he time for turning machinery and grinding grain, or
doing some other work. Most of the treadmills I ever knew anything about
in the old country were just treadmills, and that was all."

Our friends were invited to visit a sugar plantation in Northern
Queensland. They accepted the invitation, and one morning embarked on a
steamer which took them in the direction which they wished to go. The
steamer called at several places on the coast, including Rockhampton,
Bowen, Mackay, Keppel Bay, and Somerset; the last-named place was their
destination, and it was here that they landed.

"We utilized the time of stoppage at each port by going on shore," said
Harry in his journal. "Except for the exercise of the trip, we might
about as well have stayed on board, as there was very little to be seen
at any of the places. The coast towns of Queensland are pretty much all
alike. They have from one to two thousand inhabitants each, and though
they're pretentiously laid out, they consist of little more than a
single street. On the streets, other than the principal one, there are
scattered houses, where the owners of land have endeavored to increase
the value of their property by putting up buildings, but generally with
poor success. For pavement the natural earth is obliged to answer, as
most of these towns are too poor to afford anything better. The streets
are very dusty in dry weather, and very muddy after a rain. At one of
the places where we landed there had been a heavy shower the night
before, and the main street was a great lane of mud. Ned said the street
was a mile long, eighty feet wide, and two feet deep; at least, that was
his judgment concerning it.

"One thing that impressed us in these towns was that hardly a man in any
of them had a coat on. Everybody was in his shirt sleeves, and if he had
a coat with him, he carried it on his arm. For the novelty of the thing,
we took dinner at a hotel in Mackay, more with a view of seeing the
people that went there, than with an expectation of a good meal. There
were squatters from the back country, planters, clerks, merchants,
lawyers, and doctors, all with their coats off, and we were told that
this habit of going without coats is universal. One man who had lived
there a good while said, 'You may go to a grand dinner party, and find
the ladies dressed in the height of fashion, and the gentlemen in their
shirt sleeves.' I don't wonder that they have adopted this plan, as the
climat