than in the countries from which they or their ancestors lately came. Horses have bred so freely, that in many places they roam wild through the bush, and are a scourge to the squatters, whose grass they eat, and whose fences they destroy. Oxen also, whose destroy. Oxen also, whose sires and dams have escaped from the herds of the grazier, roam wild and unowned through the distant bush. Sheep are more valuable than horses and oxen, because wool is the staple produce of the country, but sheep have multiplied so quickly, that there are at present in the colonies about twenty-four sheep for every man, woman, and child inhabiting them. In Great Britain and Ireland there is not much above a sheep apiece for each individual. If meat can be brought home in a condition to meet the requirements of the British purchasers, the Australian pastures will go as far towards supplying England with meat as do the prairies of the United States with corn;-and they will do so with the advantage of being a part of the empire which they supply.

They come out, too, creates a prejudice

The one great fault found with the meats hitherto sent to England is that they are over-cooked. Those which I saw and ate before I left England were almost tasteless on account of this fault. from these tins in a guise which against them, which I have found to be very strong in the minds of poor people. I have heard them say that if they can't have English meat, they will do without Australian meat. Servants are averse to it, thinking that they are ill-used if asked to eat it. I have found the managers of meat-preserving companies in the colonies quite aware of this, and have thought that they were disposed rather to think that these prejudices should be made to sink before the undoubted superiority of over-cooked meat to no meat at all, than

to express a hope that they could remedy the evil by sending the meat to England at the same time secure and with the ordinary juices in it. If the evil be inseparable from the enterprise, of course they are right. The meats, ugly as they are, unappetising, and either dry or greasy, are wholesome, nutritious, and cheap. But if anything better can be done, of course that better will be very welcome.

When I was at Sydney I was asked to lunch on preserved meats by a gentleman who was managing a Queensland meat-preserving company, of which that distinguished and well-known old colonist, Sir Charles Nicholson, is chairman. My attention was especially called to some roast beef which had been preserved by "Jones' Patent." What may be the specialities. of Jones' patent I did not learn, but as to that special joint, I protest that I never eat better cold roast beef in my life. It was not over-cooked, and judging from its colour, appearance, and flavour, it might have been cooked and put into the larder on the previous day. Whether it can be made to travel to England in the same condition, I cannot say. Our host assured me that it would do so,-but he told us at the same time that it could not be sold for less than 8d. a pound. Let the meat be as good as it may, any meat that finds its way ready-cooked to England will encounter a certain amount of prejudice, and I fear that the price of 8d. a pound will be too high to stand against this dislike.

But the enterprise which promises most in regard to the exportation of meats from Australia is that at which Mr. Thomas Mort of Sydney has been at work now for many years. No man is better known in New South Wales, perhaps no one is so highly regarded, -for commercial enterprise, joined to science and ingenuity, as the gentleman I have named. In Sydney

Mr. Mort is as well known as are the most familiar objects of the streets, and all who know New South Wales well are ready to declare that no inhabitant of the colony deserves better from her than Mr. Mort. He has set on foot a scheme for sending meat home in ice, or, to speak more correctly, a scheme for sending meat home in a chamber the temperature of which shall be always kept below the freezing point by the use of ice. As the quantity to be sent home must be very great, in order that the meat may be sold cheap, and still at a remunerative price, the ice for the purpose cannot be carried with the meat, but must be daily fabricated on the journey by chemical appliances. The difficulty is not in regard to the meat, but in regard to the ice. That ice can be made in any quantity by a process which I will not attempt to describe, but in which ammonia is the principal ingredient, admits of no doubt; but unless it can be made at a low expense, the speculation will not be remunerative. For years Mr. Mort has been working at this matter, and has spent very large sums of money on the attempt. He thinks that he has now been successful, and in June, 1872, spoke of sending his first cargo of fresh meat to London early in 1873.

Should this be done, the meat will reach England, not cooked, nor cut into junks, but in the shape of joints, as we at home are accustomed to buy them in the butchers' shops. I ate at Mr. Mort's house a portion of a leg of mutton,-which had been frozen I know not for how long, as to which it would have been impossible for any one to know that it had been treated otherwise than in the ordinary way. Mr. Mort imagines that meat thus prepared may be sold in England for 6d. per pound. The meat when received will simply want thawing before it is cooked, as is

often necessary with home-grown meat in winter. If this plan can be carried out, there is no reason why all the carcases in Australia, not required for the food of the people there, should not make their way to the English market, and that in a form which will not render them unfit even for the most fastidious.

CHAPTER XIX.

METALS.

I WAS in New South Wales in October, November, and December, 1871, and again in June and July, 1872. During my former visit very little was said in Sydney about gold or other metals. The tone of the public mind on the subject of mining was very different from that prevailing in Melbourne and Victoria generally. Indeed there seemed to be a feeling, in which I sympathized, that though gold-fields when found should of course be worked, the finding and working them could hardly be regarded as an unmixed good to a community. Such operations led to gambling, disturbed the ways of legitimate commerce, excited men's minds unduly, and were dangerous. Victoria was very keen about gold, believed in gold, was willing to trust to gold for her greatness and population. Victoria prided herself on being a gold colony. Let it be so. New South Wales was conscious of a pride in better things. That perhaps may be taken as an expression of the general mind as I read it. When I returned after an interval of six months all this was changed. No one in Sydney would talk about anything but mining shares. It was not only gold, nor, as I think, chiefly gold, that was in men's mouths. Copper had been found in the west,-in the district between Bathurst and Orange,—