represent several high
waterfalls pouring volumes of water over dark and perpendicular
basaltic rocks. One of the falls is said to be 300 feet high, and
there are several cascades with a fall of between 100 and 250 feet.
The light breeze from the S.E. carried us on famously. We soon saw the
Seymour Range; a little later we found ourselves off the mouth of the
Mulgrave River, and by midnight had passed through the narrow channel
which divides the Falkland Islands from the mainland at Cape Grafton.
We ladies retired early to bed, and even the children acknowledged to
being tired; but the gentlemen played whist on deck till a much later
hour. The nights are perfect now. The breeze is rather fresh by day
when not under the shelter of a protecting coast; but one must
remember that if the wind be fresh it is wafting us speedily on our
way, and we must not grumble, for we have turned the corner and are
now homeward-bound.

About three o'clock this morning we met a steamer going down the
coast, and, with the usual fatuity of steamships, she would not make
up her mind which way to go until she was close to us, and then ran
right across our bows. It is most extraordinary why steamships will
not get out of the way of sailing-ships at night. The matter is
entirely in their own hands, for the sailing-ship is comparatively
helpless. It is quite impossible for the officer on watch to tell at
what rate the approaching vessel is moving, and the steamer ought to
alter her helm the very instant a sailing-ship is perceived. Our pace
is rather rapid, particularly in light winds, and it is probable that
the steamer misjudged her distance from us. The more voyages I make
the more I feel that the melancholy little paragraphs one only too
often sees, headed 'Lost with all hands,' or 'Missing,' are nearly
always the result of accidents caused by a bad look-out and careless
steering. I often tell Tom it is his duty to report those cases which
come to his own knowledge. The instances have been numerous on this
voyage alone; but he is too kind-hearted to like to complain, which I
consider a mistaken view of humanitarianism.

_Sunday, August 14th._--I did not wake till late, and then found we
had just passed Cairns Harbour, which is said to be a wonderfully
rising place. The soil is good and suitable for sugar, and a railway
is being rapidly constructed which will open up the interior of this
part of Northern Queensland. The scenery is lovely, es