The letter with which we shall conclude
our extracts, is from a convict—the only one
before us, from any member of that class.

New South Wales.
Dear Affectionate Wife and family
I with pleasure embrace this first Oppertunity
of addressing these few lines to you hoping
by the blessing of God they will find you in the
perfect enjoyment of Good Health as it leaves me
at present thank God for it. I wrote you a letter
to you while our stay at the Cape of Good Hope
which I hoped you received. We abode there one
week and we arrived at Port Jackson in Sydney
on the 8th day of June after a fine and pleasing
voyage for 4 Callender Months wanting two days
only. Nothing worth Mentioning happened all
the Voyage. Only 2 of our unhapy Number was
taken away from us by death. While lying in
Sydney Harbour I engaged for one twelve Month
and am now for the present time situated up in
the country, in not so quite a comfortable position
as I should wish but I must bear it for a short
time, and as conveniences will allow I shall be in
Sydney to work. Dear Wife You can come out
to Me as soon as it pleases you and also my Sister
and I will provide for you a comfortable Situation
and Home as a good one as ever lies in my power,
And When you come or send You must come to
My Masters House at Sydney. He is a rich a
Gentleman known by every one in this colony,
and you must come out as emigrants, and when
you come ask for me as a emigrant and never use
the word Convict or the ship Hashemy on your
Voyage never let it be once named among you,
let no one know your business but your own
selves, and When you Land come to my Masters
a enquire for me and thats quite sufficient. Dear
Wife do not you cumber yourself with no more
luggage than is necessary for they are of no use
out here you can bring your bed and bedclothes
and sufficient clothes for yourself and family. You
can buy for yourself a tin hook pot to hang on
before the fire in the Gally to boil tea at times
when it is required. And a few Oranges and
lemons for the Sea Sickness or any thing you
please. Dear Wife this is a fine Country and a
beautiful climate it is like a perpetual Sumer,
and I think it will prove congenial for your health,
No wild beast nor anything of the Sort out here,
fine beautiful birds and every thing seems to smile
with pleasure Cockatoos as plentiful and common
as crows in England Provisions of Every kind is
very cheap you can buy Beef at 1d penny per lb
flour 11/2d per lb tea 2s per Ib and Sugar at 2d
per lb and other things as cheep. but this is
every poor mans diet. Wages is not so very high
out here not so much as they are in England.
I have Nothing more to Say at Present more than
this is just the country where we can end our
days in peace and contentment when we meet.
I send my kind love and best of wishes to you all
and every one related to you and me, to your
father and Mother. Sisters and Brothers,
aquaintences and friends and to every one who may
ask for me. I send my kind love to you all and
especially to my wife and children.
Farewell.

These 'simple annals of the poor,' written
for no eyes but those to which they were
addressed, are surely very pleasant to read, and
very affecting. We earnestly commend to all
who may peruse them, the remembrance of
these affectionate longings of the heart, and
the consideration of the question whether
money would not be well lent or even spent in
re-uniting relatives and friends thus parted,
and in sending a steady succession of people
of all laborious classes (not of any one
particular pursuit) from places where they are not
wanted, and are miserable, to places where
they are wanted, and can be happy and
independent.

MILKING IN AUSTRALIA.—This is a very serious
operation. First, say at four o'clock in the
morning, you drive the cows into the stock-yard,
where the calves have been penned up all the
previous night, in a hutch in one corner. Then
you have to commence a chase after the first cow,
who, with a perversity common to Australian
females, expects to be pursued two or three times
round the yard, ankle deep in dust or mud,
according to the season, with loud halloas and a
thick stick. This done, she generally proceeds
up to the fail, a kind of pillory, and permits her
neck to be made fast. The cow safe in the fail,
her near hind leg is stretched out to its full
length, and tied to a convenient post with the
universal cordage of Australia, a piece of green
hide. At this stage, in ordinary cases, the milking
commences; but it was one of the hobbies of Mr.
Jumsorew, a practice I have never seen followed
in any other part of the colony, that the cow's tail
should be held tight during the operation. This
arduous duty I conscientiously performed for
some weeks, until it happened one day that a
young heifer slipped her head out of an ill-fastened
fail, upset milkman and milkpail, charged the
Head Stockman, who was unloosing the calves,
to the serious damage of a new pair of fustians,
and ended, in spite of all my efforts, in clearing
the top rail of the stock-yard, leaving me flat
and flabbergasted at the foot of the fence.—
From ' Scenes in the Life of a Bushman'
(Unpublished.)

METAL IN SEA-WATER.—The French savans,
MM. Malaguti, Durocher, and Sarzeaud, announce
that they have detected in the waters of the
ocean the presence of copper, lead, and silver.
The water examined appears to have been taken
some leagues off the coast of St. Malo, and the
fucoidal plants of that district are also found to
contain silver. The F.serratus and the F.
ceramoides yielded ashes containing 1-1 00000th, while
the water of the sea contained but little more than
1-100000000th. They state also that they find
silver in sea-salt, in ordinary muriatic acid, and in
the soda of commerce; and that they hare
examined the rock-salt of Lorraine, in which also
they discover this metal. Beyond this, pursuing
their researches on terrestrial plants, they have
obtained such indications as leave no doubt of the
existence of silver in vegetable tissues. Lead is
said to be always found in the ashes of marine
plants, usually about an 18-100000th part—and
invariably a trace of copper. Should these results
be confirmed by further examination, we shall
have advanced considerably towards a knowledge
of the phenomena of the formation of mineral
veins.—Athenaeum.