em
whichever way you may, you can't make a real cross out of them, either
Greek or Roman. Before I investigated the subject, I thought the
Southern Cross was over the south pole, but found it is not so. The
constellations of the Southern Hemisphere altogether are not as
brilliant as those in the northern one. If the principal object of a
traveler in this region is to see the heavens, he had better stay at
home.

"An interesting feature of the southern heavens is 'The Magellan
Clouds,' two white spots in the sky like thick nebulae of stars. They are
nearer to the pole than the Southern Cross is, and are much used by
mariners in taking observations. Quite near the pole is a star of the
fifth magnitude, called 'Octantis,' and this also is used for
observation purposes. It isn't so brilliant, by any means, as the pole
star of the north, which is of the second magnitude; and, by the way,
that reminds me of what Dr. Whitney told me in the desert of Sahara,
that what we called the polar star in the north is not directly over the
pole, but nearly a degree away. The real polar star is a much smaller
one and stands, as we look at it, to the left of the star, which I had
always believed to be the proper one."

Melbourne has a Chinese quarter like San Francisco and New York, and our
friends embraced an opportunity to visit it. They found the shops
closely crowded together and apparently doing an active business. There
were temples, shops, and a good many stores, some of them very small and
others of goodly size. The sidewalks were thronged with people, mostly
Chinese, and they hardly raised their eyes to look at the strangers who
had come among them. Our friends took the precaution to be accompanied
by a guide, and found that they had acted wisely in doing so. The guide
took them into places where they would have been unable to make their
way alone, and where, doubtless, they would have found the doors closed
against them.

The Chinese are very unpopular in Australia and in all the colonies. The
laws against them are decidedly severe, from a Mongolian point of view.
Every Chinaman landing in Victoria must pay fifty dollars for the
privilege of doing so, and after getting safe on the soil he finds
himself restricted in a business way, and subject to vexatious
regulations. John is satisfied with very little and he usually manages
to get it. He is a keen trader and always an inveterate smuggler. He is
very skillful in evading the