Wills, and made many visits to the Museum, and the glorious Free
Library; we also went all over the Houses of Legislature--very new
and grand. But you must not despise me if I confess to having
enjoyed the shops exceedingly: it was so unlike a jeweller's shop in
England to see on the counter gold in its raw state, in nuggets and
dust and flakes; in this stage of its existence it certainly
deserves its name of "filthy lucre," for it is often only half
washed. There were quantities of emus' eggs in the silversmiths'
shops, mounted in every conceivable way as cups and vases, and even
as work-boxes: some designs consisted of three or five eggs grouped
together as a centre-piece. I cannot honestly say I admired any of
them; they were generally too elaborate, comprising often a native
(spear in hand), a kangaroo, palms, ferns, cockatoos, and sometimes
an emu or two in addition, as a pedestal--all this in frosted silver
or gold. I was given a pair of these eggs before leaving England:
they were mounted in London as little flower-vases in a setting
consisting only of a few bulrushes and leaves, yet far better than
any of these florid designs; but he emu-eggs are very popular in
Sydney or Melbourne, and I am told sell rapidly to people going
home, who take them as a memento of their Australian life, and
probably think that the greater the number of reminiscences
suggested by the ornament the more satisfactory it is as a purchase.

I must finish my letter by a description of a dinner-party which
about a dozen of our fellow-passengers joined with us in giving our
dear old captain before we all separated. Whilst we were on board,
it very often happened that the food was not very choice or good: at
all events we used sometimes to grumble at it, and we generally
wound up our lamentations by agreeing that when we reached Melbourne
we would have a good dinner together. Looking back on it, I must