232 IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS
plain." Some fragments of quartz and ferruginous rock
lay among the scrub and the tall grass, where numerous
flocks were feeding. Some miles farther the wheels of
the wagon plowed deep into the alluvial soil, where irregu-
lar creeks murmured in their beds, half hidden among
giant reeds. By-and-by they skirted vast salt lakes, rap-
idly evaporating. The journey was accomplished without
trouble, and, indeed, without fatigue.
Lady. Helena invited the horsemen of the party to pay her a visit in turns, as her reception-room was but small, and in pleasant converse with this amiable woman they forgot the fatigue of their day's ride.
Lady Helena, seconded by Miss Mary, did the honors of their ambulatory house with perfect grace. John Man- gles was not forgotten in these daily invitations, and his somewhat serious conversation was not unpleasing.
The party crossed, in a diagonal direction, the mail-coach road from Crowland to Horsham, which was a very dusty one, and little used by pedestrians.
The spurs of some low hills were skirted at the boundary of Talbot County, and in the evening the travelers reached a point about three miles from Maryborough. The fine rain was falling, which, in any other country, would have soaked the ground; but here the air absorbed the moisture so wonderfully that the camp did not suffer in the least. Next day, the 29th of December, the march was delayed somewhat by a succession of little hills, resembling a min- iature Switzerland. It was a constant repetition of up and down hill, and many a jolt besides, all of which were scarcely pleasant. The travelers walked part of the way, and thought it no hardship.
At eleven o'clock they arrived at Carisbrook, rather an important municipality. Ayrton was for passing outside the town without going through it, in order, he said, to save time. Glenarvan, concurred with him, but Paganel, always eager for novelties, was for visiting Carisbrook. They gave him his way, and the wagon went on slowly.
Paganel, as was his custom, took Robert with him. His visit to the town was very short, but it sufficed to give him an exact idea of Australian towns. There was a bank, a court-house, a market, a church, and a hundred or so of brick houses, all exactly alike. The whole town was laid
