burn in the unaccustomed pocket; the excited recipient resorts to high
revels and all sorts of excesses, be he never so quiet and reasonable
under ordinary circumstances. At one time skilled labor in Melbourne
commanded the extraordinary wages of ten dollars per day, and mechanics
thought the millennium had come; they had not the wit to see that such
extremes produce in the end a sure and severe reaction, but experience
taught them that lesson by and by. "The greatest flood has the soonest
ebb." The lavish earnings of the masses, whether at the gold-fields or
at the bench, were soon engulfed in the beer-barrel and the wine-cask;
the bar-rooms were the only places where uninterrupted industry was
exhibited, and where unremitting application to a given object was
conspicuous. "Our streets," said a citizen of Melbourne to us, "in the
early days of the gold-rush swarmed with drunken revellers; nor could we
see any ready way out of the trouble which afflicted the community.
Finally, however, the diggings ceased to yield so lavishly; the surface
ore was exhausted, and to get gold out of the earth a man was compelled
to work hard for it. The great novelty also began to wear away, and
those who were making money less easily, very naturally were disposed to
spend it less foolishly." The exaggerated rates of wages were
consequently reduced, inflated prices for all articles of consumption
fell gradually to a reasonable figure, and affairs generally returned to
their normal condition. Precisely the same experience was realized in
the early days of the gold discovery in California.

Personal beauty is not the prevailing characteristic of the female
portion of the community of Melbourne any more than it is at Sydney; and
shall we be forgiven for saying that in our opinion the ladies do not
dress in very good taste? Young and middle-aged women generally cut
their hair short; but why such a fashion should prevail among them we
could not conjecture, the boyish aspect thus produced being anything but
becoming. The bar-rooms are very generally tended here, as they are also
in England, by women; and the bar-maids universally cut their hair
short, in boy-fashion. One would think that this fact alone would be
sufficient to induce ladies of respectability to avoid such an extreme
and questionable custom.

The wide sidewalks are here covered with stationary verandas, as noticed
in most of the colonial cities and towns. These coverings are som