By the next time I write I shall have seen more of Melbourne; there
will, however, be no time for another letter by this mail; but I
will leave one to be posted after we sail for New Zealand.



Letter II: Sight-seeing in Melbourne.


Melbourne, October 1st, 1865.
I have left my letter to the last moment before starting for
Lyttleton; everything is re-packed and ready, and we sail to-morrow
morning in the _Albion_. She is a mail-steamer--very small after
our large vessel, but she looks clean and tidy; at all events, we
hope to be only on board her for ten days. In England one fancies
that New Zealand is quite close to Australia, so I was rather
disgusted to find we had another thousand miles of steaming to do
before we could reach our new home; and one of the many Job's
comforters who are scattered up and down the world assures me that
the navigation is the most dangerous and difficult of the whole
voyage.

We have seen a good deal of Melbourne this week; and not only of the
town, for we have had many drives in the exceedingly pretty suburbs,
owing to the kindness of the D---s, who have been most hospitable
and made our visit here delightful. We drove out to their house at
Toorak three or four times; and spent a long afternoon with them;
and there I began to make acquaintance with the Antipodean trees and
flowers. I hope you will not think it a very sweeping assertion if
I say that all the leaves look as if they were made of leather, but