Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/51

 bushes were so common that I saw clothes hung out to dry upon them. Soon after we had landed we strolled out to look about us, and as our first wish naturally was to see something of the "bush," we walked to the top of Mount Eliza, but the beauty of the wild flowers was over, as the intense heat of the summer had commenced. I was, however, much pleased at finding a low-growing geranium, with a very sweet-scented leaf; and my false impression that there were no singing birds in Australia was agreeably contradicted by hearing one with two or three very sweet notes.

As we were to remain but a short time in Perth, and then to proceed to the chaplaincy to which my husband was appointed, at some distance up the country, it was necessary to make arrangements to have our heavy goods landed from the ship as soon as possible. We soon learned that it was usual that all cumbrous and weighty packages should be carried from the ship direct to Perth, and that it was unnecessary to pass them through the custom-house at Fremantle, provided that they had been examined on board before having been finally fastened up. Luckily the captain had advised us to have this done before we left the vessel, so that we had no custom-house difficulties to contend with now, and could arrange matters in the manner most convenient to ourselves with reference to our journey into the interior. We engaged a man who agreed to fetch our goods from the anchorage in a cargo-boat, and to deposit them at the wharf at Guildford, a small town about eight or nine miles from Perth, from whence they would be carried up the country in some of the carts or wagons which had brought down