were mirrors all
round excepting where the furniture stood. In the quadrangle, just below
my balcony, a band played continuously.

'Frisco was _en-fete_. Arches were erected in Market Street, and bunting
was flying everywhere. I spent a week in the city, having for a
companion a young doctor, for whom I had brought a parcel from his
parents in England. He obtained a _locum tenens_, and gave up the time
to pilot me round. We visited every point of interest, including the
Chinese gambling dens, in and around 'Frisco, which has a very
interesting history dating from the time of the Spanish missions.

On the trip across the Pacific we had a nice complement of passengers. A
day at Honolulu was spent enjoying the beauty spots. We tried to call on
the "King," but as he was enjoying a carousal, he could not receive us.
We called at Apia, in the Samoan Islands, and when crossing to New
Zealand, we noticed that the sea was covered by what appeared to be
pumice stone. On our arrival at Auckland we heard of the eruption of
Mount Tarawera. Mr. Rutherford, a gentleman well-known throughout N.S.W.
and West Queensland, the principal of Cobb and Co. in Australia, was a
passenger with his daughter from 'Frisco. I accompanied them during the
three days the boat remained in Auckland. Shortly after our arrival at
the Star Hotel, Mr. Rutherford, who had picked up a "Queenslander," said
to me, "Who is driving the coach from Muttaburra to Winton?" I said,
"Macpherson." "Well," he said, "he won't drive it long when I get back."
"Why?" I asked. "Well, here is a paragraph in this paper, which says he
capsized the coach in Elderslie Street, opposite your office."

We duly reached Sydney in August, 1886, and after spending a week there,
I sailed for Rockhampton, and proceeded to Peak Downs Station, which my
brother-in-law, Edmund Casey, was then managing for the Messrs.
Fairbairn. I found he had broken in to harness for me two Arab ponies
which would trot their 12 miles an hour. I trucked these and a buggy I
had purchased in Sydney to Alpha, the then terminus of the Central
railway line, where my other horses--brought from Winton--met me. Good
rains had fallen in July, thus breaking up the long drought which had
commenced three years before. I had plenty of grass and water all the
way to Winton. I camped a night at Mount Cornish, and met Mr. and Mrs.
Edkins for the first time for 20 years, having last met them on the
Flinders River when they were