on the island, and stated many very interesting facts connected with them.  From what he says, there is no place in the world, except Iceland, where boiling springs and geysers are so large and plentiful.  The doctor goes home by this mail, and I suppose there will soon be a good work published by him, giving a description of all he has seen.  I hope to visit New Zealand as soon as I return from the interior of this country.

Ever your affectionate son,

William J. Wills.

. . .

It will be perceived by the foregoing letters how diligently and anxiously he corresponded with his mother, sisters, and brother in England, and how anxiously he desired the mental improvement of the latter.  In his next communications he prepares them for the probability of his being one of the exploring party.  Yet he wrote on the subject as he had done to me, with reserve, until the matter should be finally settled.  He knew the anxiety it would occasion, and in the event of his not obtaining the appointment he so earnestly sought for, he wished to avoid creating that anxiety unnecessarily.

The same mail which bore his letter of the 18th of November to his mother, carried also the following to his sister: 

My dear Bessy,

I do not mean to bother you with such a long letter this time as I did last month, and which I hope reached you.  I rather expected to have received the photograph I wrote to you for by the last mail.  I wish you would indite some good long letters by return of post, as it will probably be the last, or very nearly so, that I shall get from you for many months.  It seems very likely that I shall be leaving Melbourne in March, to accompany the expedition for the exploration of the interior of this continent.  It is calculated that we shall be away for about three years.  It may be more, but it is not likely to be much less.  It is not yet certain that I shall go.  In fact, nothing is decided, not even who will be the leader; but I thought it would be as well to mention it to you now, as your answer to this cannot reach me until March.  But remember that my going away need not prevent your writing frequently; for it is likely there will be occasional means of communication with Melbourne for the first six months, and Professor Neumayer will take every opportunity of forwarding my letters.  It is quite possible that I may not go, but it is more likely that I shall, as Professor N. is very anxious that I should, to make magnetic and meteorological observations, and he is on the Exploration Committee.  If you have not been able to get the books I wrote for, for myself, you may as well leave them for the present.  I have been indulging greatly in operas lately.  I can understand that sort of music better than high-flown oratorios.  The operatic company at the Theatre Royal is not first-rate, but as good as we can expect to have in a new colony like this.  The pieces they have given are Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, and La Sonnambula; the latter is a delightful one, but they cannot manage it satisfactorily, some of the songs are so difficult of execution.