Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/323

 kids were silhouetted against the clear blue sky like a scrap of Swiss scenery. The town from this side is scattered along the shore, and the slopes above it half hidden in tropical foliage. Below us were the Botanical Gardens, the hospital embowered in trees, with the patients lying out on a shady balcony. Everywhere was the heavy scent and glorious bouquets of gold and white frangipani. We had been sent in the wrong direction, and missed the path, so that the ascent was very steep and rough, but we went on, slipping and scrambling up among falling stones, clinging on where we could, among big butter-*flies and lizards, and large brown grasshoppers with black spots. As we climbed higher Townsville spread itself out beneath us charmingly. Bungalows nestled among vivid green foliage, beyond were the blue bay, and its boats, ours amongst them, riding gaily at anchor, with the dark green wooded mass of "Magnetic Island" rising behind. Higher still we rested, while a fish hawk soared far above in the clear blue, and on the southern side Townsville looked like nothing but a vast mud flat with the river winding through it, and houses dotted among the mangrove swamps. One fancied that one big wave might submerge the whole.

On Wednesday we sailed early, keeping fairly