accordingly despatched to the best hotels; they returned with long
faces--"full." The second-rate, and in fact every respectable inn and
boarding or lodging-house were tried but with no better success. Here
and there a solitary bed could be obtained, but for our digging party
entire, which consisted of my brother, four shipmates, and myself, no
accommodation could be procured, and we wished, if possible, to
keep together. "It's a case," ejaculated one, casting his eyes to the
slight roof above us as if calculating what sort of night shelter it
would afford. At this moment the two last searchers approached, their
countenances not quite so woe-begone as before. "Well?" exclaimed we
all in chorus, as we surrounded them, too impatient to interrogate at
greater length. Thank Heavens! they had been successful! The
house-keeper of a surgeon, who with his wife had just gone up to Forest
Creek, would receive us to board and lodge for thirty shillings a week
each; but as the accommodation was of the indifferent order, it was not
as yet UNE AFFAIRE ARRANGEE. On farther inquiry, we found the
indifferent accommodation consisted in their being but one small
sleeping-room for the gentlemen, and myself to share the bed and
apartment of the temporary mistress. This was vastly superior to
gipsying in the dirty streets, so we lost no time in securing our new
berths, and ere very long, with appetites undiminished by these petty
anxieties, we did ample justice to the dinner which our really kind
hostess quickly placed before us.

The first night on shore after so long a voyage could scarcely
seem otherwise than strange, one missed the eternal rocking at which so
many grumble on board ship. Dogs (Melbourne is full of them) kept up an
incessant barking; revolvers were cracking in all directions until
daybreak, giving one a pleasant idea of the state of society; and last,
not least, of these annoyances was one unmentionable to ears polite,