beastly abode. Cockroaches, in thousands, were marching and countermarching on the rushy sides of the dwelling, and our persons in a few minutes were literally covered with them. Fleas, bugs, and mosquitoes were only less annoying because they were less numerous. In vain did we wish for the flood-tide to enable us to cross the bay; we were obliged to light cigar after cigar and walk about outside the hut, and at last wrap ourselves up in a dirty old sail, and try to go to sleep under the thwarts of our boat as she lay at anchor near the shore; but it was nearly impossible-the mosquitoes followed us, and some of the other vermin accompanied us, and what with their buzzing and biting, and the hardness, dirt, and wetness of our bed, it was merely closing our eyes and nothing else. At last the tide turned and the moon waned: it was two o'clock in the morning; there was a fresh chilliness in the air; we lighted another cigar, pulled up the stone, and rowed away from this abominable hole. The old fisherman had just lost his black gin, who it appeared had been his housekeeper for many months, and had completely left her black associates for his company and hut. I blushed to think that any man, bearing the name of Englishman, should form a cool, deliberate connexion with a female savage, who must have been unlike her race if she had ever washed herself, if she was not eaten up with vermin, legs ulcerated, and blotches on her head, and in manners and habits every thing that is base and disgraceful. Oh! Mrs. Fry, I exclaimed, this would not have been the case but for your system of recommending female convicts to be kept at Millbank, instead of sending them to New South Wales. But for your unnatural folly, this old man would have been most likely a happy, cleanly and creditable husband, with every thing around him comfortable and tidy, and half a dozen chubby children to make this stage in the journey pleasant and interesting. As it was, no doubt the black woman was getting more civilized; but the white man was approaching the savage state of indolence and filth. But enough-there was a great swell across the bay, much more than I liked for our little boat, though the two men pulling agreed that they had never seen the bay so smooth; this was annoying, but never mind. Mount Elliott seemed to recede from us the more we pulled: so large an object, it was seen through the obscure starlight as if close to the boat, and yet we were pulling more than an hour before it was abreast of us. The tide now favoured us, and the rapid rush near the sand rollers of Brisbane Water became louder and louder; and passing Lobster Beach, we regretted the indistinct twilight did not allow us to make out more than the beautiful outline of its surrounding hills. The morning of Monday here broke upon us, and the first sight and impression made by this enchanting spot will never be forgotten. God has done every thing for you, O beautiful Lake Brisbane! man nothing! Nature here still assumes her sway; and if we may judge from the stupendous size of her innumerable trees, years will revolve before she can be much disturbed. Twenty clearing gangs, in twenty years, might make some difference; but the forest appearing at present as everlasting as the hills, they almost mock the individual, whose feeble axe on their giant sides is like the tickling of a lady's fan. The day, no doubt, must come, when wealth and luxury shall have converted this elegant sheet of water into another Geneva or Maggiore, but who of this generation can hope to live to see it?

We refreshed at Anderson's, both outwardly and inwardly, and tried to forget our want of sleep by a walk through his green corn and fertile beds of onions; and at sunrise the boat left us in Cockle Creek, and we made the best of our way over a thickly-wooded country to a farm on the sea-coast, called Culcarone. This was not effected, however, without some tremendous hills; and we were glad to get a peep of the white sea through the trees, to assure us there was an end to this endless bush. A bit of damper and a panikin of water were very refreshing; and we would fain have stopped and fished at Tudibarring Lagoon, but want of time, and a long journey before us, compelled us to go on. In this, and all the other lagoons on this coast, the fish are so abundant that a black fellow, with a seine, can load a bullock

cart at one or two hauls, and it forms a constant food for the farmers and their pigs: the fish are mostly bream and mullet; the first are excellent eating, but the last are thought too fat and rich: we did not taste them. The sea is delightful after emerging from these black forests; its eternal surf on the dazzling beach commands your attention; and the breezy coolness at mid-day, even in the height of summer, with the variety of sea-shells and medusa washing ashore, and the white skiff, with cedar or lime, bound to Port Jackson, make the sea-coast much preferable to the bush. Before getting to Terrigal, we were compelled to cross the head-land of Tudibarring, a precipice five hundred feet high, with the path not the breadth of your sofa at the very edge of the abyss. It was quite nervous-as the rock rather overhangs, and we could just see the foamy lather of the dashing spray. The blacksmith's shop at Sydney Lighthouse is curious, and worth seeing; but a jump down Tudibarring would immortalize any Australian Sappho, more than any lover's leap I ever saw. The hill was almost clear of trees, except a species of stunted eucalytus, which were growing horizontally from the ground, by reason of the constant action of the sea-winds. Lower down we trod upon the elegant fringed violet, they were so numerous, at every step. By the time we got to the bottom, we saw there was a very convenient, safe harbour in Terrigal Bay, for large boats or craft not drawing more than six feet water. This beach is very rich in shells. The heads of Lake Macquarie, or the name it is better known by, Reid's Mistake, were in full view as we came down the hill; and a boat was fishing off Bungaree's Nora, as the head-land is called. A very successful establishment for catching and drying the snapper is formed, though on a small scale, at Terrigal; and a little spot has been inclosed, by the industry of the fishermen, which grows excellent potatoes and onions. We now bade adieu to the coast, and turned again into the bush, for the head of Erina Creek, the hospitable retreat of the magistrate of the district. And a bush, indeed, it turned out to be. It was the thickest brush either of us had ever seen. Not a gleam of sunshine ever reaches to the bottom of Terrigal Bush. Not Vallombrosa, with its deepest shades, can surpass the rich gloom of this impervious wood. Trees unknown near Sydney, and other open parts of the country, here flourish in all their tropical luxuriance: the cabbage-tree, with its towering stem and tufted top; the elegant palm, which makes you fancy you are in the West Indies, with its umbrageous and lofty foliage, explaining at once the compliment and honour intended by that description of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, which says, "they took branches of palmtrees, and went forth to meet him." The splendid fern-tree, and the gigantic lily, here also seek the shade in the deep solitudes of the thickest brush; vines, and a hundred other beautiful and strange shrubs, keep them company in such abundance as in five minutes might fill the herbals of all the lovers of botany in the Colony; here particularly,

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its fragrance on the desert air!"

We lost our path, and became a little alarmed till it was found. Evening was approaching; our provisions were gone: the servant had been despatched to announce us and prepare for dinner, and the struggling through the rich luxuriant vegetation had wearied us more than all the open country; we were nearly exhausted; the freshest of our party was despatched in the right direction, according to the sun, while we rested ourselves, anxiously waiting the concerted signal of "coo-ey," as soon as the path was found. Fortunately, it was soon discovered, and we met again in the beaten track, and reclined by the side of a gurgling brook, at the entrance of the brush, laughing at our past troubles. We would not own to be tired till we reached home, when the excellent fare and long cork soon made us forget Terrigal Bush. A neighbour came in after dinner, and we agreed to breakfast with him the following morning; and after one more cigar and a glass of grog, not being able to keep our eyes any longer open, we finished the second day.

Tuesday. The beds are not so good in the bush as to induce any indulgence in them beyond daylight; therefore, we were shaving at sunrise, and went over the farm; saw the fires of some black natives, and went to chat to them. They had all been more or less afflicted by the late sickness: "Murri budgel," was the plaintive answer of one of them to our inquiries how he was. Murri budgel, very sick, could not apply to the rest of the sable group, for they were young and healthy, and plump enough to make one wonder how they keep themselves in such good condition. We arrived at our neighbour's farm just as the steamer and stewed fowls were taking off the fire; they were delicious, and would not have disgraced Beauvilliers or Veri; this, with eggs, bacon, and excellent tea, eked out a breakfast for us that would have satisfied a king. The boat had been in readiness all breakfast-time; and it was no sooner finished than we jumped in, and rowed down the interesting creek, than which, perhaps, there is hardly any thing in New South Wales prettier. Arrived at the broad water, the farms of one or two friends underwent our scrutiny; but the "murri cobon waddie" was the universal character of them all. Twenty Point Pipers seemed to offer their green hillocks for Italian villas; and certainly there never was a lake that presented so many eligible sites for building on. But the day, I am afraid, is hardly yet arrived, though, to an industrious hard-working man, one would think fifty acres of rich vegetable mould, within six hours' water carriage of Sydney, would be preferable to five hundred any where else, not having this advantage. Onions, pumpkins, melons, and potatoes grow in the greatest profusion; and the inexhaustible body of sea-shells offer a valuable manure for generations to come. It is difficult to believe the common opinion that these shells have been deposited by former natives, because it implies a populousness which the present state of the blacks would hardly warrant. We added to the heap, by prevailing on our blacks, Charlewal and Dick, to dive for mud oysters, and when roasted at the bush fire they were excellent. Mr. H- has got a house and offices that would be complete if he resided there; but absenteeism is the crying evil of this Colony, as it is of Ireland. After resting ourselves at Nerrara, we made the best of our way home to dinner; but the best of our way was very bad, as we crossed the lofty Bulga of Razor Back, a ridge eight hundred feet high between the two creeks, now and then getting a glimpse of water, but generally immersed in the forest, and nothing to be seen but rocks above, and tops of trees below. A great deal of fallen timber, of the largest dimensions, impeded our progress home; but, when there, we enjoyed our rest and excellent dinner quite as much as the day before. The news of our arrival had by this time spread far and wide; and several blacks from neighbouring tribes had collected about the house, fine athletic fellows, asking for bacco. Some of them had come from Wollembi, and others farther, fifteen or twenty miles, just for a walk, and had brought their black gins with them. It seems they are very constant with their gins; the marriage ceremony is, however, very primitive and simple: the lover, seldom going farther than the nearest family, approaches their circle, while at meals, and sitting down next "the lady of his love," asks her if she will sleep with him that night; she, nothing loth, generally answers Yes, and the thing is finished, they being as indissolubly fixed in holy matrimony as though they had received the benediction of mother church. Infanticide is too common among the black women; they will not be troubled with the rearing of children, and mostly take them up by the heels and knock out their brains against a stone. We were amused after dinner by the throwing of the Bomaring, or crooked stick. There seems a sort of magic in it, by the certainty of their making it come back to where they stand, however forcibly they may throw it from them. But what surprised us most, was a black fellow going up a tall tree, to the height of sixty feet, by means of his feet and hands and a tomahawk. The tree must have been twelve feet girth, and therefore the performance resembled more the going up a dead wall, than any notions we are accustomed to of climbing trees. I never saw any thing so clever. Nothing but hunger could have

taught it. It was done by one of the Bush blacks, who are much cleverer, honester, and thinner than the Coast blacks, who live on fish. Catching the kangaroo, grubs, snakes, guanas, wild-honey, fern roots, and bunion, seem the employment of the first; while oysters and snappers are the things needful for the last. X. Y. Z.

OLD AGE.

"Oh, Sir, you are old,

Nature in you stands on the very verge

Of her confine; you should be ruled, and led

By some discretion."-King Lear.

"OLD age, indeed!" methinks I hear a maiden reader, who has passed her th year,* exclaim with an indignant toss of the head, and a hard and forcible expiration,-"Old age, indeed! what does the fellow mean? I'll be whipped if this article be not written by that odious curate, whom we got turned out of the parish for preaching last summer against rouge and waltzing?"-" Age, Madam, do you say?-all twaddle-no such thing now-a-days, depend upon it. No old people now; haven't seen an old man these thirty years."-"I beg your pardon, Sir; without meaning to play the saint, I must insist upon it, that yours is a very unscriptural doctrine. Age there most certainly is, and we must all come to it. There's Archdeacon Crump has long been of the fuimus family, and can't hold out much longer; and the Dean is a very old man indeed. I'm only sixty-four myself; and but for this cough, and now and then a touch of the gout, I'm as good as ever I was in my life; but I must be old some day or other for all that." Rochefoucauld has well remarked, that " peu de gens savent être vieux;" and the single observation is well worth all the flimsy sophistry and stoical cant of the Cato major, which serves only to put the incommodity it celebrates more prominently in evidence. If life itself is a blessing, then is the plenitude of life preferable to decrepitude; and however Providence, in its mercy, may now and then have suited the back to the burden, yet is it not less a burden because it may be well borne. Strong sensations, powerful volitions, and muscles and joints to do the bidding of the will, constitute the perfection of physical existence; but age is the reverse of all this, to say nothing of the maladies and the dependence it brings in its train. Old men have told the world, and the world have believed it, that the decrepitude of the body is the maturity of the mind; and it is amusing to observe how Bacon,† in balancing the faults of youth and of age, leans lightly on the last. The fact however is against the philosopher. Charron, who was in all things the opponent of humbug, and who got so much the start of the times in which he wrote, justly observes of age, "Elle nous attache encore plus de rides en l'esprit, qu'au visage; et ne se voit point d'ames qui en vieillissant, ne sentent l'aigre et le moisi." Το grow old is not necessarily to grow either wise or good; but, on the contrary, it is

* Aulus Gellius fills up this blank with forty-six; but the fair reader is requested to use her own discretion, always however employing a pencil, that she may amend the record when her mind changes on the subject. Young ladies of fifteen think young ladies of thirty very old; but they alter their opinion as they gain experience. + Essays.

most frequently only to change one set of vices for another, and that too not for the better. Chagrin, disappointment, and satiety, make up the wisdom of the mature. Against this vain pretence to superior wisdom, a pretence which gives authority, in public and private affairs, to those who are the most encumbered with prejudices, impeded by habits, and the farthest in arrear with the improvements of the times, it may be sufficient to notice the physical fact that, in latter life, the brain contracts in all its dimensions, and its substance becomes condensed, and partakes of the same super-solidity which affects the joints with stiffness, and destroys the mobility of the muscles. Those in France, whose interest it is to preserve the world in a perpetual infancy, and to maintain unimpaired all the vices and mistakes of a barbarous legislation, have provided that the office of making laws should be confided only to persons who have passed the vigour and honesty of youth and this piece of cunning is decisive against the assumed superiority, either moral or intellectual, of advanced life. Age, as Ossian truly says, "is dark and unlovely ;" and to bear it with patience and dignity requires some firmness.

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It is not, however, in the grund serieur that the chief difficulty lies; for firmness under inevitable necessities is no very uncommon quality. The thief at the gallows can meet his fate as bravely as Cato or Regu lus; and many a condemned felon might invite his friends, with Addison, to see how a Christian can die." So ably, indeed, do the dealers out of consolation "perform their spiriting," that the most atrocious criminals often meet Jack Ketch with a confidence in futurity, to which the wise and the good cannot always attain :-a confidence, by the by, which, however comfortable to the patient, is any thing but auxiliary to the purposes of penal infliction. It must be a great consolation to the whole tribe of murderers, housebreakers, and highwaymen, not only to perceive the ease with which the last scene of their existence is gotten over, but to understand how little a good and useful life is necessary to an happy eternity. All men wish to go to Heaven upon cheap terms; and surely none can be easier than a gratuitous "call," when the pleasures of life have faded from view. The vicious must be especially delighted thus to discover that they have a better market in the world to come, than their stupid neighbours, who have entertained an old-fashioned respect for "mine and thine." But to return to the subject in hand, it is chiefly in the lighter departments of life, in the thousand futilities which flesh is heir to, that men find it so hard to grow old with decency. Yet, if the slightest of these particularities is misunderstood or neglected, your old man becomes a dire bore to society; and is as tiresome to himself as to his fastidious acquaintances. The invention of natural wigs, (or to use a more loyal phrase, of heads of hair,) and of false teeth, has done much for the persons of the aged; and the tailor, if he be an artist of "any pith and likelihood," can convert the merest codger into a very respectable beau. By thus keeping out of sight the hideous in the physical man, the epoch of senility may be adjourned to "this day six months;" but the misfortune of it is, that these external advantages only seduce the inconsiderate owners of them to overlook the more important deficiencies of the moral man, and to forget the want of "that within which passeth show," and which should