parts of
Gippsland, and from every squatting station and every lonely hut on
the plains and mountains men gathered in troops. They were leaving
plenty of gold behind them at Walhalla and other places. The first
party Davy met had a dray and bullocks. They were slowly cutting a
road through the scrub, and their team was the first that made its
way over the mountains from Gippsland to Melbourne. Their captain
was a lady of unbounded bravery and great strength--a model
pioneeress, with a talent for governing the opposite sex.* When at
home on her station she did the work of a man and a woman too. She
was the one in a thousand so seldom found. She not only did the
cooking and housework, but she also rode after stock, drove a team,
killed fat beasts, chopped wood, stripped bark, and fenced. She did
not hanker after woman's rights, nor rail against the male sex. She
was not cultured, nor scientific, nor artistic, nor aesthetic. She
despised all the ologies. All great men respected her, and if the
little ones were insolent she boxed their ears and twisted their
necks. She conquered all the blackfellows around her land with her
own right arm. At first she had been kind to them, but they soon
became troublesome, wanted too much flour, sugar, and