our
way in a steamer up the Yarra-Yarra, several large and recently
constructed boiling-down establishments in full work indicated the
extensive operation of the tallow-manufacturing process. The town (or
city as it may, I believe, be termed) appeared to have wonderfully
increased of late, and a quiet business-like air prevailed. Everywhere we
met bullock-teams and drays recently arrived with wool, or on their
return to the sheep stations with supplies, but there were few loungers
like ourselves in the streets, nearly everyone seeming to have his time
fully occupied.

It appeared to be the general and loudly expressed opinion, so far as we
could judge, that the separation of the Port Phillip district from New
South Wales, and its formation into an independent colony, would
materially advance the interests and conduce to the prosperity of the
former; and that the large surplus revenue which is annually transmitted
to Sydney ought to be spent among the people who have raised it.*

(*Footnote. These and other claims of the colonists have, I need scarcely
add, been fully admitted by the recent separation from New South Wales of
the Port Phillip district, now the colony of Victoria.)

GEELONG.

One day some of us made up a party to visit Geelong, the town in this
district of next importance to Melbourne, from which it is distant, by
water, fifty-five miles. The western shores of Port Phillip, along which
we passed, are low, thinly wooded, and bear a very monotonous aspect.
Vast numbers of a large sea-jelly (Rhizostoma mosaica) gave the water
quite a milky appearance. I was surprised to find the town, only a few
years old, to be one already containing about 3000 inhabitants. It is
built on a range of low gravelly banks facing the harbour, from which it
extends backwards in a straggling manner towards the river Barwon, which,
at the distance of a mile and a half, was then 100 yards wide, deep, and
without current. The town of Geelong derives its consequence from being a
convenient outlet for the wool and other produce of the southern
districts of Port Phillip--perhaps the best sheep country in Australia.
Four or five vessels were then loading for England. Unfortunately, Corio
Harbour, on the shores of which the town is built, is blocked up by a
bar, and vessels of moderate size are obliged to remain in Geelong Bay,
about five miles off, while discharging or receiving cargo.

PORT DALRYMPLE.

Five days after clearing the