The only ill result of our nocturnal fatigues was that we rose late, the sun being high in the heavens ere we awoke. We were just about to ask for our driver, when he made his appearance, and told us he was ready to proceed. He had paid hire for fresh horses at Wulongong, and hoped to make the rest of the journey without further interruption. While they were being put to, we re-entered the hut, and now perceived the small space within which ourselves, three persons, had passed the night on benches, chairs, and tables. The light of day did not belie the hospitality of our reception. The furniture was rude but clean. What most surprised us was the number of massive books which stood on a small shelf, carefully arranged. They were by much the most valuable part of the furniture, and the proprietor seemed to be aware of this. The books had been the property of a schoolmaster, who had exchanged their spiritual contents against spirits of another nature. The host gave "tick" to the schoolmaster, and thus gradually possessed himself of the entire collection, no inconsiderable number, of interesting works, which now passed from hand to hand on holidays or after the day's work was over; the desire for knowledge of the settlers in this primitive Australian forest thus finding ample room to expand itself in many useful and learned particulars of foreign lands and peoples. Towards 1 P.M. we reached Campbelton. At the hotel where we alighted was installed a lodge of Odd Fellows, newly instituted. The first visible result of its organization was almost universal intoxication! In the streets and the public-houses, everywhere crowds of drunken men were staggering about. Every third house in Campbelton is a whisky shop! Throughout the colony the consumption of ardent spirits has reached an alarming height, being estimated at £6 per head of the entire population annually! Besides the spirits manufactured in the colony itself, New South Wales imports annually £1,000,000 of wine, beer, brandy, and other descriptions of liquor; a greater consumption of spirits than in any other country of the globe![17] The rest of our return journey being by rail was performed in two hours. The telegraph is in full activity between Campbelton and Sydney, the charge for a message of ten words being two shillings, and two-pence for each succeeding word. Towards 6 P.M. we reached Sydney, driving in the present instance to the Australian club, where accommodation had in the kindest manner been provided for us. While one section of our staff had been making the excursion southwards which we have just described, among the forests and barrens of the Illawara district, another party visited the sources of Hunter River and the Newcastle coal-fields, whence they returned laden with botanical, mineralogical, entomological, and palæontological collections, samples of coal, fossil plants, and specimens of the Silurian formations.