have been returning home again at night. There was one man whom we found so handy about a house that we had half a mind to make an exception in his favour, and, as a sort of preparatory trial, we employed him for a fortnight's digging in the garden, but in the middle of the work, and just as the ground was in good condition after the rains, he took himself off on a drinking bout for three days, during which the sun's heat greatly increased in strength and so dried up the soil that the proper time for gardening was in great part lost. I asked him, when he was sober, how he could behave so foolishly, upon which he first favoured me with a few moral reflections upon want of strength of mind, and concluded with telling me, almost in so many words, that if he did not get drunk sometimes he should lose his own identity.
Through my ignorance of the qualities of the hard woods of Australia, I had anticipated much trouble and annoyance from being obliged to cook without coal; but when I had once learned the right manner of using the great logs of close, hard-grained timber, I gave them the preference over all other sorts of fuel. The heat thrown out is tremendous, and the logs, especially those from the tree known as the York gum, will be found alight on the under side hours after the fire is supposed to have been extinguished. Long hollow pieces of wood are often brought in for the fire, and these it is as well to handle cautiously, as snakes are now and then discovered inside them. We, however, were never so unfortunate as thus to meet with a snake, though in stripping off rough bark from the logs I have brought to light very large centipedes. There is a good deal of danger in leaving
