and Venus shining with a lustre and a brilliancy unknown to northern skies.
Our last morning came filled with the bustle of packing and departure. And for the last time let us urge upon travellers to Australia to take far less luggage than they can possibly imagine they will want. Let them bear in mind, in the first place, the great inconvenience of transferring small luggage, when there are no porters, the hideous nuisance of packing and unpacking if they have to do it for themselves; the very much simpler standard of dress that prevails in a new country, where even in the capital people are contented to go out to dinners and theatres by tram; well-to-do people dressed in elaborate cloaks and satin shoes. The variation of climate compels a fairly large assortment of clothes of different weight. But cut it down rigorously. This digression is inspired by the recollection of the exhausting nature of our packing in the heat. When it was done we had to charter a cart and a man, and freightage in Australia is far from cheap, to take it the half-mile to the station, where its mountainous bulk was with difficulty packed into the very dusty little train that runs from Brisbane to Pinkenbar, lower down the river, whence the steamers sail for the Northern Territory.
