population had increased to some two thousand men during my absence:
two thousand men working and living in order and peace, with no police or
officials of any kind within two hundred miles--a state of affairs of
which we may justly be proud.

Evil-doing, however, was not entirely absent, and occasional cases of
robbery of gold, or pilfering of tents occurred; the offenders in such
cases were usually caught and summarily dealt with.

A "roll up" would be called, and those who cared to put themselves
forward, would form judge, jury, police, and all. The general verdict was
notice to quit within so many hours--an order that few would dare to
neglect. A case in which this did happen occurred at Kurnalpi when a man
was caught passing bad notes in the "Sunday School." He refused to budge,
and, seeing that he was a great giant with the reputation of being the
roughest and hardest fighter in the country, the question arose who should
"bell the cat." The man who had been swindled was a stranger, and
unwilling to fight his own battle; who, therefore, would volunteer to get
a sound hammering from one of the toughest blackguards in Australia.

The "roll up" slowly dispersed, every man muttering that it was not his
business, and that, after all, passing a "stiff 'un" on to a new chum was
no great crime as compared to stealing gold or robbing a camp. In this I
think they showed sound judgment. The prize-fighting gent, however, became
too bumptious, and was eventually hustled out of the place.

Our camp at Lake Darlot was rather pleasantly situated on rising ground by
the side of the blow; behind us, sheer cliffs of conglomerate, worn and
weathered into queer little caves, the floors of which were covered inches
deep by the droppings of bats and small wallabies; and, stretching away
to the South, an open plain enclosed in an endless sea of scrub. Every
morning we witnessed the strange phenomenon of a lake appearing in the sky
to the South, miles away, above the scrub, a lake surrounded by steep
white cliffs. This mirage would last perhaps half an hour, and was, I
suppose, a reflection of Lake Darlot, which lay at the back of us, some
five miles distant to the North.

Our camp consisted of the usual tents and bough-shades and for the first,
and probably the only, time in our lives we cooked our pots on a golden
fireplace. To protect the fire from the wind, so that a good pile of ashes
should collect for baking purposes, we had made