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down the gullies on either side. It was fortunate that my companion knew the road so well, as, in trying to avoid the deeper places, we might have run some risk from the abandoned shafts which lay in our way. At last we got safely across the water, alongside the swollen creek, now raging in fury; and glad I was when, rising the last hill, and looking down from the summit, I saw the low-roofed houses of Majorca before me.

I found that we had been more fortunate than a party that left Clunes a little later, who had the greatest difficulty in reaching home by reason of the flood. At some places the gentlemen had to get out of the carriages into the water up to their middle, and sound the depth of the holes in advance, before allowing the horses to proceed, and hours passed before they succeeded in reaching their destination.

During the course of the day we learned by telegraph -for telegraphs are well established all over the colony -that the main street of Clunes had become turned into a river. The water was seven feet deep in the very hotel where we had dressed for the ball! All the back bedrooms, stables, and outbuildings had been washed away, and carried down the creek, and thousands of pounds' worth of damage had been done in the lower parts of the town.

A few days later, when the rain had ceased and the flood had subsided, I went down to Deep Creek to see something of the damage that had been done. On either side, a wide stretch of ground was covered by a thick deposit of sludge, from one to four feet deep. This was the débris or crushings which the rain had washed down from the large mining claims above; and as it was bar

ren stuff, mere crushed quartz, it ruined for the time every bit of land it covered. The scene which the track along the creek presented was most pitiable. Fences had been carried away, crops beaten down, and huge logs lay about, with here and there bits of furniture, houses, and farm-gear.

I find the floods have extended over the greater part of the colony. Incalculable damage has been done, and several lives have been lost. The most painful incident of all occurred at Ballarat, where the miners were at work on one of the claims, when a swollen dam burst its banks and suddenly flooded the workings. Those who were working on the top of the shaft fled; but down below, ten of the miners were at work at a high level, in drives many feet above the bottom of the claim. The water soon filling up the drives through which they had passed from the main shaft, the men were unable to get out. They remained there, cooped up in their narrow, dark workings, without food, or drink, or light, for three days, until at last the water was got under by the steampumps, and they were reached. Two had died of sheer privation, and the rest were got out more dead than alive.

The poor Chinamen's gardens down by the creek under Gibraltar had also suffered severely by the flood. M'Cullum's Creek, in ordinary seasons, is only a tiny stream, consisting of water-holes communicating with each other by a brook; but during a flood it becomes converted into a raging torrent, and you can hear its roar a mile off. Within about five hours the water in it had risen not less than twenty feet! This will give you an idea of the tremendous force and rapidity of the rainfall in this country. Of course the damage done was great, in M'Cullum's as in Deep Creek. A heavy timber

bridge had been carried quite away, not a trace of it remaining. Many miners' huts in the low ground had been washed away, while others, situated in more sheltered places, out of the rush of the torrent, had been quite submerged, the occupants saving themselves by hasty flight in the early morning, some of them having been only wakened up by the water coming into their beds.

One eccentric character, a Scotchman, who determined to stick to his domicile, took refuge on his parlor table as the water was rising. Then, as it got still higher, he placed a chair upon the table, and stood up on it, the water continuing to rise, over his legs, then up and up; yet still he stuck to his chair. His only regret, he afterward said, was that he could not get at his whisky bottle, which he discerned upon a high shelf temptingly opposite him, but beyond his reach. The water at last began to fall; he waded up to his neck for the bottle; and soon the water was out of the house, for its fall is almost as sudden as its rise.

I was sorry for the poor Chinamen, whom I found, two days later, still wandering about amid the ruins of their gardens. Their loamy beds had been quite washed away, and their fences and some of their huts carried clean down the creek. One of them told me he had lost £30 in notes, which he had concealed in his cabin, but the flood had risen so quickly that he had been unable to save it. I picked up a considerable-sized stone that had been washed on to the Chinamen's ground: it was a piece of lava, thrown from one of the volcanic hills. which bound the plain-how many thousands of years ago! These volcanic stones are so light and porous that they swim like corks, and they abound in many parts of this neighborhood.

CHAPTER XII.

SPRING, SUMMER, AND HARVEST.

Spring Vegetation.-The Bush in Spring.-Garden Flowers.-An Evening Walk. — Australian Moonlight.—The Hot North Wind. - The Plague of Flies.-Bush Fires. -Summer at Christmas. -Australian Fruits. Ascent of Mount Greenock.-Australian Wine.-Harvest.A Squatter's Farm.-Harvest-Home Celebration.-Aurora Australis. -Autumn Rains.

AFTER a heavy rainfall the ground becomes well soaked with water, and vegetation proceeds with great rapidity. Although there may be an occasional fall of rain at intervals, there is no recurrence of the flood. The days are bright and clear, the air dry, and the weather most enjoyable. It is difficult to determine when one season begins and another ends here; but I should say that spring begins in September. The evenings are then warm enough to enable us to dispense with fires, while at midday it is sometimes positively hot.

Generally speaking, spring-time is the most delightful season in Australia. The beautiful young vegetation of the year is then in full progress; the orchards are covered with blossom; the fresh, bright green of the grass makes a glorious carpet in the bush, when the trees put off their faded foliage of the previous year, and assume their bright spring livery. In some places the bush is carpeted with flowers-violet flowers of the pea and vetch species. There is also a beautiful plant, with flowers of

vivid scarlet, that runs along the ground; and in some places the sarsaparillas, with their violet flowers, hang in festoons from the gum-tree branches. And when the wattle-bushes (a variety of the acacia tribe) are covered over with their yellow bloom, loading the air with their peculiarly sweet perfume, and the wild flowers are out in their glory, a walk or a ride through the bush is one of the most enjoyable of pleasures.

I must also mention that all kinds of garden flowers, such as we have at home, come to perfection in our gardens here, such as anemones, ranunculuses, ixias, and gladiolas. All the early spring flowers-violets, lilacs, primroses, hyacinths, and tulips -- bloom most freely. Roses also flower splendidly in spring, and even through the summer, when not placed in too exposed situations. At Maryborough our doctor had a grand selection of the best roses-Lord Raglan, John Hopper, Marshal Neil, La Reine Hortense, and such like—which, by careful training and good watering, grew green, thick, and strongly, and gave out a good bloom nearly all the summer through.

By the beginning of November full summer seems already upon us, it is so hot at midday. Only toward the evening, when the sun goes down-as it does almost suddenly, with very little twilight-it feels a little chilly, and even cold. By the middle of the month, however, it has grown very warm indeed, and we begin to have a touch of the hot wind from the north. I shall not soon forget my first experience of walking in the face of that wind. It was like encountering a blast from the mouth of a furnace; it made my cheeks quite tingle, and it was so dry that I felt as if the skin would peel off.

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