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NOTES OF A HOLIDAY TRIP TO THB SOUTH-EAST.

(Continued.)

Nabracoortk to Penola— Mount Gam bieb — The. Town and Lakes — Thb - Viewfeom thb Mount.

communication between Narracoorte and Mount Gambler is by mail coach which leaves Narracoorte about 12 o'clock, on the arrival of the train from Kingston, and arrives at the Mount about 8.30 p.m. As the road is good and the horses well kept and spirited, the drive is rather an enjoyable

one. On either side extends a level pastoral country covered with sheaoak and honey suckle, with a thick undergrowth of ferns in parts. For several miles after leaving Narracoorte the road leads through the property of the late Mr. John Robertson, and on the Mosquito Creek about 10 miles from Narracoorte, we pass Struan House, one of the handsomest residences in the colony. It is a magnificent pile with its centre tower and turrets and porticoes on either side. On the opposite side of the creek, and almost under the shade of his princely residence, lies Mr. Robertson's grave. Thirty-three years ago he purchased the first section of the Struan property and at his death he possessed 96,000 acres free hold all stocked. He is generally spoken of in the South-East as 'poor man Robert son.' From Struan we proceed still through

squatting country to Penola, the third city in point of importance in the South-Eastern District, and one that has evidently seen better days. It is within eight miles of the Border and is the meeting place of the intercolonial coaches. There was a good deal of farming done round Penola at one time, the land being principally rented from the squatters, but the opening up of the agricultural country across the Border, at tracted the settlers and the hind has re turned to a state of pastoral simplicity. The want of railway communication with the seaboard has also been a great draw back. The South-Eastern country is so wet and swampy that carting by road, especially in winter, is very expensive. Several schemes have been proposed for con

necting Penola with the seaboard, but the route which finds greatest favor in the town is that to 'Millicent, on the Beachport and Mount Gambier railway. This has been recommended by the Railway Commission, and ie undoubtedly the best line, as it iuns through the- good country proposed to be drained between Mount McEntyre and the Grower. When this line is constructed, and it cannot be much longer delayed, Penola will regain some of its pristine prosperity. i The Penola people are very proud, and justly so, of their Institute, not that the building is a very pretentious one, but it contains 3,500 volumes, the largest library, I believe, out of Adelaide. The Penolaites are evidently a literary people, and have not spent all their money on bricks and mortar, but have made the selection of a choice library their principal core, as it certainly should be. The example is one that might well be followed with advantage

in other country towns, where the great object seems to be to erect an imposing edifice, which— like many a book with a gorgeous binding — is often full of empti ness. I was surprised to find that a people so fond of reading had not a newspaper of their own. While Narracoorte and Border Town have each a paper and Mount Gambier two, Penola has 00 local chronicle of passing events. The inhabitants are as noted for their physical as for their in teUectnai culture. I learned that tfae Penola Football Club have only lost two matches for the last dozen years, which shows that the young men do not pass all their time pensively in study and contemplation. There are a few of the swamps and lagoons which one meets everywhere in the South East around Penola, and I thought that even the nobbier of whiskey, which I took there as a reviver, was slightly affected by the prevailing dampness of the climate. There is nothing of interest to note between Penola and Mount Gambier, at which latter place I arrived at half-past eight in the evening. The town of Gam bierton, or, as it is now invariably called, Mount Gambier is the principal town in the South-East and the most pleasantly-situated town in the colony. It lies at the foot of the mountain, and is larger than Clare, and at first sight not unlike it in appearance. The population, including the suburbs, is about 2,600, There are several sabstantial buildings in Commercial' street, the main thoroughfare, and a general appearance of prosperity about the town. There are several hotels, the Mount Oambier Hotel kept by J. Thurston being considered one of the best in the colony ; so far as I could see during the short time I stayed there it well deserves its reputation, being kept in a manner that reminds one of host Ford in his

best style. The greatest architectural orna ment to the township, however, is the hos pital, which stands overlooking the town on the border of the Valley Lake. It is a really palatial pile of buildings, and from its commanding site, a beautiful situation in the midst of a charming garden, it has a more pleasing effect than any structure I have ever seen. It cost £16,000 and seems altogether too large for the wants of the place. Mount Gambier has extensive suburbs, which, being embowered among trees and gardens, have quite a rural ap pearance. Its great attraction, however, is the hikes, which lie to the south of the town and in the very heart of the Mount itself, reposing in its extinct craters. What the caves are to Narracoorte, or the Botanic Gardens to Adelaide, the lakes are to Mount

Gambier, ' only more so.' Following the Port McDonnell road for about a mile, I found myself on the morning after my arrival standing on a narrow crater wall along which the road passes, and which, like a lofty embankment, separates the Blue Lake from the other three. I am standing as it were, on a lofty bridge with & lake beneath me on either hand, and so close that I can almost throw a stone into the deep blue waters some 300 feet below. The famous Blue Lake is on the eastern side of the road. It lies embosomed in an encircling barrier of steep rocky banks, which jealously guard it on all sides and rise from 200 to 300 feet precipitously above the surface of the water. These rocky sides are covered with a leafy mantle of box, wattle, ferns, and wild clematis, and their gay foliage is reflected in the glassy surface of the water. One does not fully realise the height of the banks till he descends to the bottom, or rather till he begins to climb back again. On the side next the bottom a different path leads down the banks, which are elsewhere too steep to climb. On arriv ing at the bottom, the water, which from above has a blue-black murky appearance, is found to be beautifully clear and trans parent, and the precipitous sides of white coraline limestone can be seen for several feet under the water. On top and around the crater, which contains the Blue Lake,

the Corporation have laid out a carriage drive of about two and a half miles. And now for a few figures to assist the reader to comprehend my not very graphic de scription of this charming bit of scenery. The lake was long thought to be unfathom able, but recent soundings give its greatest depth as 672 feet, and its shallowest part 180 feet, with an average depth of 250 feet. It is circular in form, about half a mile in diameter, and covers 165 acres. The height above the sea level is 54 feet, being 75 feet lower than the level of the town of Mount Gambier. It was proposed to supply the town with water from this lake, but it was found that the project would cost £20,000,

and necessitate a rate of 2s 9d in the pound, so it was rejected (after a poll of the citizens in June hist) by a small majority, and the inhabitants now supply themselves from wells and tanks still. I should have thought that the people of Mount Gambier would have made more use of the ex quisite sheet of water which lies so near them. That its banks would be laid out with seats and terraces, an easy descent made to the edge, and its waters covered with a little fleet of pleasure boats. But such is not the case, except the carriage drive around its margin ; nothing has been done to enhance its charms. There is but one boat there and that a private one be longing to Mr. Davison, a lawyer in the town. The Yalley Lake, which is more accessible, is, I believe, sometimes used for boating on ; but as a rule the Gambierites are not much given to acquatics, and the spbuh of the oar seldom disturbs the tran quility of the lakes. On the opposite side of the road to that which I have been describing lies the Leg of Mutton Lake at the bottom of a steep little valley. It is a small shallow sheet of water named from its peculiar shape. Around it, and to the westward lies the Forest Reserve, the nursery of which is on the edge of this lake. I was shown the SDOt on the side of the road, where the

legend saith that the famous A. L. Gordon, on horseback, jumped the fence, and which is still known as ' Gordon's Leap' ; as there are only a few feet between the fence and the steep banks of the Blue Lake the story is barely possible, but when I was told that he turned his horse on this narrow ledge and jumped out again, like Mark Twain, ' I doubted.' The summit of Mount Gam bier lies about a mile from the Blue Lake. To give the reader an idea of the position and appearance of the mount and the lakes they must imagine a large rocky hill, about two miles long by a mile wide, the centre of which has been rudely torn out by volcanic action, leaving merely an irregular outer shell, and the crater walls which divide the lakes. On the west this shell is considerably thicker and higher than on the other sides, and is the part which is generally called 'The Mount'; within this barrier and almost under the shadow of the mount lie the hikes. Traces of subterranean fires are still seen, and it would appear from the names of places that his Satanic Majesty at one time intruded into this 'garden of the colony' as he did of old into the Garden of Eden. The Blue Lake was, from its murky color, formerly known as ' The Devil's Ink stand,' and as it ia a pretty large one, it is not likely that any sins will go unrecorded for want of ink. There are several fissures in the rocks called ' Blowholes,' where, no doubt, Old Nick came to take a whiff of fresh air after his arduous labor of writing in the sultry atmosphere of the infernal regions. Close at hand is ' The Devil's Punch Bowl,' where perhaps he was wont to regale him self after «n unusual stroke of good luck. The Punch Bowl is now dry and empty,

and, as there are seven churches in the township, it is supposed that the devil has deserted the neighborhood, although some people whisper that traces of the cloven foot are still to be seen. But here we are after * rather tiresome ascent, on the top of the mount at last. The highest part is said to be 900 feet above the sea level, but this I think is some thing of an exaggeration. It is a calm morning, and the breath of early summer can just be felt in the air. The view is magnificent-— woods, waters, town, meadow, and mountain — everything that can conspire to make a beautiful landscape are beneath me, with the dim outline of the sea in the distance. Looking south, a level wooded country extends to Port McDonnell, the houses and shipping of which can be dis cerned with a glass in the distance. About midway is Mount Schanck, which, like the battered crown of an immense hat, projects from the plain ; nearer is O.B. Flat with its green fields of potatoes. Westward, a narrow strip of the Blue Lake can be seen in the foreground, the greater part of the surface being shut out by its high banks. Beyond it. is Glenburnie. the hon-growing

district, with its homesteads and patches of cultivation — thence a well-timbered country extends to the border. To the eastward, sloping away from the side of the mount are the fertile meadows of Moorak, Dr. Browne's estate, laid out with English grasses. Beyond, a rich pastoral country extends seaward to Carpenter's Rocks, which are just visible in the background. On a very clear day, it is said that the mouth of the Gleneig River can be seen from the top of the mount, but now, like the enchanted valley in Mirza's Vision, ' the clouds rest upon it,' and hide it from my view: It is to the north, however, that the greatest beauty of the scene meets one's eye looking towards the town, with the valley and the lakes at his feet. 'Which together lie, As quietly as spots of sky Among the evening clouds.' At the very foot of the precipitous inner side of the mount is the little sheet of water known as Browne's Lake. On the opposite side of the crater is the Valley Lake, and between the two, and around their low banks, a small strip of fertile pasture extends, on which cattle and sheep are grazing contentedly. On the far side of the Valley Lake the banks rise abruptly in a huge wall of black rock from the water, and on the top stands the Hospital over looking the lake on one side and the town of Mount Gambier on the other. Beyond the town, and extending in the distance, is

wooded grazing country with occasional homesteads and gardens dotting the land scape, and white roads leading through it. Such is the view, but description must altogether fail to give an adequate idea of the beauty of the scene. The Blue Lake is generally spoken of as the prettiest sight in the neighborhood; but to my mind, the Valley Lake — with the little glen around it ' shut out from the rude gaze of the world' —has even a greater charm. The little valley at the foot of the mount, with its hikes and quiet pastures, seems a paradise of tranquil repose, and forms a delightful picture, which will long remain in my memory. Returning from the mount I had a look through the Hospital. The fame of Dr. Jackson, as an occulist is known far and wide, and persons come from all parts of the colony to consult him. The doctor was at the Melbourne races when I was there, but I was obligingly shown through the build ing by his assistant and ascended the tower, the view from which is nearly as ex tensive as from the mount with the ad vantage of a view of the mount itself as it stands frowning over the peaceful valley beneath. One iB almost tempted to wish to be an invalid here, so picturesquely is their abode situated on the verge of the lake.

But the beauties of Mount Gambier have led me to extend my tetter far more than I intended. So I shall reserve for my next and concluding chapter a short account of the district around and the voyage home. {To be continued.)

There must be something wrong about the family government when a fouryear old boy is overheard praying: 'O Lord take all the naughty :, out of Johnny, and all the scold out of papa, and all the punish out of mamma. Amen.' A ' suicidal machine' has been invented by an ingenious Englishman, at least so says the Brussels National. The would-be suicide sits down quietly in a softly cushioned arm-chair, and by leaning his

head back opens a small reservoir contain ing a powerful narcotic. Overpowered by the fumes he sinks further down in the chair, and so touches a spring, which dis charges eight revolvers simultaneously into his body. A clerk in a city house recently asked for a half-day's absence because he wanted to attend a funeral in the country. When he returned the next morning with red hands and a freckled face,; his employer asked quietly, ' where are the fish ?' 'I hope this is not counterfeit,' said a lover, as he toyed With his sweetheart's hand. 'The best way to find out is to ring it,' was the quick reply.

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