any we had seen upon the coast." He also notes that they saw "several large smokes upon the main." To-day a picturesque little township lies under a sharply escarped granite hill, with stately, misty coastal ranges in the background. Probably Captain Cook, like ourselves, saw the beautiful yellow "white-headed eagles" flying across the harbour. We took some time getting in because the pilot ran on to a mud-bank, for the bay is very shallow. At last we came alongside a wharf, and at once went on shore and started on the long walk to the town. It was very, very hot on shore, and clouds of grey dust met us all along the road from the landing-stage. We hoped to reach the church on the hill, at all events before the Sunday service was quite over.
Townsville is a picturesque little place, a mining port growing continually in importance; and in that transitional stage, when rough wooden corrugated iron buildings are giving place to brick. There were some very showy hotels calculated to attract the miner with his pockets full of money, when he comes to town to taste the sweets of such civilisation as it affords, to spend all he has gained, and to live riotously as long as it lasts. This at least is the popular conception of the habits of miners, which was continually impressed upon us. We were never able
