sacrilegious feet a threshold inscribed "private" and unearthed the daughter of the keeper. She was very sympathetic, but not encouraging. Her high authority, however, produced a man with a key, and we squeezed in among the bamboos, which we found sharp and aggressive plants, and with ruthless cruelty warmly applauded the efforts to stir up the platypus out of the mud with a stick; but the despairing platypus had buried itself beyond the reach of human intervention. We were forced to give up and retreat, and it seemed to us, as we went out of the gates, that the large blue parrot, who sits sentinel on his perch at the entrance, winked at us derisively.
The same evening we were at least gratified by the sight of a stuffed platypus. It was at the museum, where there was a civic reception. The municipal buildings at Melbourne are on a most imposing scale. The museum, picture galleries, and free library are all under one roof. The museum is beautifully arranged. Most interesting to English visitors are the complete collections of native animals of all kinds. Every sort of kangaroo and wallaby is represented. From immense creatures sitting up with that air of surprise peculiar to them, as if they were wondering what had happened to their forelegs, to little things of the same species no bigger than a cat.
