ess than fifteen dollars a day, and five dollars was the price for
an hour or two.

There is a story in circulation that a gold miner was once bargaining
for a carriage for which the driver demanded twelve pounds (sixty
dollars) for a day's hire. The miner said he would not pay it: he handed
a ten-pound note to the driver, and said he must be satisfied with that.
The driver assented, and there was no further discussion on the subject.

Prices of all sorts of things throughout Melbourne are somewhat above
London figures, but they have been established a long time and nobody
complains of them.

Our friends continued their walk to the Yarra River, up whose waters
Batman and Fawkner sailed when they came here to found the city. Its
native name is Yarra-Yarra, but the double word is rarely used by the
inhabitants of Melbourne in speaking of the stream. Of itself, it is not
a river of much consequence, as originally all but very small vessels
had difficulty in ascending it. It has been dredged and deepened, so
that craft drawing not more than sixteen feet of water can ascend it to
Prince's Bridge, the spot where our friends reached the stream. Vessels
requiring more water than that must remain at Fort Melbourne, about
three miles further down. There are several other bridges crossing the
river at different points. Near Prince's Bridge our friends saw several
passenger steamers crowded with people, on their way to their homes down
the bay.

On their return towards the hotel our friends loitered among the shops,
and especially among those in what are called the Arcades, of which
there are four, modeled after the Arcades of London and the "Passages"
of Paris. They are delightful places to lounge in, whether one is in
search of purchases or not, and the three strangers were in no hurry to
get through them.

One of the arcades is known as the Book Arcade, and the shops inside of
it are almost wholly devoted to the sale of books. Harry remarked that
he judged the Melbourne people to be a reading one, otherwise there
would not be so much space devoted to the sale of books. The youths had
a brief conversation with one of the proprietors, who told them that it
was one of the largest book stores in the world, in fact, he did not
know of any other as large as that. "We can give you anything you want,"
said he; "everything is so arranged that we know just where to lay our
hands on any book that a customer wants."

Melbourne is a g