SOCIAL LIFE IN MELBOURNE
The country surrounding Melbourne was far
more populous than anything we had yet
seen. The land was very flat, and the plain
was extremely bare, even denuded; there was
hardly a tree to be seen on the great expanse;
scattered over it were innumerable little yellow
boulders, thousands of them. Sometimes they
had been laboriously collected and heaped up to
form walls. These are the recollections which
the approach to the Victorian capital by railway
from the west leaves in the mind. The entrance
to Melbourne itself is much like that to any other
great seaport. The masts of the ships showed
above the houses, the air was cool and fresh, and
invigorating after the night in the train. Melbourne
was in fact the coldest place we visited in
Australia, but even here heavy winter clothing
such as one would wear in an English winter is
unnecessary in that dry air and brilliant sunshine.
Our hosts had sent their car to meet us, and we spun out of the station yard into a city of im-
