to rising Belfast and Port Fairy, and wandered about through the Alison
and Knight, and Rutledge and other acres; amongst cockatoos, as the
small farmers were there called, observing a soil of unsurpassable
richness, the potatoes and other products, the former particularly,
being the finest in the world. The striking new feature of this journey
seemed to me the picturesque and beautiful River Hopkins--beautiful in
all but its name! Why give such starched, hard, dot-and-go-one names,
when there are Eumerella, Wannon, Doutagalla, Modewarra, Yarra Yarra,
and countless other such natural and genial modulations to be had of the
natives for the asking?

The year following, when my dear old friends, Mr. and Mrs. A.M. McCrae,
had betaken themselves from hard lines of law to the pleasant variety of
an Arthur Seat cattle station--pleasant to their town visitors at
least--I oftener than once looked in upon them from Melbourne. They had
the life and adornment of a large family of pretty curly-headed young
boys and girls, some of them with the aristocratic fine black hair and
cream-white skin of their accomplished mother. McCrae and I galloped the
thirty miles interval, and while crossing and watering at the
ever-running Cannonook half way, and admiring the varied, almost
park-like vistas among the three gentle hill rises of the bay's eastern
coast, we would marvel at the stupidity of Collins in 1803 in abandoning
such a country. To be sure he chanced to squat on the least inviting of
its varied areas, and this benevolent excuse we confirmed by a ride
across country one day to inspect the spot. All we could see was what
seemed the remnant of a small fireplace. The "cups and saucers" country
we passed over on the way might be interesting geologically, and even
artistically; but on any dry, hot summer day the look around might not
be enlivening to a new arrival. None the less, Sorrento has since arisen
there--a considerable, lively, and pretty watering-place, as I hear, for