the reverse of Great Britain .

December, the month of frost and snow in this dreary

climate , is the warmest
month in the year in Australia ; and while John Bull is just sitting down to a
nine-o'clock supper, the colonist is
preparing for breakfast.
To return to our journal .
we left off at the hundredth day from the Downs, during which period we had sailed
by computation , in round
numbers, 15,000 miles; thus averaging 150 miles per day, which is pretty near the
rate of sailing of ordinary
ships. The same distance has been accomplished by clipper barques in eighty days ;
and now that a steam -
packet service has been regularly established, the voyage out may be done in sixty
days. To those who are
restricted to time this mode of conveyance will no doubt be the most preferable ;
but for comfort during such
a long voyage, give us a good roomy cabin in a first class sailing vessel. In this
respect old voyagers like
ourselves look upon a ship just as an old traveller on shore estimates an inn, -not
for its architectural beauty
outside, but its convenient arrangements and table com forts within ; we prefer the
snug cabin , good table,
and civil captain , with ordinary speed, to the swiftest clippers and steamers in
the trade, if they are wanting in
these requisites. At the same time we should not take a passage in any old “ tub ”
because it was cheap ; for
there we should be doubtful of the particulars set forth in the bill of fare being
carried out liberally. The ship to
be preferred is where the owners have the means to send her to sea well stored, and
a gentleman to
command her. It is reasonable to suppose that the best ship is the cheapest in the
end for all classes of
passengers, and most profitable to the ship-owner ; for in a long voyage like that
to Australia, speed and full
provisioning are matters of the first importance, where a deficiency in the latter
frequently prolongs the
voyage by stopping on the way for supplies. During this period seamen's wages and
the consumption of
food increase the ship's disbursements, without yielding any equivalent. In order,
therefore, to lessen
expenses as much as possible, the owner of a slow-sailing vessel buys provi sions
of an inferior quality,
which he puts on the table after the third or fourth week at sea, and continues to
serve them out until within a
few weeks of the termination of the voyage. In a few instances the captains of such
vessels have been
prosecuted in the colonies for non-fulfilment of agreement, and have been justly
fined. But we are certain that
the majority of such cases of imposition have not been exposed ; not merely from
the inexperience of
emigrants in such matters, but from the desire that all men feel to hush up
grievances on the passage as
soon as they reach the port of their destination.
By this time our voyage was fast drawing to a close ; a brisk westerly breeze
sprang up, with fair weather,
which the captain told us was indicative of our proximity to Bass's Strait, which
we should enter on the
morrow, our 104th day from England, when he hoped another day would bring us inside
the harbour of Port
Phillip , our destination being the far -famed gold colony of Victoria.
The intelligent reader will perceive, on taking a cursory glance at the ship's
track marked out on the small
map of the world, the reason we stated at the commencement of this chapter why the
voyage from England to
Australia is the safest, considering the distance, which can be made on the globe.
Immediately the vessel
clears the chops of the Channel and sails into blue water, she has the whole width
of the North and South
Atlantic Oceans before her " where to choose ;" in nautical language, she has
abundance of “ sea room ,"”
consequently she avoids the hot blasts from the African shores, and likewise keeps
far aloof from the
hurricane latitudes of the West India Islands, crossing the equator mid-way between
the two continents,
where the deadly influence of theland under the torrid zone is powerless; running
down her latitude in the
South Atlan tic, she skirts the straight lands of the Brazil coast, where there is
no dangerous lee shore, with
the steady south-east trade -wind to carry her along ; then, immediately that she
reaches the temperate
regions in the southern hemisphere, she can steer for a latitude amongst the
forties, and if a well-appointed
ship, not requiring to put in at the Cape, she has a fair wind all theway to
Australia, across both the South
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To shorten the voyage out, some spirited mariners,
taking advantage of the latest
discoveries in their profession, have adopted the practice of great circle sailing.
This system is simply
illustrated by a ship running down her longitude from the South Atlantic ocean to
the Australian coast upon
the arc of a circle, which describes the rotundity of the earth, instead of plane
sailing, according to Mercator’s
projection, which supposes the globe to be flattened out, as shewn in the
accompanying chart. By this
method of sailing no less than a thousand miles will be saved in the length of the
voyage . In the foregoing
log , having sailed from England after summer in the northern hemisphere, we were
in time to meet the
summer in the southern hemisphere, thus experiencing two midsummer days in one year
- 21st June and
December.
Pacing the deck during the middle- watch that night with our anxious captain, we
heard the look-out in the
forecastle reports a light on our lee-bow. This was soon determined, on reference
to the chart, to be the