oped down upon him, and
pecked out his eyes and brains. The sailors begged the captain to
shoot him and so end his sufferings. The quills of the albatross
make excellent pipe stems, and the skin of the webbed feet is used
for tobacco pouches. But the chief thing about the bird is, of
course, the snowy down on the breast, of which ladies' muffs are
made. The Zoological Society in Regent's Park offer a reward of L100
for a live albatross or black cockatoo, but it has never been
earned, though the attempt to carry them to England has often been
made, for the albatross cannot live through the tropics.

During the last fortnight of the voyage the weather became very
cold for the latitude we were in. The point reached furthest
south was 42 deg. 42' which is about the same as the north of Spain,
but the thermometer was 49 degrees all day. It is, however, well
known that for various reasons the same latitude is much colder
south of the equator. On the night of Monday, the 2nd of March, a
beautiful lunar rainbow, extending right across the sky, was
seen. This is not a common sight. By this time the benefits of
the voyage were visible in the faces of all the passengers. If it
had not been for some shortcomings in the provisions there would
have been no drawback. Cape Otway was sighted on the morning of
Saturday, the 7th March. At 4-30 p.m. we were off Port Philip
Roads, and here the pilot came on board. He brought papers, and
the first news we read was that of subscriptions for a statue to
General Gordon, of whose death we were thus informed; the second
news was the despatch of troops from Sydney to the Soudan, of
which everybody was then talking. At 10-30 p.m. the Hampshire was
anchored off Williamstown, but could not come alongside Sandridge
Pier, till Monday morning. It was rather hard getting up on a
Saturday night, as all were anxious to see their letters. Many of
us went to Melbourne on the Sunday, but in most cases returned to
the ship to sleep, as the luggage could not be landed till
Monday. On that day a general dispersion took place, and many who
will probably never see each other again will have their voyage
on the Hampshire to look back upon with pleasure.

II.

Melbourne.

When I arrived in Melbourne early in March, everybody was
enthusiastic in praise of the New South Wales Government, who had
just despatched their contingent to the Soudan. Gradually this
feeling subsided, and it was afterwards said t