the burst of the Australian spring, which commences in our autumn
month of October. The air was loaded with the perfume of the acacias.
Amidst the glades of the open forest land, or climbing the craggy banks
of winding silvery creeks,(1) creepers and flowers of dazzling hue
contrasted the olive-green of the surrounding foliage. The exhilarating
effect of the climate in that season heightens the charm of the
strange scenery. In the brilliancy of the sky, in the lightness of the
atmosphere, the sense of life is wondrously quickened. With the very
breath the Adventurer draws in from the racy air, he feels as if
inhaling hope.

We have reached our home, we are settled in it; the early unfamiliar
impressions are worn away. We have learned to dispense with much that we
at first missed, and are reconciled to much that at first disappointed
or displeased.

The house is built but of logs; the late proprietor had commenced, upon
a rising ground, a mile distant, a more imposing edifice of stone, but
it is not half finished.

This log-house is commodious, and much has been done, within and
without, to conceal or adorn its primitive rudeness. It is of irregular,
picturesque form, with verandas round three sides of it, to which the
grape-vine has been trained, with glossy leaves that clamber up to the
gable roof. There is a large garden in front, in which many English
fruit-trees have been set, and grow fast amongst the plants of the
tropics and the orange-trees of Southern Europe. Beyond stretch undulous
pastures, studded not only with sheep, but with herds of cattle, which
my speculative predecessor had bred from parents of famous stock, and
imported from England at mighty cost; but as yet the herds had been of
little profit, and they range their luxuriant expanse of pasture with
as little heed. To the left soar up, in long range, the many-coloured
hills; to the right meanders a creek, belted by feathery trees; and
on its opposite bank a forest opens, through frequent breaks, into
park-like glades and alleys. The territory, of which I so suddenly find
myself the lord, is vast, even for a colonial capitalist.

It had been originally purchased as "a special survey," comprising
twenty thousand acres, with the privilege of pasture over forty thousand
more. In very little of this land, though it includes some of the
most fertile districts in the known world, has cultivation been even
commenced. At the time I entered into possession