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passengers regretted, almost to a man, that they had ventured of the ocean. These periods of remorse were subsequent to "upheavals of the deep", or followed soon after our honest endeavour to enforcce temperance by emptying all the vinous and spirituous beverages - into ourselves.
The equator was the strangest looking object seen on the voyage. It is invisible except to those who have never seen it before. The north side is smooth & level. When we crossed it there was a fall of about eighty feet followed on the south side by rapids and rough weather - and the remorse & headache previously referred to.
I was at Adelaide just a month. Saw all the sights of the city, met a good many people & had a pleasant time generally. I introduced myself as a botanist to Mr. J. G. O. Tepper , curator of the S.A. Museum, who invited me to his house and showed me his herbarium, also offering to exchange S. A. plants for Nebraska ones which offer was of course accepted. I also called at the department of Agriculture spent one day at the "college farm" near Gawler, some thirty five miles from Adelaide, attended a meeting of the Royal Society by invitation of Mr. T. and also visited the Government Farm at Belair The latter body of land is intended as a park for the preservation and culture of native trees. The land is rolling & covered with the original "bush" principally Eucalyptus species. The rest of the time was spent in fishing at the sea shore, tramping in the hills, and playing the "gentleman of leisure." The Adelaide Botanical Gardens are very fine, arranged to suit the popular taste rather than as a scientific collection, yet very interesting. The characteristic feature of the S.A. flora is that every plant is thorny, prickly, thickly tomentose or strongly scented. The flowers are strikingly brilliant. Every thing seems to have developed self protective traits.
There is a sameness about the "bush that is tiresome. it is a thickly wooded rolling prairie with gum trees of all shapes and sizes. Mile after mile it stretches away in every direction, no birds, no animals, no men, only the sheep and the rabbits. People tell me that fifty years ago the bush country was alive with animal life. Now the flies, mosquitos, snakes and magpies are the sole native occupants. All the rest have been "civilized" out of existence, some what on the old Roman plan of making a desert & calling it peace. Only in this case they have made a desert so as to be