and without the long tail; easily shot and eatable, and feeds, I believe, much like our wood-pigeons. [Footnote:  It feeds more on insects.] The pigeon here is a beautiful bird, of a delicate bronze colour, tinged with pink about the neck, and the wings marked with green and purple.  They are tame, and nicer eating than those at home.  Where we are, we have abundance of food; plenty of mutton, and we can get a duck, pigeon, or cockatoo whenever we like, almost without going out of sight of our hut, besides a good supply of fish in the river; Murray cod, which in the Murray are said sometimes to weigh eighty pounds, but in our creeks generally run from two to twelve; also a kind of mussel, and a fish like a lobster, not quite so large, but good eating. [Footnote:  Crawfish; the river lobster.]

Everyone who comes out does a very foolish thing in bringing such a quantity of clothes that he never wants.  All you require, even in Melbourne, is a blue shirt, a pair of duck trousers, a straw hat or wide-awake, and what they call a jumper here.  It is a kind of outside shirt, made of plaid, or anything you please, reaching just below the hips, and fastened round the waist with a belt.  It would be a very nice dress for Charley. [Footnote:  His youngest brother, at home.] I should wear it myself if I were in England.  It ought to be made with a good-sized collar, and open at the breast, like a waistcoat, only to button at the neck, if required.  We brought out the wrong sort of straw hat, as they are only fit for summer, but we sold all but two.  One I made six shillings of, but the cabbage-tree hat is worth a pound.  No one should bring out more than he can carry on his back, except it be to sell.  Boots and shoes are at a great price, but they should be thick and strong.  Wages are very high for butchers, carpenters, and bakers.  A butcher’s boy can get 3 pounds a week, with board and lodging.  Bullock-drivers get the same.  Innkeepers are making fortunes.  I know a public-house, not larger than the Two Mile Oak, [Footnote:  A small public-house between Totnes and Newton.] that cleared 500 pounds in three months, so it was reported.  Sydney, I hear, is as cheap to live in as London.  As to the diggings, I cannot say much about them.  I have seen many who have made money there, and many who have lost it again.  It is generally spent as fast as it is got.  I hope we shall send you some specimens of gold dust soon.  Please to give my love to my mother and all at home.

From your affectionate and dutiful son,

W.J.  Wills.

. . .

His subsequent letters were of the same kind, descriptive of his management in his shepherd’s life in the bush.  He tells how he converted legs of mutton into excellent hams by pickling and smoking them; and how he also obtained preserves of melons, by sowing seeds which produced abundantly.  The flies and ants were their greatest torment, particularly the former.  The heat was not great, as there was