series m 
 
OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 CAZJFOR^ 
 
The Land of the Kangaroo. 
 
TRAVEL ADVENTURE SERIES. 
 
 IN WILD AFRICA. The Adventures of Two 
 Youths in the Sahara Desert. By Thomas 
 W. Knox. 325 pages, with six illustrations by 
 H. Burgess. i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. The Ad- 
 ventures of Two Youths in the Great Island 
 Continent. By Thomas W. Knox. 350 
 pages, with five illustrations by H. Burgess. 
 i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 *#* Col. Knox's sudden death, ten days after complet- 
 ing " The Land of the Kangaroo" leaves unfinished this 
 series of travel stories for boys which he had planned. 
 The publishers announce that the remaining volumes of 
 this series will be issued, although the work will be done 
 by another ' s hand. 
 
 Attnouncemcnt concerning the remaining volumes of 
 this series will be made later. 
 
■p 
 
 'we passed a ship becalmed in the doldrums." 
 
THE 
 
 Land of the Kangaroo. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUTHS IN A JOURNEY THROUGH 
 THE GREAT ISLAND CONTINENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS W. KNOX. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " IN WILD AFRICA," " THE BOY TRAVELERS,' 
 
 (l5 VOLS.) "OVERLAND THROUGH 
 
 ASIA," ETC., ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY H. BURGESS. 
 
 Boston, U. S. A. 
 W. A. WILDE & COMPANY, 
 
 25 Brom field Street. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1896. 
 
 By W. A. WILDE & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 The rapidly increasing prominence of the Australian 
 colonies during the past ten or twenty years has led to the 
 preparation of the volume of which this is the preface. 
 Australia has a population numbering close upon five mil- 
 lions and it had prosperous and populous cities, all of them 
 presenting abundant indications of collective and individual 
 wealth. It possesses railways and telegraphs by thousands 
 of miles, and the productions of its farms, mines, and plan- 
 tations aggregate an enormous amount. It has many mil- 
 lions, of cattle and sheep, and their number is increasing 
 annually at a prodigious rate. 
 
 Australia is a land of many wonders, and it is to tell the 
 story of these wonderland of the growth and development 
 of the colonies of the antipodes, that this volume has been 
 written. 
 
 T. W. K. 
 
 (£582GI 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 
 WEST COAST OF AFRICA — Adventure in the South 
 
 Atlantic Ocean 1 1 
 
 THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE — The Southern Ocean — 
 
 Australia 2S 
 
 A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS— Transportation to 
 
 Australia 49 
 
 STRANGE ADVENTURES — Australian Aboriginals . . 67 
 ACROSS AUSTRALIA— Tallest Trees in the World . . 83 
 AUSTRALIAN BLACKS — Throwing the Boomerang . . 100 
 ADELAIDE TO MELBOURXE — The Rabbit Pest — 
 
 Dangerous Exotics 115 
 
 CANNIBAL BLACKS — Melbourne and its Peculiarities . 131 
 "THE LAUGHING JACKASS "— Australian Snakes 
 
 and Snake Stories 146 
 
 THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE — Convict Hulks and 
 
 Bushrangers 158 
 
 GEELONG — Australian Gold Mines — Finding a Big 
 
 Nugget 173 
 
 A SOUTHERLY BURSTER — Western Victoria ... 190 
 JOURNEY UP COUNTRY — Anecdotes of Bush Life . . 204 
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH— Australian Horses 218 
 
 EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION — A Kan- 
 garoo Hunt 233 
 
 HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS — An 
 
 Australian Sheep Run 250 
 
 FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY — Crossing the Blue 
 
 Mountains 269 
 
 SIGHTS OF SYDNEY — Botany Bay and Paramatta . . 2S4 
 COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE— Sugar Plantation in 
 
 Queensland — The End 29S 
 
 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 "We passed a ship becalmed in the doldrums " . . Frontispiece. iS 
 
 " Harry had obtained a map of Australia "...... 56 
 
 A visit to the Zoological Garden . . . . . . . . 147 
 
 " There they go ! " shouted Mr. Syme ....... 242 
 
THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WEST COAST OF AFRICA ADVENTURE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 ATLANTIC OCEAN. 
 
 "T Tl TE don't want to stay long in this place." 
 
 VV "I don't think we do, sir," was the reply. 
 
 " The sooner we leave it, the better." 
 " That is so," said Harry ; " I quite agree with you. I 
 wonder how white men manage to live here at all." 
 
 This conversation occurred at Bonny, a trading station 
 on one of the mouths of the river Niger in Western 
 Africa. In former times Bonny was a famous resort for 
 slave traders, and great numbers of slaves were sent from 
 that place to North and South America. In addition to 
 slave trading, there was considerable dealing in ivory, 
 palm oils, and other African products. Trade is not as 
 prosperous at Bonny nowadays as it was in the slave-deal- 
 ing times, but there is a fair amount of commerce and the 
 commissions of the factors and agents are very large. 
 Bonny stands in a region of swamps, and the climate ex- 
 hales at all times of the year pestilential vapors which are 
 not at all suited to the white man. Most of the white 
 residents live on board old hulks which are moored to the 
 bank of the river, and they find these hulks less unhealthy 
 
12 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 than houses on shore, for the reason that they are less 
 exposed to the vapors of the ground. 
 
 The parties to the conversation just quoted were Dr. 
 Whitney and his nephews, Ned and Harry ; they had just 
 arrived at Bonny, from a visit to Lake Chad and Tim- 
 buctoo, and had made a voyage down the Niger, which has 
 been described in a volume entitled " In Wild Africa." 
 
 One of the residents told Dr. Whitney that all the coast 
 of the Bight of Benin, into which the Niger empties by its 
 various mouths, was quite as unhealthy as Bonny. " We 
 don't expect anybody to live more than three or four years 
 after taking up his residence here," the gentleman re- 
 marked, " and very often one or two years are sufficient 
 to cany him off. The climate is bad enough, but it isn't 
 the climate that is to blame for all the mortality, by any 
 means. The great curse of the whole region is the habit 
 of drinking. Everybody drinks, and drinks like a fish, 
 too. When you call on anybody, the servants, without 
 waiting for orders, bring a bottle of brandy, or whiskey, 
 or something of the sort, and place it on the table between 
 the host and the visitor. You are expected to drink, and 
 the man who declines to do so is looked upon as a milk- 
 sop. When one rises in the morning, his first call is for 
 brandy and soda, and it is brand}^ and whiskey, and cham- 
 pagne, or some other intoxicant, all the day long. The 
 climate is bad enough without any help, but the drinking 
 habit of the residents along the Bight of Benin is worse 
 than the climate, and everybody knows it ; but, somehow 
 or other, everybody is reckless and continues to drink, 
 knowing perfectly well what the result will be." 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 1 3 
 
 Dr. Whitney had already made observations to the 
 same effect, and remarked that he thought the west coast of 
 Africa would be a good field of labor for an advocate of 
 total abstinence. His new acquaintance replied that it 
 might be under ordinary circumstances, but that the con- 
 ditions of the region where they were were not ordinary. 
 It was necessary to remember that the men who went to 
 West Africa for purposes of trade were of a reckless, 
 adventurous sort, having little regard for the future and 
 determined to make the most of the present. Men of this 
 class take very naturally to habits of dissipation, and would 
 turn a deaf ear to any advocate of temperance who might 
 come among them. 
 
 Fortunately for our friends, the)- were detained at Bonny 
 only a single day. A small steamer which runs between 
 Bonn)'- and Fernando Po took them to the latter place, 
 which is on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, and has a 
 mountain peak ten thousand feet high. This peak is 
 wooded to the summit with fine timber, and altogether the 
 island is a very attractive spot to the eye, in comparison 
 with Bonny and the swampy region of the lower Niger. 
 
 Port Clarence, the harbor of Fernando Po, is said to be 
 one of the prettiest places of Western Africa. The town 
 consists of a group of houses somewhat irregularly placed, 
 and guarded by a fort which could be knocked down in a 
 few hours by a fleet of modern warships. 
 
 Our friends went on shore immediately after their arrival, 
 and found quarters in what Ned called an apology for a 
 hotel. Fernando Po is the property of Spain, and the 
 inland is one of the State prisons of that country. Some 
 
H 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 of the prisoners are kept in hulks in the harbor, while 
 others are confined in the fort. Not infrequently prisoners 
 escape and find shelter among the Adyia, the tribe of 
 natives inhabiting the island. They are a peaceful people, 
 but have a marked hatred for civilization. They rarely 
 come into the town, and none of them will consent to live 
 there. Their huts or villages are scattered over the 
 forests, and when visitors go among them they are kindly 
 treated. The town of Port Clarence is occupied by a few 
 white men and a considerable number of negroes from 
 Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other regions along the coast. 
 
 "This will be as good a place to get away from as 
 Bonny," the doctor remarked to his nephews, as they 
 were strolling about Port Clarence. 
 
 "I have observed,'" said Harry, "that the wind is 
 blowing directly from the coast, and therefore is bring- 
 ing with it the malarias of the swampy region which we 
 have just left." 
 
 "That is quite true," the doctor answered, "and the 
 circumstance you mention makes a long stay here un- 
 desirable. Have you noticed that many of the natives 
 here seem to be suffering from skin diseases of one kind 
 or another? 
 
 "I observed that," replied Ned, " and was wondering 
 what was the cause of it." 
 
 " I was told by a gentleman at the hotel," said the doc- 
 tor, "that there is an ulcer peculiar to this locality which 
 is well-nigh incurable. The slightest abrasion of the 
 cuticle or even the bite of an insect is sufficient to cause it. 
 I was told that it sometimes happens that the bite of a 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 15 
 
 mosquito on the arm or leg will make amputation neces- 
 sary, and an instance of this kind occurred within the past 
 three months. On a first view of the island it looks like 
 a delightful place, hut a nearer acquaintance dispels the 
 illusion. 
 
 " I wonder how long we will be obliged to stay here," 
 Harry remarked. 
 
 " According to the time-table," replied the doctor, "the 
 mail steamer will be here to-morrow ; and if she comes, 
 you ma} T be sure we will take passage on her." 
 
 The steamer came according to schedule, and when she 
 left she carried the three travelers away from Fernando 
 Po. She was an English steamer bound for the Cape of 
 Good Hope. There was hardly any wind blowing when 
 the great ship started out into the Atlantic and headed 
 away to the southward, but the movement of the vessel 
 through the water was sufficient to create a breeze, which 
 our friends greatly enjoyed. They sat beneath the awn- 
 ings which covered the entire length and width of the 
 steamer, studied their fellow-passengers, and now and 
 then cast their eyes over the wide and desolate sweep of 
 waters to the west and south. 
 
 Not a sail was to be seen, a few craft were creeping 
 along the coast, but they were not numerous enough to 
 add animation to the scene. 
 
 We will take from Harry's note-book an incident or two 
 of the voyage. 
 
 "We found a mixed lot of passengers on board the 
 steamer. There were a few Englishmen going to South 
 Africa for the first time, — young fellows seeking their for- 
 
1 6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 tunes, and full of hope and ambition. One of them said 
 he was going up country on a hunting expedition, not for 
 the sport only, but for the money that could be made by 
 the sale of hides, ivory, horns, and other products of the 
 chase. He was quite well informed concerning the busi- 
 ness on which he was bent, and told me that it was the 
 custom for two or more men, generally not above four, to 
 buy wagons, oxen, horses, and provisions in one of the 
 towns on the coast or in the interior, and then strike out 
 into the wild country for an absence of anywhere from 
 three to six or seven months. Their provisions consisted 
 of flour, sugar, tea, pepper, salt, and a few other things. 
 For meat they relied upon what they killed ; and he added 
 that a great deal of meat was needed, as there were from 
 twenty-five to fifty natives attached to a hunting party and 
 all of them had ferocious appetites. 
 
 " They shot anything that came in their way, elephants, 
 buffaloes, elands, gemsbok, and I don't know what else. 
 It was a hard life and not without risk, but it was healthy 
 and full of good sport. He told us so much about his 
 business that Ned and I heartily wished to go with him 
 and have a share in the experience and fun. 
 
 " Another young man was going out as a mining en- 
 gineer and expected to find employment in some of the 
 newly opened gold mines in the Johannisburg district. 
 Another was to become the manager of a large farm forty 
 or fifty miles from Cape Town, which was owned by his 
 uncle. Another young man was going out with no par- 
 ticular object in view, and said he was ready for anything 
 that turned up. 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 1 7 
 
 " Then there were Afrikanders who had been on a visit 
 to England for business, or pleasure, or both combined. 
 One had been there for the express purpose of finding a 
 bride ; he found her, and she was with him as a passenger 
 on the steamer. She and two others were the only lady 
 passengers on the ship ; men greatly predominated among 
 the passengers, and we were told that such was always the 
 case on board one of these steamers. One of the passen- 
 gers was a resident of Durban, the port of Xatal, and he 
 gave us a cordial invitation to visit his place. < You will 
 find Durban a very interesting spot,' said he, ' and the 
 only bad thing about it is getting ashore. There is a nasty 
 sea breaking there most of the time, and it is tedious work 
 getting from a ship into a small boat and then getting safe 
 to land. You must come prepared to be soused with salt 
 water two or three times before you get your feet fairly 
 planted on the shore.' 
 
 " Ned and I concluded that we would not make any 
 special effort to get to Durban, although we had received 
 such a cordial invitation to go there. 
 
 "We had a good breeze," continued Harry, " until we 
 got to within four degrees of the Equator ; then the wind 
 died out and left the sea as smooth as glass, without the 
 least motion upon it anywhere. We seemed to be running 
 through an enormous plate of glass, polished until it shone 
 like the most perfect mirror ever made. As we looked 
 down from the rail inlo the depths of the sea our faces 
 were reflected, and there seemed to be a counterfeit pre- 
 sentment of ourselves gazing at us from the depths below, 
 and, oh, wasn't it hot, blistering, burning hot ! The sun 
 
l8 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 poured down so that the heat pierced our awnings as 
 though no awnings had been there, and the breeze which 
 the ship created by her motion seemed like the blast from 
 a furnace. The pitch oozed from the seams of the plank- 
 ing on the deck, and the deck itself became blistering hot 
 to one's feet. There was not the least stir of the sails and 
 only the faintest motion of the ship from side to side. 
 Respiration became difficult, and, as I looked about, I 
 could see the passengers and sailors yawning and gaping 
 in the effort to draw in their breath. All the metal about 
 the ship became hot, especially the brass. If you touched 
 it, it almost seemed to raise a blister, and the spot with 
 which you touched it was painful for hours. 
 
 "We passed a ship becalmed in the doldrums, as this 
 region is called, and she looked more like a painted ship 
 upon a painted ocean than any other craft I ever saw. 
 Her sails were all hanging loose, and so were all the ropes, 
 and lines, and halyards from one end of the ship to the 
 other. She was as motionless as if she were tied up to a 
 dock in harbor, and there was very little sign of life about 
 her anywhere. I asked one of our officers how long that 
 ship had probably been there and how long she was liable 
 to stay. 
 
 " 'That's a question, young man,' he replied, 'that I 
 can't answer very surely. She may have been there 
 a day or two only, and may stay only a day or so, and 
 then, again, she may have been there a week or a month ; 
 we can't tell without speaking her, and we are not par- 
 ticularly interested in her, anyhow.'" 
 
 Then he went on to explain that ships have been be- 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 
 
 *9 
 
 calmed at the Equator for two months and more, lying 
 all the time in a dead calm, just like the one through which 
 we were passing. 
 
 "Two weeks," he said, "is a fair time for a ship to 
 stay in the doldrums, and you can be sure it is quite long 
 enough for passengers and crew. 
 
 " Passengers and crew sometimes die of the heat, and 
 existence under such circumstances becomes a burden. 
 There are stories about ships that have been in the dol- 
 drums six or eight months at a time, but I am not inclined 
 to believe them ; for a man to stay in this terrific heat for 
 that length of time would be enough to drive him crazy. 
 
 " The steamer was three days in the calm belt of the 
 Equator before we struck the southeast trades, and had a 
 breeze again. I don't want to repeat my experiences 
 with the doldrums. 
 
 " One day I heard a curious story about an incident on 
 board an American ship not far from the Cape of Good 
 Hope. She was from Calcutta, and bound to New York, 
 and her crew consisted of American sailors, with the ex- 
 ception of two Indian coolies who had been taken on 
 board at Calcutta because the ship was short-handed. 
 One of these coolies had been put, one in the starboard 
 and the other in the port watch, and everything had been 
 quiet and peaceable on board the ship until the incident I 
 am about to describe. 
 
 "One night the ship was sailing quietly along, and 
 some of the men noticed, or remembered afterwards, that 
 when the watches were changed, the coolie who had been 
 relieved from duty remained on deck. Shortly after the 
 
20 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 change of watch, the two mates of the ship were standing 
 near the lee rail and talking with each other, when the two 
 coolies came along and one of them made the remark that 
 he was sick. This remark was evidently a signal, for in- 
 stantly one of the coolies drew a knife and stabbed the 
 first mate to the heart, while simultaneously the other 
 coolie sprang with a knife at the second officer and gave 
 him several stabs in the chest. 
 
 " The first mate fell dead at the stroke of the knife, but 
 the second mate had sufficient strength left to crawl to the 
 companionway leading to the captain's room, where he 
 called out, ' Captain Clark ! ' ' Captain Clark ! ' and then 
 ceased to breathe. 
 
 " The captain sprang from his bunk, and rushed on 
 deck in his night-clothes. At the top of the companion- 
 steps he was violently stabbed on the head and seized by 
 the throat ; he was quite unarmed and struck out with his 
 fists at the face of his assailant, hoping to blind him. 
 The coolie continued to stab him, and the captain started 
 back down the steps until he slipped in the blood that 
 covered them, and fell into the cabin, with a terrible 
 wound in his side. He then crawled to where his revolver 
 was, and started up the steps; when half way up, a man 
 rolled down the steps against him and knocked him over., 
 
 "The captain thought it was the coolie, but it proved 
 to be one of the sailors, who was frightened half to death. 
 All he could say was, to beg of the captain to save him. 
 
 " The captain had his wife and child on board, and his 
 wife was roused by the tumult. She came to her hus- 
 band's aid and proceeded to bind up his wounds. While 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 21 
 
 she was doing this one of the coolies smashed in the sky- 
 light, and would have jumped into the cabin had not the 
 captain fired at him with his revolver and drove him away. 
 
 "The next thing the coolies did was to murder the man at 
 the wheel and fling his body overboard. Then they mur- 
 dered the carpenter and a sailor and disposed of them the 
 same way. Including the two mates, five men were slain 
 and four others were wounded. The wounded men and 
 the rest of the crew barricaded themselves in the forecastle 
 for protection, and there they remained the rest of the 
 night and all through the next day. The captain and his 
 wife and child stayed in the cabin. 
 
 " The two coolies were in full possession of the ship from 
 a little past midnight until eight o'clock of the following 
 evening. One of them, venturing near the skylight, was 
 shot in the breast by the captain, and then the two coolies 
 rushed forward and threw a spar overboard. One of them 
 jumped into the sea and clung to the spar, while the other 
 dropped down into the between-decks, where he proceeded 
 to set the ship on fire. Seeing this, the sailors who had 
 barricaded themselves in the forecastle broke out, and two 
 of them proceeded to hunt the coolie down with revolvers. 
 They hunted him out and shot him in the shoulder, and 
 then he jumped overboard and joined his companion. 
 Shots were fired at the two men, and soon afterward they 
 sank. 
 
 " The fire got such headway that it could not be put out. 
 Finally a boat was provisioned and lowered ; the crew 
 entered it, and alter waiting about the ship during the 
 night in the hope that the flames might bring assistance, 
 
2 2 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 they put up a sail and headed for St. Helena. Thus was 
 a ship's crew of twenty-three people overawed and ren- 
 dered helpless by two slender coolies, whom any one of 
 the Yankee crew could have crushed out of existence in a 
 very short space of time. 
 
 "The steamer passed near Ascension Island, but did 
 not stop there. This island is entered in the British 
 Navy List as a commissioned ship. It is nearly three 
 thousand feet high, very rocky and well supplied with 
 fresh water. Ships often stop there for a supply of 
 water and such fresh provisions as are obtainable. The 
 climate is said to be very health}', and when the crews 
 of British naval vessels are enfeebled by a long stay 
 on the African coast, they go to Ascension Island to 
 recruit their strength." 
 
 Ned and Harry were very desirous of visiting the island 
 of St. Helena, which became famous as a prison and for 
 many years the grave of Napoleon. They were disap- 
 pointed on ascertaining that the ship would not stop there, 
 and the officer of whom they made inquiry said there was 
 nothing to stop there for. " The island is not of much 
 account," he said, " and the natives have a hard time to 
 make a living. In the days of sailing ships it was a 
 favorite stopping place and the inhabitants did a good 
 business. The general introduction of steamships, along 
 with the digging of the Suez Canal, have knocked their 
 business all to pieces. 
 
 "Where they used to have a dozen or twenty ships a 
 month, they get about half as many in a year. The build- 
 ings where Napoleon used to live are all gone to ruin, and 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 23 
 
 the sight of them does not pay for the journey one has to 
 make to get there." 
 
 When it was announced that the vessel was nearing the 
 Cape of Good Hope, our young friends strained their eyes 
 in a friendly competition to be first to make it out. Harry 
 was ahead of Ned in discerning the dim outline of Table 
 Mountain, which is well described by its name. It is a flat- 
 topped mountain fronting on the bay on which Cape Town 
 stands. It is about three thousand five hundred feet in 
 height, and is guarded on the left by the Lion's Head, and 
 on the right by the Devil's Berg. The harbor is reached 
 by passing between a small island and the coast, the island 
 forming a very fair shelter for ships that lie inside of it. 
 
 Here the voyage of the steamer came to an end, as she 
 belonged to one of the lines plying between England and 
 the Cape. It became necessary for our friends to look 
 around for another ship to carry them to their destination. 
 They were not in any particular hurry about it, as they 
 were quite willing to devote a little time to the Cape and 
 its peculiarities. 
 
 A swarm of boats surrounded the ship as soon as her 
 anchor was down, and everybody was in a hurry to get 
 on shore. As soon as our friends could obtain a boat, their 
 baggage was passed over the side and they followed it. 
 The boat was managed by a white man, evidently of Dutch 
 origin, who spoke a mixture of Dutch, English, and 
 Hottentot, and perhaps two or three other native languages, 
 in such a confused way that it was difficult to understand 
 him in any. Four negroes rowed the boat and did the 
 work while the Dutchman superintended it. The boat- 
 
24 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 man showed a laudable desire to swindle the travelers, 
 but his intentions were curbed by the stringent regulations 
 established by the city authorities. 
 
 As they neared the landing place, Ned called attention 
 to a swarm of cabs that seemed to be far in excess of any 
 possible demand for them. Harry remarked that he didn't 
 think they would have any lack of vehicles to take them 
 to the hotel, and so it proved. The cab drivers displayed 
 great eagerness in their efforts to secure passengers, and 
 their prices were by no means unreasonable. 
 
 We will listen to Ned as he tells the story of what he 
 saw on landing in Cape Town. 
 
 "The thing that impressed me most was the varying 
 complexion of the inhabitants. They are not exactly of 
 the colors of the rainbow, but they certainly present all the 
 shades of complexion that can be found in the human 
 face. You see fair-haired Englishmen, and English 
 women, too, and then you see negroes so black that char- 
 coal ' would make a white mark on their faces,' as one of 
 my schoolmates used to say. Between these two, so far as 
 color is concerned, you see several shades of negro com- 
 plexion ; and you also see Malays, coolies from India, 
 Chinese, and I don't know what else. The Malays or 
 coolies have drifted here in search of employment, and the 
 same is the case with the Chinese, who are to be found, so 
 Dr. Whitney says, in every port of Asia and Africa. 
 
 " Most of these exotic people cling to their native 
 costume, especially the natives of India, and the Malays, 
 though a good deal depends on the employment in which 
 they engage. Some of the Malays drive cabs, and the 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 25 
 
 drivers usually adopt European dress or a modification of 
 it. Among the white inhabitants the Dutch hold a pre- 
 dominating place, and they are said to outnumber the 
 English ; they are the descendants of the original settlers 
 at the Cape something more than two hundred years ago. 
 They observe their individuality and have an important 
 voice in the local affairs of the colony ; but whenever the 
 English authorities have their mind made up to pursue a 
 certain policy, whether it be for the construction of rail- 
 ways in the interior or the building of docks or break- 
 waters in the harbor of Cape Town, they generally do 
 pretty much as they please. 
 
 " I observed that the people on the streets seem to take 
 things easily and move about with quite a languid air. 
 This was the case with white and colored people alike ; 
 probably the Dutch settlers set the example years and 
 years ago, and the others have followed it. Harry thinks 
 that it is the heat of the place which causes everybody to 
 move about slowly. Some one has remarked that only 
 dogs and strangers walk rapidly ; in Cape Town the only 
 people whom I saw walking fast were some of our fellow- 
 passengers from the steamer. I actually did see a negro 
 running, but the fact is, that another negro with a big 
 stick was running after him. As for the dogs, they 
 seemed just as quiet as their masters. 
 
 " We inquired for the best hotel in Cape Town, and were 
 taken to the one indicated as such. Harry says he thinks 
 the driver made a mistake and took us to the worst; and 
 Dr. Whitney remarks that if this is the best, he doesn't 
 want to travel through the street where the worst one 
 
26 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 stands. We have made some inquiries since coming to 
 this house, and find that it is really the best, or perhaps I 
 ought to say the least bad, in the place. The table is poor, 
 the beds lumpy and musty, and nearly every window has 
 a broken pane or two, while the drainage is atrocious. 
 
 "We are told that the hotels all through South Africa 
 are of the same sort, and the only thing about them that is 
 first class is the price which one pays for accommodation. 
 The hotel is well filled, the greater part of the passengers 
 from our steamer having come here ; but I suppose the 
 number will dwindle down considerably in the next two or 
 three days, as the people scatter in the directions whither 
 they are bound. Most people come to Cape Town in 
 order to leave it. 
 
 " And this reminds me that there are several railways 
 branching out from Cape Town. There is a line twelve 
 hundred miles long to Johannisburg in the Transvaal Re- 
 public, and there are several other lines of lesser length. 
 The colonial government has been very liberal in making 
 grants for railways, and thus developing the business of 
 the colony. Every year sees new lines undertaken, or 
 old ones extended, and it will not be very long before the 
 iron horse goes pretty nearly everywhere over the length 
 and breadth of South Africa. 
 
 ** We have driven along the principal streets of the city, 
 and admired the public buildings, which are both numerous 
 and handsome. We took a magnificent drive around the 
 mountain to the rear of the city, where there are some 
 very picturesque views. In some places the edge of the 
 road is cut directly into the mountain side, and we looked 
 
WEST COAST OF AFRICA. 27 
 
 almost perpendicularly down for five or six hundred feet, 
 to where the waters of the Atlantic were washing the base 
 of the rocks. From the mountain back of Cape Town, 
 there is a fine picture of the city harbor and lying almost at 
 one's feet ; the city, with its rows and clusters of buildings 
 glistening in the sunlight, and the bright harbor, with its 
 docks, breakwaters, and forest of masts in full view of 
 the spectator. From this point we could see better than 
 while in the harbor itself, the advantages of the new break- 
 water. It seems that the harbor is exposed to southeast 
 winds, which are the prevailing ones here. When the 
 wind freshens into a gale, the position of the ships at 
 anchor in the harbor is a dangerous one, and the break- 
 waters have been constructed so as to obviate this danger. 
 When they are completed, the harbor will be fairly well 
 landlocked, and ships may anchor in Table Bay, and 
 their masters feel a sense of security against being driven 
 on shore." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN — 
 
 AUSTRALIA. 
 
 " A \ 7"OULD you like to visit an ostrich farm?" said 
 V V Dr. Whitney, while our friends were at break- 
 fast, on the second morning after their arri- 
 val at Cape Town. 
 
 " I would, for one," said Harry; to which Ned replied, 
 " and so would I." 
 
 " Very well," continued the doctor. " I have an invita- 
 tion to visit an ostrich establishment, and we will start 
 immediately after breakfast. The railway will take us 
 within about three miles of the farm, and the gentleman 
 who has given me the invitation, and included you in it, 
 will accompany us on the train, and his carriage will meet 
 us at the station." 
 
 " That is capital ! " exclaimed Harry. " He will be sure 
 to give us a great deal of information on the subject while 
 we are on the train, so that we can see the farm more in- 
 telligently than would otherwise be the case." 
 
 " Yes, that is so," echoed Ned, " and as he is the pro- 
 prietor of the establishment, he will certainly know all about 
 the business." 
 
 At the appointed time the party assembled at the railway 
 station in Cape Town, and when the train was ready, our 
 friends, accompanied by their host, Mr. Shaffner, took their 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 20. 
 
 places and were soon whirling away towards their destina- 
 tion. For a part of the way the train wound among hills 
 and low mountains, and for another it stretched away across 
 the level or slightly undulating plain. Mr. Shaffner entered 
 at once upon the subject of ostriches, and as he began his 
 conversation, Harry asked him if he had any objections to 
 their taking notes of what he said. 
 
 « Not in the least," was the reply ; " you are welcome 
 to take all the notes you like, and if there is any point that 
 I don't explain fully to your satisfaction, please tell me, 
 and I will be more explicit." 
 
 The youths thanked him for his courtesy, and imme- 
 diately brought out their notebooks and pencils. 
 
 "According to tradition," said Mr. Shaffner, " ostriches 
 were formerly very abundant, wild ones, I mean, all over 
 this part of the country. In the early part of this century 
 they were so numerous in the neighborhood of Cape Town. 
 that a man could hardly walk a quarter of an hour with- 
 out seeing one or more of these birds. As late as 1858, 
 a ilock of twenty or thirty were seen among hills about 
 twenty miles from Cape Town, but after that time they 
 seemed to have disappeared almost entirely. Ostrich 
 farming is an enterprise of the past twenty years, and be- 
 fore it began, the only way of procuring ostrich feathers 
 was by hunting down and killing the wild birds. The 
 practise was cruel, and it was also the reverse of economi- 
 cal. Thoughtful hunters realized this, and a rumor went 
 through the colony that ostriches had been domesticated in 
 Algeria, and were successfully raised for the production 
 of feathers. When this rumor or report went about, it 
 
30 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 naturally set some of us thinking, and our thoughts were, 
 ' Why can't ostrichs be raised here, as well as in Algeria ? ' 
 Several enterprising men proceeded to make experiments. 
 They offered to pay a high price for live birds in good 
 health and condition, and the price they offered induced 
 the natives to set about catching them. 
 
 "Of course we were all in the dark as to the proper 
 method of taking care of ostriches, as the business was 
 entirely new to all of us. We made many mistakes and 
 lost a good many birds. The eggs became addled and 
 worthless, and for the first two or three years it looked as 
 though the experiments would be a failure. Our greatest 
 difficulty was in finding proper food for the birds. We 
 tried them with various kinds of grasses, and we studied 
 as well as we could the habits of the wild bird at home. 
 We found that they needed a certain quantity of alkalies, 
 and they subsisted largely upon the sweet grasses, wher- 
 ever they could find them. The grass called lucerne 
 seems the best adapted to them, and you will find it grown 
 on all ostrich farms for the special purpose of feeding the 
 birds. 
 
 "We have got the business down so fine now that we 
 understand all the various processes of breeding, rearing, 
 herding, feeding, plucking, and sorting. We buy and sell 
 ostriches just as we do sheep. We fence in our flocks, 
 stable them, grow crops for them, study their habits, and 
 cut their feathers as matters of business. We don't send 
 the ecrffs to market along with our butter and cheese, as 
 they are altogether too dear for consumption. It is true 
 that an ostrich egg will make a meal for three or four 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 3 I 
 
 persons ; but at five dollars an egg, which is the usual 
 price, the meal would be a dear one. 
 
 "In fact, the eggs are so precious," he continued, " that 
 we don't allow them to be hatched out by the birds. For 
 fear of accidents, as soon as the eggs have been laid they 
 are taken from the nests and placed in a patent incubator 
 to be hatched out. The incubator makes fewer mistakes 
 than the parent ostriches do. That is to say, if you entrust 
 a given number of eggs to the birds to be hatched out in 
 the natural way, and place the same number in an incuba- 
 tor, you will get a considerably larger proportion of chicks 
 from the latter than from the former. 
 
 "The business of ostrich farming," Mr. Shaffner went 
 on to say, " is spread over the colony from the near 
 neighborhood of Cape Town to the eastern frontier, and 
 from Albany to the Orange River. Ostrich farms were 
 scattered at no great distances apart, and some of the 
 proprietors had a high reputation for their success. He 
 said it must not be understood that ostrich farming was the 
 great industry of the country ; on the contrary, the product 
 of wool was far greater in value than that of feathers, 
 and the ostriches were to the sheep as one is to a thou- 
 sand." 
 
 Harry asked if the birds were allowed to run at large, or 
 were kept constantly in enclosures. 
 
 " Both plans are followed," said Mr. Shaffner, " and 
 some of the farmers allow their flocks to run at large, feed- 
 ing them once a day on grain, for which they must come 
 to the home stable. The ostriches know the hour of feeding 
 as well as if they carried watches, and are promptly on 
 
32 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 hand when their dinner time arrives. In this way they are 
 kept under domestication and accustomed to the presence 
 of men, but occasionally they stray away and disappear. 
 The safer way is to keep a native boy or man constantly 
 with each herd of ostriches, and the herder is held respon- 
 sible for the loss of any bird. 
 
 " Even then the flock may sometimes be frightened and 
 scattered beyond the ability of the herder to bring the birds 
 together. On my farm, I have the ground fenced off into 
 fifty-acre lots. I divide my birds into flocks of twenty-five 
 or thirty, and put them successively in the different lots of 
 land. I sow the ground with lucerne, and do not turn a 
 flock into a field or paddock until the grass is in good con- 
 dition for the birds to eat. 
 
 " You may put it down as a rule on ostrich farms, that 
 plenty of space and a good fence are essential to success. 
 In every paddock you must have a good shed, where the 
 birds can take shelter when it rains. You must also have 
 a kraal or yard in each paddock, where you can drive the 
 birds whenever you want to select some of them for cutting 
 their feathers. It is proper to say, however, that a kraal 
 in each paddock is not necessary, as all that work can be 
 done at the home station, where you have the buildings for 
 artificial hatching and for gathering the feathers." 
 
 Ned asked what kind of ground was best suited for the 
 ostrich. 
 
 ' ' You must have ground where the soil and plants are 
 rich in alkalies," replied Mr. Shaffner, " and when this is 
 not the case, care must be taken to supply the needful ele- 
 ment. Before this matter was understood there was some 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 33 
 
 melancholy failures in the business. A friend of mine 
 started an ostrich farm on a sandstone ridfje. There was 
 no limestone on the farm, and most of the birds died in a 
 few months, and those that lived laid no eggs and produced 
 very few feathers. Limestone was carted to the farm from 
 a considerable distance, and the birds would not touch it. 
 Bones were then tried and with admirable effect. What 
 the birds required was phosphate of lime, and the bones 
 gave them that. They rushed at them with great eager- 
 ness, and as soon as they were well supplied with bones 
 they began to improve in health and to lay eggs. On 
 farms like the one I mentioned, a quarter of a pound of 
 sulphur and some salt is mixed with two buckets of pulver- 
 ized bones, and the birds are allowed to eat as much of 
 this mixture as they like. Where the rocks, grass, and 
 soil contain alkaline salts in abundance, the birds require 
 very little, if any, artificial food, and they thrive, fatten, 
 pair, and lay eggs in the most satisfactory manner." 
 
 "According to the story books," said Harry, "the 
 ostrich will eat anything. But from what vou sav, Mr. 
 Shaffner, it does not seem that that is really the case." 
 
 " The ostrich has a very good appetite, I must sav," was 
 the reply, " and so far as green things are concerned, he 
 will eat almost anything ; lucerne, clover, wheat, corn, 
 cabbage leaves, fruit, grain, and garden vegetables are all 
 welcome, and he eats a certain quantity of crushed lime- 
 stone and bones, and generally keeps a few pebbles in his 
 stomach to assist him in the process of digestion. If he 
 sees a bright sparkling stone on the ground, he is very apt 
 to swallow it, and that reminds me of a little incident about 
 
34 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 two years ago. An English gentleman was visiting my 
 place, and while he was looking around he came close up 
 to the fence of a paddock containing a number of ostriches. 
 An ostrich was on the other side of the fence and close to 
 it. The gentleman had a large diamond in his shirt front, 
 and while he was looking at the bird, the latter, with a quick 
 movement of his head, wrenched the stone from its setting 
 and swallowed it. I see that none of you wear diamonds, 
 and so it is not necessary for me to repeat the caution which 
 I have ever since given to my diamond-wearing visitors." 
 
 " What became of the diamond? " Harry asked. 
 
 " Oh ! my visitor bought the bird and had it killed, in 
 order to get the diamond back again. He found it safe 
 in the creature's stomach, along with several small stones. 
 It was a particularly valuable gem, and the gentleman 
 had no idea of allowing the bird to keep it." 
 
 Ned wanted to know if ostriches lived in flocks like 
 barnyard fowls, or divided off into pairs like the majority 
 of forest and field birds. 
 
 "That depends a great deal upon the farmer," Mr. 
 Shaffner answered. " The pairing season is in the month 
 of July, which is equivalent to the English January. Some 
 farmers, when the pairing time approaches, put a male and 
 female bird together in a pen ; some put two females with 
 a male, and very often a male bird has five hens in his 
 family. The birds run in pairs or flocks, as the case may 
 be. In August, the hens begin to lay, and continue to 
 deposit eggs for a period of six weeks. They do not lay 
 every day, like domestic fowls, but every second or third 
 day. As I have already told you, the eggs are taken as 
 
THE CArE OK GOOD HOPE. 35 
 
 soon as laid and hatched in an incubator. Sixteen birds 
 out of twenty eggs is considered a very fair proportion, 
 while, if the bird is allowed to sit on the eggs, we are not 
 likely to get more than twelve out of twenty. There is 
 another advantage in hatching eggs by the incubator proc- 
 ess, and that is, that when the eggs are taken away the hen 
 proceeds a few weeks later to lay another batch of eggs, 
 which she does not do if she has a family to care for." 
 
 " What do you do with the young birds when they are 
 hatched ? " 
 
 " We put them in a warm room," was the reply, " and 
 at night they are put in a box lined with wool ; they are 
 fed with chopped grass suitable to them, and as soon as 
 they are able to run about they are entrusted to the care 
 of a small boy, a Kaffir or Hottentot, to whom they get 
 strongly attached. They grow quite rapidly and begin to 
 feather at eight months after hatching, but the yield at 
 that time is of very little value. Eight months later there 
 is another and better crop, and then at each season the 
 crop improves until the birds are four or five years old, 
 when it reaches its maximum condition. Exactly how 
 long an ostrich will live, I don't know. There are some 
 birds here in South Africa that are twenty years old, and 
 they are strong and healthy yet." 
 
 Conversation ran on in various ways until the station was 
 reached where our friends were to leave the train. The 
 carriage was waiting for them, and the party drove at once 
 to the farm, where Mr. Shaffner showed them about the 
 place, and called attention to the flocks of birds straying 
 about the different paddocks. Jt so happened that a Hock 
 
36 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 had been driven up that very morning for the purpose of 
 cutting such of the feathers as were in proper condition to 
 be removed from the birds. 
 
 While the men were driving the birds into the kraal, 
 Mr. Shaffner explained that there was a difference of 
 opinion among farmers as to whether the feathers should 
 be plucked or cut. He said that when the feather is 
 plucked or pulled out at the roots it is apt to make a bad 
 sore, and at any rate cause a great deal of pain ; while the 
 feather that grows in its place is apt to be twisted or of 
 poor quality, and occasionally the birds die, as a result of 
 the operation. When a feather is nipped off with pincers 
 or cut with a knife the bird is quite insensible to the opera- 
 tion. The stumps that are left in the flesh of the ostrich 
 fall out in the course of a month or six weeks, or can be 
 easily drawn out, and then a new and good feather grows 
 in place of the old one. The reason why plucking still 
 finds advocates is that the feathers with the entire quill 
 bring a higher price in the market than those that have 
 been cut or nipped. 
 
 Harry and Ned watched with much interest the process 
 of removing feathers from the birds. Here is the way 
 Harry describes it. 
 
 " The men moved around among the ostriches in a per- 
 fectly easy way, and seemed to be on the best of terms 
 with their charges. The foreman selected a bird and in- 
 dicated to one of the men that he wanted it brought for- 
 ward. Thereupon the man seized the bird by the neck 
 and pressed its head downward until he could draw a sack 
 like a long and very large stocking over it. 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 37 
 
 "When blindfolded in this way the ostrich is perfectly 
 helpless, and will stand perfectly still. The man pushed 
 and led the bird up to the fence, and then the foreman, 
 armed with his cutting nippers, selected the feathers that 
 he wanted and cut them off. When the operation was 
 ended the sack was removed, and the ostrich resumed his 
 place among his companions. He did not strike, or kick, 
 or indicate in any way that he was aware of what had 
 happened to him. 
 
 " During their breeding time the male ostriches are 
 decidedly vicious, and it is dangerous to go near them. 
 Mr. Shaffner told us that several serious accidents had 
 happened to his men at such times. Occasionallv a bird 
 shows more or less ugliness on being driven into a kraal, 
 and when this is the case caution must be used in ap- 
 proaching him. The ostrich's favorite mode of hVhtin<r 
 is to strike or kick with one leg, and he can give a terrible 
 blow in this way. 
 
 "I asked Mr. Shaffner," said Harry, "what was the 
 value of a good ostrich. He replied that the question was 
 one he could not answer in a single phrase. He said that 
 an egg was worth not less than five dollars, and an ostrich 
 chick, fresh from the egg, was worth twenty-five dollars. 
 
 •• After a few months it was double that value, and by 
 the time it was a year old it was worth two hundred and 
 fifty dollars. Mr. Shaffner said he would be unwilling to 
 sell a pair of hens and a male ostrich for less than two 
 thousand dollars, but he explained that a great deal de- 
 pended upon the breeding and feather-producing qualities 
 of the birds. 
 
38 THE EAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "Then, I asked," continued Harry, "about the yield 
 of feathers, and was told that the average yield was about 
 fifty dollars annually to a good bird. The feathers ripen 
 at the time of incubation and are injured by the process, 
 so that the artificial incubator, by releasing the birds from 
 duty on the nest, is of special value. 
 
 " I remarked," said Harry, " that, considering the in- 
 crease in the flocks and the money obtained from the 
 feathers, ostrich farming ought to be very profitable." 
 
 "Well, it is profitable in a general way," replied Mr. 
 Shaffner, " but that is not by any means the rule. There 
 are farmers who have never made anything by it, and it 
 has its drawbacks, like everything else. The birds are 
 subject to diseases of various kinds, and there is a para- 
 sitic worm on some farms that is very destructive. Wild 
 beasts kill the birds, and I myself have lost three fine 
 ostriches this year in that way. I know one farm on 
 which eighty-five birds were originally placed. In the 
 very first year twenty-seven were lost, thirteen by cold and 
 w r et, three by diphtheria, six killed by natives, three by 
 fighting, and two by falling into holes. Out of sixty eggs, 
 nineteen were destroyed by crows. These birds would 
 take stones in their claws, fly to a point directly over the 
 nest, and then let the stones fall on the eggs, thus break- 
 ing them, so that they could get at the contents of the 
 shells. The remaining eggs were sent to a neighboring 
 farm to be artificially incubated, but only ten of them 
 hatched out. So, you see," the gentleman continued, 
 " ostrich farming has its hard times, like everything else." 
 After inspecting the ostrich farm our friends were en- 
 
TIIK CAPS OF GOOD IIOi'K. 39 
 
 tertained at a substantial dinner in the house of their host, 
 and in the afternoon were driven to the railway station, 
 whence they returned to Cape Town, having well enjoyed 
 their first excursion. 
 
 That evening Dr. Whitney received an invitation to 
 visit a large sheep farm about thirty miles from Cape 
 Town, accompanied, as before, by his two nephews. He 
 accepted the invitation, and the trio took an early train for 
 their destination. They were met at the station by the 
 owner of the establishment, and were speedily shown 
 through the entire place. Sheep farming was less a 
 novelty to our young friends than ostrich farming, and 
 consequently they had much less interest in seeing the 
 sights of the establishment. Harry wrote a brief account 
 of their visit, and we are permitted to copy from it. 
 
 " Evidently the place was prosperous," said Harry, in 
 his journal, " as we found an abundance of substantial 
 buildings, a luxurious house for the owner, and substantial 
 dwellings for the manager and his assistant. We sat 
 down to an excellent, though somewhat late breakfast. 
 We had a good appetite for it, as we had breakfasted very 
 lightly before leaving Cape Town. On the table we had 
 broiled chickens, broiled ham, and lamb chops, together 
 with t^i;^, bread, and the usual concomitants of the morn- 
 ing meal. 
 
 " After breakfast we visited the sheds where the sheep 
 are sheared, and also the surrounding sheds and yards 
 where the animals are driven up at shearing time. We 
 were sorry that it was not the time of the annual shearing, 
 so that we could witness the process. Our host told us 
 
4° 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 that the shearers travel about the country, and take con- 
 tracts for shearing the flocks at so much a head. In 
 addition to their wages, they were supplied with food, and 
 he added that the shearers were a fastidious lot, and noth- 
 ing but the best table would suit them. 
 
 " After inspecting the buildings, we were supplied with 
 saddle horses and rode over the farm. The sheep are 
 divided into flocks of about three hundred each, and every 
 flock is in charge of two herders or shepherds. Some of 
 them come into the home stations at night, while others 
 have separate out stations of their own. The herders are 
 either Hottentots or Kaffirs ; at any rate they are negroes. 
 The two of them start out in the morning with the flock, 
 and go slowly along, allowing the sheep to feed, and cal- 
 culating time and distance so that they will reach a watering 
 place about noon. There the sheep are watered and then 
 they start back again towards the station, where they arrive 
 an hour or so before sunset, and are shut up in a yard for 
 the night. 
 
 " The shepherds do their own cooking, and once a week 
 one of them comes to the head station to be supplied with 
 provisions. Our host explained to us that one shepherd 
 was sufficient for a flock, but the life was so lonely that a 
 man would not stick to it, if left alone, and they had to 
 have two men in order to keep each other company. I 
 can well understand how wearisome it would be to have 
 nobody to speak to for days at a time, and one of the last 
 occupations I would wish to engage in is that of shepherd. 
 
 " Wool raising is a very large industry in Cape Colony, 
 and it certainly has been a very profitable one. Our host 
 
Till-: CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
 
 4 1 
 
 told us that if a man could avoid accidents and misfortunes, 
 he would find the business very remunerative ; but, of 
 course, misfortunes are pretty sure to come. He told us 
 further, that nearly all the sheep farmers of South Africa 
 had started into the business as poor men, and. while none 
 of them were millionaires, there were some that were very 
 near being so. He gave some statistics of the wool trade, 
 but I have mislaid the sheet of paper containing them, and 
 so cannot give them to vou." 
 
 On their return from the excursion to the sheep farm, our 
 friends learned that a steamer of the Orient line had just 
 arrived, and would leave at noon the next dav for Aus- 
 tralia. Dr. Whitney decided to take passage on this 
 steamer, and the matter was very quickly arranged. 
 
 When the great ship left the harbor of Cape Town, our 
 friends stood on her deck and were deeply interested in 
 the scene about them. As they steamed out around the 
 breakwater, they had a fine view of Table Bay and the 
 mountains that surround it. Then they passed a series 
 of cliff-like mountains, known as the Twelve Apostles, 
 and after them some brightly colored mountains that had 
 a dazzling appearance in the bright sunlight. Thirty 
 miles from Cape Town they passed the famous Cape of 
 Good Hope, which is popularly but erroneously supposed 
 to be the southern end of the continent : the fact is that 
 the point of Africa nearest to the South Pole is Cape 
 Agulhas, sixty or seventy miles away from the Cape of 
 Good Hope. 
 
 Down to Cape Agulhas the steamer had followed the 
 coast line. Now it steered away from the coast, and grad- 
 
A.2 THE LAM) OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 ually the mountains of the southern end of Africa faded 
 and became dim in the distance, and gradually disappeared 
 altogether from sight. Our friends were now upon the 
 great Southern Ocean, which sweeps entirely around this 
 part of the globe. 
 
 " We have a long voyage before us now,"' said Harry 
 to Ned; "we have sixteen days of steaming, so one of 
 the officers tells me, before we reach the coast of Aus- 
 tralia." 
 
 " Well, if that is the case/' Ned answered, " we have 
 plenty of time to become acquainted with the Southern 
 Ocean. I wonder if it will be very different from the 
 Atlantic." 
 
 " As to that," replied Harry, " I don't know, but I have 
 no doubt it has peculiarities of its own. We will see 
 about that later." 
 
 Flocks of birds accompanied the ship as it steamed 
 away from the coast. Some were familiar sights to our 
 young friends, and some were new to them, or compara- 
 tivelv so. The next day and the few succeeding days 
 made them acquainted with several birds that they had 
 never seen, and the boys were so interested in them that 
 Harrv wrote a description, which we will presently con- 
 sider. But before doing so, however, we will look at a 
 note which Ned made concerning the waves of the South- 
 ern Ocean. 
 
 "The waves of this part of the boundless waste of 
 waters that covers three fourths of the globe," said Ned, 
 in his journal, " are the largest we have ever seen. The 
 prevailing winds are westerly, and the captain tells us that 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 43 
 
 they drive a continuous series of waves right around the 
 globe. You have heard of the long swell of the Pacific, 
 
 but it is not, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, any- 
 where equal to the immense swells of the Southern Ocean. 
 I have never seen waves that began to be as large. The 
 captain says that the crests are often thirty feet high, and 
 three hundred and ninety feet apart. Sir James Ross, in 
 in his Anctartic expedition, measured waves thirty-six feet 
 high, and said that when two ships were in the hollows of 
 two adjoining waves, their hulls were completely con- 
 cealed from each other by the crest of water between 
 them. This great steamer, measuring nearly five thou- 
 sand tons, is rolled and tossed as if it were nothing more 
 than an egg-shell, and such of the passengers as are liable 
 to seasickness are staying below out of sight. Fancy 
 what it must be to sail on this ocean in a small craft of one 
 hundred or two hundred tons ! I think I would prefer to 
 be on shore/' 
 
 And now we come to Harry's account of the birds. He 
 wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Dr. Whitney says that I must make a distinction be- 
 tween land birds, coast birds, and ocean birds. Land 
 birds are only at sea by accident; coast birds are seen 
 only in the neighborhood of the land, but ocean birds go 
 far out at sea, and rarely visit the land except during their 
 breediiK' season. When you see a land bird out of sight 
 of the shore, you can know that he has been driven there 
 by the wind ; perhaps in a squall or rain storm. The 
 doctor tells me that we can make a general distinction be- 
 tween the three kinds of birds, by remembering that the 
 
44 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 more the bird lives on the land, the more he flaps his 
 wings, and most land birds flap their wings constantly. A 
 few, like the eagle, condor, and other birds of prey, sail 
 about and flap their wings occasionally, but the true ocean 
 birds, as a rule, flap their wings very little. 
 
 " An interesting flyer that we have seen is the frigate 
 bird, also called the man-of-war bird, which appears to 
 me to be a good deal of a pirate, as it makes the most 
 of its living by robbing others. When another bird has 
 caught a fish the frigate bird attacks him, and takes 
 away his prize, catching it in the air as it falls from the 
 victim's claws. These birds follow the steamer or fly in 
 the air above it, and they seem to go along very easily, 
 although the ship is running at full speed. I am told that, 
 on the previous voyage of this ship, some of the sailors 
 caught two of these birds and marked them by attaching 
 strips of white cloth to their feet. Then the birds were 
 set free, and they followed the steamer four or five days 
 without any apparent fatigue. 
 
 " Of course we have seen ' Mother Carey's Chickens.' 
 These tireless little fellows, that never seem to rest, are 
 found in all parts of the world of waters. They have 
 been constantly about us, flying around the ship but never 
 settling upon it, and dipping occasionally into the waters 
 behind us to gather up crumbs or particles of food. The 
 other birds, which are all much larger, would like to de- 
 prive them of their sustenance, but they do not have the 
 quickness of the little flyers on the wing. When any- 
 thing is thrown overboard, they dart as quick as a flash 
 under the noses of the larger and more clumsy birds, 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 45 
 
 and pick up a mouthful or two before the latter can reach 
 them. Then there are whale birds, and cape pigeons, 
 and also the cape dove, which is somewhat larger than 
 the pigeon, and is also known as the ' fulmar petrel.' 
 
 " But the most interesting as well as the largest of all the 
 ocean birds is the albatross. There are two or three kinds 
 of this bird ; the largest of them has a spread of wing vary- 
 ing from twelve to fifteen feet, and one has been caught 
 measuring seventeen feet from tip to tip. With out- 
 spread wings, his body, as he sails about in the air, looks 
 as large as a barrel, but when stripped of its feathers its 
 size diminishes very much. We offered to pay a good 
 price to the sailors if they would catch an albatross for us, 
 but they declined our proposal to catch one, and when a 
 passenger one day wanted to shoot one which was directly 
 over the steamer, the sailors objected. We finally induced 
 them to compromise the matter by catching an albatross 
 and letting it go unharmed. 
 
 " Thev baited a hook with a piece of pork which was 
 attached to a long line, and then allowed to tow behind 
 the steamer. We were doomed to disappointment, as the 
 albatross, that was then flying with the ship, refused to 
 touch the bait, and it was taken up by a frigate bird. It 
 is said that the albatross is very difficult to catch, as he is 
 exceedingly wary, and constantly on the lookout for 
 tricks. I am told that a live albatross standing on the 
 deck of the ship is a very handsome bird. His back is 
 white, his wings are brown, he has a line head, carries 
 himself with great dignity, and has a grand eye and 
 countenance. The bird has a pink beak and pretty 
 
46 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 streaks of a rose color on the cheeks. After death these 
 colors disappear, and are not to be seen in the stuffed 
 specimens such as are found in museums. A good-sized 
 albatross weighs about twenty pounds, though, as before 
 stated, he looks very much larger. 
 
 " The wonderful thing about this bird is the way he 
 sustains himself in the air. He sails along above the 
 ship, though she may be steaming fifteen or sixteen miles 
 an hour, but he does it all with very little motion. Three 
 or four times in an hour he mav give one or two ilaps of 
 his wings, and that is all ; the rest is all steady sailing. 
 The outspread wings sustain the bird, and carry him 
 forward at the same time. If any man ever invents a 
 successful flying machine, I think he will do so by study- 
 ing the movements of the albatross. It is proper to say 
 that this bird is not at all courageous, and often gives up 
 the fish that he catches to the piratical frigate bird. It 
 lives mostly on fish, and is very fond of the carcass of a 
 dead whale, and they tell me that the longer the whale 
 has been dead, the better does the albatross like it. 
 
 "The superstition of the sailors about its being bad 
 luck to kill an albatross is not by any means a new one. 
 It is referred to by old writers, and you will find it men- 
 tioned in Coleridge's ' Ancient Mariner.' 
 
 " We have seen a great many flying fish during our 
 vovage, but as we have seen them before, they are not a 
 great curiositv. The living motion of this fish is more 
 fanciful than real. He does not soar in the air like a 
 bird, but simply leaps from the crest of one wave to the 
 crest of another. He makes a single dash through the 
 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 47 
 
 air, and that is all. Sometimes, when a ship is in the hol- 
 low between two waves and the flying fish is attempting 
 to make his way across, he falls on the deek of the vessel, 
 but he rarely gets more than fifteen or eighteen feet into 
 the air, and therefore does not reach the deck of a big 
 steamer like this. 
 
 " Flying fish seem to fly when disturbed by big fishes, 
 or, possibly, by the commotion that a vessel creates in going 
 through the water. There is a good deal of dispute as to 
 how long the flying fish can stay out of water, and the 
 longest time I have heard any one give to it is thirty 
 seconds. Some say that the flying fish can stay in the 
 air only while its wings are wet, but that is a point on 
 which I do not care to give any opinion, for the simple 
 reason that I don't know." 
 
 Ned and Harry had kept the nautical instruments which 
 they carried over the deserts of Northern Africa, and they 
 amused themselves by taking daily observations and cal- 
 culating the ship's position. Sometimes they were wrong, 
 and sometimes they were right, Ned naively remarking 
 that "the wrongs didn't count." The first officer of the 
 ship gave them some assistance in their nautical observa- 
 tions, and, altogether, they got along very well. 
 
 Our friends made the acquaintance of some of their 
 fellow-passengers and found them very agreeable. The 
 majority were residents of Australia or New Zealand, who 
 had been on visits to England and were now returning 
 home. The youths learned a great deal concerning the 
 country whither they were bound, and the goodly portion 
 of the information they received was of practical value to 
 
48 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 them. They made copious notes of what they heard, and 
 some of the information that they gleaned will appear later 
 in these pages. 
 
 In due time they sighted the coast of Australia at its 
 western extremity, known as Cape Leeuwin, but the sight 
 was not especially picturesque, as the mountains around the 
 cape are of no great height. After passing Cape Leeuwin, 
 the steamer held her course steadily to the west, gradually 
 leaving the shore out of sight. She was passing along the 
 front of what is called the Great Australian Bight, an 
 indentation in the land twelve hundred miles long, and 
 bounded on the north by a region of desolation. 
 
 " It is a desolate coast," said one of the passengers to 
 Harry, " and is so destitute of water that no settlements 
 have or can be made upon it. Mr. Eyre, who was after- 
 wards governor of Jamaica, endeavored to explore that 
 coast, and had a terrible time of it. He was an entire year 
 making the journey of twelve hundred miles, and suffered 
 the most terrible hardships." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS TRANSPORTATION 
 
 TO AUSTRALIA. 
 
 » T TQW long is it since Mr. Eyre made this journey?" 
 
 n 1 1 any asked. 
 
 " It was a good while ago," the gentleman an- 
 swered, "in the years 1839 and 1840. Mr. Eyre had 
 explored a portion of the western shore of Spencer Gulf, 
 and while doing so, determined to make the attempt to travel 
 along the shore of the Great Australian Bight. One of 
 the first difficulties that opposed him was the scarcity of 
 fresh water. There were numerous gullies, showing that 
 in times of rain there was plenty of water, but no rain had 
 fallen for a long time and all these gullies were dry. A 
 few springs were found, but these were generally brackish 
 and the water was hardly drinkable. 
 
 " Mr. Eyre tried the experiment of sinking a cask in the 
 ground, near the edge of the sea, in the hope of obtaining 
 fresh water, but his experiments in this direction were not 
 successful. By the time he had advanced two hundred 
 miles, he had lost four of his horses. The reduction in the 
 number of his pack animals made it impossible for him to 
 carry sufficient provisions for his party, and he therefore 
 sent back his only white companion and three of his men. 
 Then he continued his journey with his overseer and three 
 natives, one of the latter being his personal servant. 
 
 49 
 
50 THE LAM) OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "In order to be sure of water, Mr. Eyre explored in ad- 
 vance of the party, and sometimes was gone four or five 
 days before finding any. One by one the horses died of 
 thirst, and the only way the men could keep alive was by 
 gathering the dew, which fell at night, by means of sponges 
 and rags. 
 
 "The natives complained at their hardships, and one 
 night the two men took possession of the guns, killed the 
 overseer, and ran away, leaving Mr. Eyre with only his 
 native servant and a very small stock of provisions. They 
 were then about midway on the journey ; that is, they had 
 still six hundred miles to travel to reach the settled parts of 
 West Australia. The entire supply of provisions that they 
 had was four gallons of water, forty pounds of flour, and 
 a portion of a dead horse. They had to go nearly two 
 hundred miles before finding any more water, and lived on 
 horse-flesh, with occasional game and fish, and a little flour 
 paste. Just as they were about to lie down and die in the 
 desert they saw a sail in the distance. 
 
 " They built a fire on the beach as a signal, and, luckily 
 for them, it was observed. The vessel came in quite near 
 the land and sent a boat to their assistance. The ship 
 proved to be an American whaler that was cruising about 
 the Australian Bight in pursuit of whales, and the captain 
 invited them to stay on board as long as they liked. They 
 remained there two weeks, and were then put ashore at 
 the same spot whence they had gone on board. The cap- 
 tain supplied them with all the provisions and water they 
 could carry. Mr. Eyre was determined to complete his 
 journey, if possible, and his faithful servant consented to 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 5 1 
 
 remain with him. They struggled on for two or three 
 weeks longer, when they reached the first of the settle- 
 merits on King George's Sound." 
 
 " Has anvbodv else ever tried to make the same jonr- 
 ney ? " Harry asked. 
 
 k> Not under the same circumstances." was the reply. 
 " I believe that a well-equipped exploring party was sent out 
 some twelve or fifteen years ago. to travel along the coast 
 and look for gold. Water and provisions were supplied 
 every few davs by a small steamer that kept near the 
 shore and went in when signaled by the travelers. In this 
 way, suffering from hunger and thirst was avoided and 
 the animals of the expedition were well supplied with 
 forage. The enterprise was not a successful one so far 
 as the finding of gold was concerned, but I have little 
 doubt that one of these days gold will be discovered there : 
 and if it should be, some way will be found for softening 
 the asperities of this desolate coast." 
 
 " I have heard," said Harry, "that a great part of 
 Australia is destitute of water. Is that really the case?" 
 
 " Yes," the gentleman answered ; " you have been cor- 
 rectly informed. Australia is a waterless country, or, at 
 any rate, that is the case with a great part of it. The 
 interior has never been fully explored for this reason, and 
 there are thousands, I might say millions, of square miles 
 of Australian country where no human foot has ever trod. 
 Manv attempts have been made to penetrate this desolate 
 region, but all have resulted in failure. 
 
 •• Water, as you know, is an absolute necessity for man 
 and animals, and there is a limit to the amount which an 
 
52 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 expedition can carry, just as there is a limit to the food 
 that one may take on a journey. There are parts of 
 Australia where rain seems never to fall, or, if it does, the 
 intervals are so rare and irregular that no reliance can be 
 placed on them. Explorers cannot stop to dig wells hun- 
 dreds of feet in depth, and it is certain that no ordinary 
 amount of digging will procure water. The atmosphere 
 is dry, terribly dry, as all who have attempted to penetrate 
 into the interior will tell you. 
 
 "Instruments, and cases made of the best seasoned 
 wood — wood that has been dried for years and years — 
 crack and split and go to pieces in the dry atmosphere of 
 the interior of Australia. Leather becomes brittle, and 
 cracks and breaks when the slightest pressure is put upon 
 it. One exploring expedition was obliged to turn back in 
 consequence of the drying up and cracking of the wood 
 contained in its instruments and their cases. The evapo- 
 ration from one's skin is very rapid under such circum- 
 stances, and produces an agonizing thirst, which is no 
 doubt intensified by the knowledge of the scarcity of water 
 and the necessity of using the supply on hand with great 
 care." 
 
 kk I have heard," said Ned, " that Australia is a land of 
 contradictions as compared with England and the United 
 States. I read in a book somewhere that nearly every- 
 thing in nature was the reverse of what it was in the 
 countries I mentioned." 
 
 " That is true," said the gentleman with whom they 
 were conversing, " and I will tell you several things to 
 demonstrate the correctness of what you say. In the first 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 53 
 
 place, Australia is on the other side of the world from 
 England and the United States, and that circumstance 
 ought to prepare you for the other peculiarities. Most 
 countries are fertile in their interior ; but, as I have told 
 you, the interior of Australia is a land of desolation, where 
 neither man nor beast can live. I have been told that 
 birds never fly in the interior of /Australia ; and certainly 
 if I were a bird, I would not fly there nor anywhere 
 near it. 
 
 "We have very few rivers, and none of them come 
 from far in the interior. Most of them are low in summer 
 or altogether dried up. There is only one river, the 
 Murray, that can be relied upon to have any reasonable 
 depth of water in it throughout the entire year. The 
 other rivers dwindle almost to nothing, and, as I have 
 said, entirely disappear. The greater part of the country 
 is absolutely without trees, and the dense forests which 
 vou have in America are practically unknown. We have 
 summer when you have winter, and we have night when 
 vou have day. When you are in your own country, and 
 I am here, our feet are nearer together than our heads ; 
 that is to sav, our feet are pressing the ground on opposite 
 sides of the earth, and so we may be said to be standing 
 upon each other." 
 
 "That is so," remarked Harry: "I was thinking of 
 that this morning. I noticed also that the ship's compass 
 pointed to the south, and that the sun was traveling along 
 the northern heavens. I observed, too, that the south wind 
 was cold, and the north wind hot." 
 
 "You are quite right," said the gentleman; "and if 
 
54 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 you have been studying the barometer, you have found 
 that it falls with the northerly wind and rises with the 
 southerly one. When you travel over the country, you 
 will find that the valleys are cool and the mountain tops 
 warm. The bees have no sting, and many of the beau- 
 tiful flowers have no smell. The leaves of the trees are 
 nearly always perpendicular instead of horizontal, as in 
 your country, and consequently one gets very little shade 
 under an Australian tree." 
 
 "I have heard," said Ned, "that the trees shed their 
 bark instead of their leaves. Is that really so ? " 
 
 "It is so with most of the trees," was the reply; "in 
 fact, with nearly all of them. A few shed their leaves 
 every year, and on many of the trees the leaves remain 
 unchanged, while the bark is thrown off. One tree is 
 called the stringy bark, on account of the ragged appear- 
 ance of its covering at the time it is shed. 
 
 "In your part of the world," the gentleman continued, 
 "cherries grow with the stones inside ; but here in Aus- 
 tralia we have cherries with the stones on the outside. We 
 have birds of beautiful plumage and very little song ; the 
 owls are quiet at night, and screech and hoot in the day- 
 time, which certainly is not a characteristic of the English 
 or American owl. The geological formation of the country 
 is also peculiar, and the scientific men who have come 
 here from England and America are a good deal puzzled 
 at the state of affairs they find in Australia. Would it 
 not surprise you to learn that we have coal in this country 
 as white as chalk ? " 
 
 "That is, indeed, a surprise," one of the youths re- 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 55 
 
 marked. " I wonder if the conditions are continued so 
 that your chalk is black." 
 
 "The contrasts do not go quite so far as that," said 
 the gentleman, with a laugh, " as the chalk of Australia 
 is as white as that of England. I don't mean to say that 
 all our coal is white, but only the coal of certain localities. 
 It generally takes the stranger by surprise to see a grate- 
 ful of white coal burning brightly, and throwing out smoke 
 at the same time. I must tell you that this coal is bitu- 
 minous, and not anthracite." 
 
 " I hope," said Ned, "that men's heads do not grow 
 out of their sides, or from their breasts, and that they do 
 not walk topsy-turvy, with their feet in the air." 
 
 " No, they are not as bad as that," was the reply ; " but 
 you will see some queer things before you are through 
 with Australia. Bear in mind that the country contains no 
 antiquities of any kind ; it is a new land in every sense, 
 as it was first settled in 1788, and all these cities are of 
 modern foundation and growth." 
 
 Our young friends thanked the gentleman for the infor- 
 mation he had given them, and said they would specially 
 bear in mind the comparisons and contrasts which he had 
 indicated in their brief conversation. 
 
 The first stopping place of the ship was at Adelaide, in 
 South Australia, from which place she proceeded around 
 the coast to Melbourne. Our friends decided to land at 
 Adelaide, and go overland through that city wherever the 
 railway would take them. They thought that by so doing 
 they would be able to see a great deal more on their way 
 to Melbourne than if they continued aboard the ship. 
 
56 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 Harry had obtained a map of Australia on the day 
 before their arrival at Adelaide. He was busily engaged 
 in studying it. 
 
 "Just look a moment," said Harry to Ned, as he spread 
 the map out on one of the tables in the saloon; " here is 
 another contradiction that our friend didn't include. Look 
 at it." 
 
 "Well, what of it?" said Ned. " It is a map of Aus- 
 tralia, is it not? " 
 
 " Yes, it is, and just look at the provinces or colonies of 
 Australia. Here is West Australia, as its name indicates, 
 at the western end of the great island or continent. Here 
 are Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and here 
 is South Australia, where we are going to land. Adelaide 
 is its capital." 
 
 " Well, what of it? " queried Ned, with an expression of 
 curiosity on his face. 
 
 "Why, don't you see," said Harry, in a tone of impa- 
 tience, " that South Australia is not South Australia at all. 
 Here is Victoria, which runs further south than this colony, 
 and then you see South Australia runs clear across the 
 continent to the northern side, and almost as far north as 
 the extreme point of Queensland. They ought to change 
 the name of it, or else divide it into two colonies, calling 
 this one by its present name, and the other North Australia." 
 
 Ned admitted the force of the argument, and then joined 
 his cousin in studying the map. Strange to say, the middle 
 section or unexplored region had a singular fascination for 
 both the youths, and each confided to the other that he 
 would like to undertake the exploration of that part of the 
 
HARRY HAD OBTAINED A MAP OF AUSTRALIA.' 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 57 
 
 continent. They wondered whether Dr. Whitney would 
 entertain their proposal to do so, but finally concluded that 
 the hardships would be too great, and they would say noth- 
 ing about their aspirations. 
 
 In due time the steamer came to anchor at Port Adelaide. 
 The harbor of the capital city is not on the sea, but seven 
 miles away from it, on the banks of the small river Tor- 
 fens. The railway connects the port with the city, and 
 shortly after getting ashore our friends were seated in a 
 train, which carried them quickly to the capital. One of 
 the passengers told Xed that the port was formerly quite 
 shallow and difficult to enter. The entrance at present is 
 between two large shoals of sand, which are marked by 
 lio-hthouses. A great deal of money has been expended in 
 deepening and widening the harbor, so that it is now acces- 
 sible for large ships. 
 
 A long pier extends into St. Vincent's Gulf, the body 
 of water on which the port stands, and this pier is quite 
 popular as a promenade for the people living at the port, 
 and also for those who come down from the city. 
 
 Harry observed that the dock and pier accommodations 
 were excellent. There were immense sheds, and ware- 
 houses for the storage of grain, wool, and other products 
 of the country while awaiting shipment, and equally exten- 
 sive shelters for merchandise arriving at the port on its 
 way to the city and to other parts of the colony. There 
 were dry docks and repairing yards, and there were hos- 
 pitals for sick sailors and others, together with the usual 
 public buildings of a prosperous seaport. Immense quan- 
 tities of wool and frozen meat are shipped from this port 
 
58 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 to England, and the trade of the colony with the mother 
 country is said to be increasing every year. 
 
 It was about the middle of the afternoon when our 
 friends landed, and in less than half an hour after landing 
 they were in the city. One of their steamer acquaintances 
 had directed them to a hotel, and, in fact, accompanied 
 them to it, so that they had the advantage of his personal 
 guidance and introduction. Harry made a memorandum 
 in his notebook that they found the hotel quite a good 
 one, certainly much better than the hotel where they 
 stopped at Cape Town. 
 
 After settling themselves in the hotel the party went out 
 for a stroll, but, in consequence of the heat, they were not 
 long in turning their stroll into a drive. Here is what Ned 
 says of their first day in Adelaide : — 
 
 "This city recalls Chicago more than any other place 
 I can think of. It is on a level plain, with the exception 
 of the portion to the north where the ground rises a little, 
 and the streets are laid out at right angles, as though a 
 chess-board had been taken as a model for the place. 
 We have wondered why it was called Adelaide instead of 
 Mary Ann, Betsy, or some other feminine name ; Dr. 
 Whitney has just told us that the city was laid out in 1837 
 and named in honor of the queen of King William IV., 
 who was then the ruler of England. 
 
 " Having named the place in honor of the queen, the 
 founders of the city felt that the next thing to do was to 
 call the principal street after the king. Thus it happens 
 that the great street, the one most built upon, and where 
 the majority of the shops are concentrated, is King William 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 59 
 
 Street. It is a broad avenue running from south to north, 
 and divides the city almost equally. It is certainly a very 
 handsome avenue, and we greatly enjoyed our drive upon 
 it. Most of the public buildings, the town hall, post- 
 office, government offices, and the like, are on King 
 William Street, and they are very handsome structures. 
 
 "The people are very proud of these edifices, and well 
 they may be, as they would be ornaments to any city ten 
 times as old and large as Adelaide. The principal banks, 
 newspaper offices, and business structures generally are 
 also on King William Street, and to judge by the crowds 
 of people that throng the sidewalks, one might conclude 
 that the population was a busy one. One thing that 
 attracted our attention was the great number of churches, 
 which certainly gave us the impression that the population 
 of Adelaide is decidedly religious, and also that its zeal in 
 religion had led it to contribute freely to the erection of 
 places of worship. Our driver pointed out the various 
 churches and told us their denomination. Of course the 
 Church of England was ahead of the others, as is ex- 
 pected to be the case in a British colony." 
 
 "I learned afterwards," said Ned, "that there were 
 nearly one thousand churches and chapels in the colony of 
 South Australia, together with nearly live hundred other 
 buildings that are occasionally used for religious worship. 
 All the churches are supported by voluntary contributions, 
 there being no State aid to any of them. At the last census 
 of the colony there were 76,000 adherents of the Church of 
 England, 43,000 Roman Catholics, and 42,000 Metho- 
 dists. Then came the Lutherans, with 20,000 ; Presby- 
 
60 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 terians, with 18,000 ; Baptists, with 14,000 ; and about 
 10,000 each of primitive Methodists, Congregationalists, 
 and Bible Christians. There were several other denomina- 
 tions, but their numbers were insignificant. We looked 
 for pagodas while driving along the street, but none of 
 them were to be found, and we learned on inquiry that the 
 number of Chinese and Moslems in South Australia was 
 hardly worth mentioning. The colony has never been 
 attractive to the Chinese, and few of them have en- 
 deavored to find homes there. 
 
 " We drove to the resident portion of the citv and saw 
 a goodly number of private houses of the better sort. A 
 great deal of taste has been displayed in the construction 
 of these houses, and we derived the impression that Ade- 
 laide was a decidedly prosperous city. The wheat-grow- 
 ing industry of South Australia is a very large one. 
 Many of the great farmers have their residences in 
 Adelaide and spend only a small portion of their time on 
 their farms, leaving all details to their managers. A con- 
 siderable amount of American farming machinery finds 
 its way to South Australia, where it has attained a well- 
 deserved popularity." 
 
 While our friends were at breakfast the next morning, 
 Harry suggested that if the others were willing, he would 
 like to see one of the Australian prisons containing con- 
 victs that had been transported from England. 
 
 The doctor smiled, — just a faint smile, — while Ned 
 laughed. 
 
 " Oh, you are all wrong, Harry," said Ned. "They 
 gave up that business long ago. I was under the same 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 6l 
 
 impression that you are, but learned better from one of 
 our fellow-passengers. I meant to tell you about it." 
 
 "Well, I will acknowledge my mistake," said Harry. 
 -We are all liable to make blunders, and that is one of 
 
 them." 
 
 " Quite true," Dr. Whitney remarked. " Every visitor 
 to a country that is strange to him makes a great many 
 mistakes, and the frank thing is to acknowledge it.*' 
 
 " The o-entleman who corrected my blunder," said Ned, 
 " told me that an American visitor who was very fond of 
 hunting landed once in Sydney, fresh from the United 
 States. The hunting fever was strong in him, and before 
 he was an hour on shore he asked the clerk of the hotel 
 where he could go to shoot Sydney ducks. He had heard 
 of them, and would like to bag a few brace." 
 
 " What is the point of the joke? " said Harry ; " I con- 
 fess I cannot see it." 
 
 " That is exactly what I said to my informant," replied 
 Xed, " and then he went on and told me that in former 
 times Australian convicts were spoken of as Sydney 
 ducks." 
 
 "Oh! I see," said Harry, "that is a very good joke 
 when you come to know all about it. What did the clerk 
 of the hotel say to the inquiring stranger.- " 
 
 "I don't know," replied Xed, " but I presume he told 
 him that Sydney ducks had gone out of fashion, and were 
 not being shot any more. Probably he let the man down 
 as gently as possible." 
 
 ••How did the convicts come to have the name of 
 Sydney ducks?" Harry asked. 
 
62 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " I can't tell you, I am sure," said Ned, "you will have 
 to ask the doctor about it." 
 
 " The name came, no doubt," said Dr. Whitney, " from 
 the circumstance that the first convicts who were brought 
 to Australia were landed at Sydney, and for a good many 
 years Sydney was the principal depot of these involuntary 
 emigrants. The adoption of Australia as the place for 
 convict settlement was brought about by events in America, 
 a statement which may surprise you." 
 
 " It certainly is surprising," Harry remarked. " How 
 did it happen? " 
 
 '•It came about in this way," the doctor continued; 
 k> when America was subject to England, offenders of 
 various kinds, whether political or criminal, were sent to 
 the American colonies, principally to the Southern States 
 and the West Indies, where they were chiefly employed in 
 the cultivation of tobacco. The consumption of tobacco 
 in England was very large, and the revenue derived from 
 it was considerable. Consequently England was able to 
 kill two birds with one stone ; she got rid of her crimi- 
 nals, at the same time, and made a large profit on their 
 work. 
 
 11 When the American colonies revolted in 1775, and 
 gained their independence eight years later, England 
 found herself deprived of a place to which she could send 
 her convicts, and she looked around for another. She 
 tried the coast of Africa, and found it too unhealthy for 
 her purpose. Captain Cook had recently visited Australia 
 and given a glowing account of it, and the government 
 officials thought that this new country would be an excel- 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 63 
 
 lent one for criminals. Orders were given for sending 
 out a fleet of ships for that purpose ; and, accordingly, 
 eleven vessels, carrying more than one thousand people, 
 sailed for Portsmouth in the month of March, 1787, with 
 orders to proceed to Australia." 
 
 " If England had known what was to happen," said 
 Harry, " she need not have been at the trouble of sending 
 her criminals so far away ; she might have kept on with 
 America with only slight interruptions. She is sending us 
 her criminals and paupers at present, though she does not 
 designate them properly when she ships them, and most 
 of the continental nations are doing the same thing. We 
 are trying to prevent it, but I don't believe we succeed to 
 a very great extent." 
 
 "Did they send a thousand convicts to Australia in this 
 first batch?" queried Ned. 
 
 "There were about one thousand people altogether," 
 said Dr. Whitney, "including 757 convicts, and among 
 the convicts were 190 women and eighteen children. 
 They had 160 soldiers to guard the prisoners, with a 
 sufficient number of officers, and forty of the soldiers 
 were accompanied by their wives. They had on the ships 
 a goodly quantity of cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, and goats, 
 and a large quantity of seeds from various parts of the 
 world was sent out. It was not expected that the colony 
 would be self-supporting for some time, and so it was 
 arranged that supply ships laden with flour and other pro- 
 visions should be sent from England at regular intervals. 
 A year or two after the colony was founded one of these 
 ships was wrecked on its way to Australia, and the colo- 
 
6\ THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 nists suffered greatly for want of food. Among the sup- 
 plies taken by each ship there was usually a fresh batch 
 of convicts, and quite regularly convict ships were de- 
 spatched from England to Australia." 
 
 Ned remarked that he thought a convict ship would not 
 be a pleasant craft to travel on. A good many people did 
 not like crossing the Atlantic on cattle ships, but he thought 
 the cattle ship would be far preferable to one laden with 
 convicts. 
 
 "And so it is," replied the doctor. "According to all 
 accounts, the life on board a convict ship from England to 
 Australia was terrible. Remember that in those days 
 prisoners were treated with great harshness ; they were not 
 supposed to have any feelings and were never spoken to 
 kindly, and in many instances an order was usually accom- 
 panied by a kick or a blow. During the voyage the pris- 
 oners were allowed on deck one hour or possibly two hours 
 of each day, care being taken that only a small number 
 would be there at any one time. 
 
 "For the rest of the twenty-four hours they were shut 
 up in close, stifling pens or cages, generally with nothing 
 but a little straw to sleep on, and they were fed with the 
 coarsest and poorest food. Coffee and tea with hard bread 
 formed their breakfast ; dinner was the same, with some- 
 times the addition of a piece of heavily salted beef, so hard 
 that it was no easy matter to cut it into mouthfuls. Supper 
 was the same as breakfast, and this was kept up with hardly 
 any variation. 
 
 " The slightest infraction of the rules was punished with 
 the lash, but this did not deter the criminals from making 
 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 65 
 
 trouble. Constantly the boatswain and his assistants were 
 kept busy in performing the floggings that were ordered, 
 and sometimes the cat-o'-nine-tails was in steady use from 
 sunrise to sunset. The more severe his discipline, the 
 more highly an officer was regarded by his superiors, and 
 if he occasionally hanged a few men, it rather advanced 
 than retarded his promotion. A good many died on the 
 voyage from England to Australia, partly in consequence 
 of their scanty fare and the great heat of the tropics ; but, 
 according to tradition, a very large proportion of the mor- 
 tality was the result of brutal treatment and privations. 
 
 "The passengers on the convict ship," said Harry, 
 "seem to have been treated pretty much like those on 
 
 slave ships." 
 
 "You are not far wrong there," the doctor replied; 
 " the sufferings of convicts on their way to Australia were 
 not altogether unlike those of the unhappy negroes that 
 were formerly taken from the coast of Africa to North and 
 South America. The convicts were not crowded quite as 
 densely into the holds of the ships as the slaves were, and 
 the mortality among them was not as great ; still they were 
 packed very thickly together, and were treated quite as 
 cruelly as the slave dealers used to treat their human prop- 
 erty. " Occasionally it happened that the convicts formed 
 a conspiracy and endeavored to take possession of the 
 ship. In nearly every instance they were betrayed by one 
 of their number, and when the time came for action they 
 were so closely guarded that any resistance was useless. 
 Then the conspirators were seized, and after a brief trial 
 were condemned to be hung or shot, generally the former, 
 
66 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 as it saved ammunition and did not soil the decks of the 
 ship with blood. When there was an actual mutiny the 
 mutineers were shot down without mercy, and those who 
 escaped the bullets were speedily disposed of by hanging 
 at the yard-arms." 
 
 " Terrible times those must have been," remarked Ned ; 
 " the wonder is that anybody survived." 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Harry; "but man has a tough 
 constitution and can endure a great deal." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STRANGE ADVENTURES AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS. 
 
 ON E of the youths asked how the convicts were em- 
 ployed after they came to Australia. 
 
 " At first," said the doctor, "they were employed almost 
 entirely on government works. A city was laid out, and 
 of course it was necessary to grade the streets, build 
 bridges, and do other things in connection with putting 
 the place into shape. There were prisons, warehouses, 
 wharves, and other buildings necessary to a convict 
 establishment to be erected. Gardens and fields were to 
 be laid out and planted, and altogether there was no lack 
 of work to be performed. The prisoners were required to 
 work under guard, and the worst of them were ornamented 
 with ball and chain, like the occupants of many a prison 
 in different parts of the world. They were treated just as 
 rigorously as they had been on board the ships that brought 
 them out. Their lodgings were somewhat more spacious, 
 but by no stretch of fancy could they be called luxurious. 
 The supply of food in the colony was not large, and the 
 fare of the prisoners was scanty. 
 
 "Free emigration to Australia began a few years after 
 the convict emigration, and most of the free emigrants 
 came here with the view to employ the convicts under 
 contracts with the government. They were principally 
 men of capital, and the most of them established farms or 
 
 6 7 
 
68 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 factories near Sydney and entered into agreements with 
 the government to supply them with labor. Where they 
 were close to the city, the convicts were sent out to their 
 work in the morning and returned to prison at night ; but 
 where the distance from the city was considerable, other 
 plans had to be followed. Sometimes soldiers were detailed 
 to guard the convicts at their working places, and in 
 others the employer himself supplied the guard. The 
 convicts were also made to understand very clearly that 
 if they ran away they would be caught and severely 
 punished. 
 
 " I should think they would run away in spite of all 
 these threats, especially where their sentences were for 
 long terms," Harry remarked. 
 
 " It was not so easy as it may seem for anybody to 
 escape," said the doctor. " A man could not stay around 
 the colony more than a day or two, or a few days at the 
 farthest, without being discovered, and when found he 
 was sure to be severely flogged, put on bread and water, 
 and shut up in a dark cell. If he escaped into the bush, 
 he was pretty certain to starve to death unless found by 
 the natives, in which case he was generally murdered. 
 Many a convict ran away to the bush and was never heard 
 of. Others remained there until starvation forced them 
 to come in and give themselves up." 
 
 " Did the free settlers increase as fast as the convicts?" 
 
 "Yes, they increased faster as the word went out 
 through the British Islands that Australia offered great 
 possibilities for emigrants. For twenty years the military 
 and convicts were more numerous than the free settlers ; 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 69 
 
 but by the end of thirty years the latter were in the as- 
 cendency. In the year 1S30, there were twenty-seven 
 thousand convicts in the colony, and forty-nine thousand 
 others. 
 
 "By 'others' I don't mean other settlers, altogether, 
 though I do mean free people. By that time a good 
 many convicts had served out their sentences and become 
 free. They were known as "emancipists," and conse- 
 quently there were three kinds of people in the colony, — 
 emancipists, convicts, and free settlers. The free settlers 
 would not associate with the emancipists, and thev in turn 
 would not associate with the convicts. The free settlers 
 wanted the emancipists to be deprived of all civil rights 
 and kept practically in the same position as the convicts. 
 The officers of the government used to take the side of 
 the emancipists, and there were many bitter quarrels be- 
 tween them and the free settlers in consequence." 
 
 Here the doctor paused for a moment, and then asked : — 
 " Did you ever read about the mutiny of the Bounty?" 
 "Oh, yes," replied Harry; "I read about it two or 
 three years ago. The crew of the ship Bounty mutinied, 
 and put the captain and others in an open boat to take care 
 of themselves the best way they could. The Bounty then 
 cruised about the Pacific for awhile, and finally went to 
 Pitcairn's Island, where the mutineers landed and de- 
 stroyed the ship. Their fate was not known until nearly 
 thirty years afterwards, when an American ship touched at 
 the island, and found it peopled by the descendants of the 
 mutineers, who had taken some women from Tahiti to 
 become their wives. Only one of those concerned in the 
 
70 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 mutiny was then alive. The captain and his companions 
 in the open boat made a voyage of four thousand miles, 
 enduring great hardships, and eventually reached the 
 Dutch settlements in the island of Timor." 
 
 " A very good account for a brief one," said the doctor. 
 " Do you remember the name of the Bounty's commander? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Harry. " I believe it was Bligh ; in fact, 
 I am sure of it." 
 
 "Well, that same Captain Bligh was one of the early 
 governors of New South Wales, as the colony was then 
 called. He caused the mutiny on the Bounty by want of 
 tact and by undue severity, and the same spirit that he 
 showed on the deck of his ship caused a rebellion in New 
 South Wales. Of course, the convicts had no influence or 
 part in the rebellion, but the free settlers were very active 
 in it, and so were a good many of the officers. Bligh 
 caused himself to be thoroughly disliked by interfering with 
 local trade, and also by his very intemperate talk concern- 
 ing free settlers and emancipists. He was deposed and 
 sent to England, while a temporary governor was installed 
 in his place. To a certain extent he triumphed over his 
 enemies, as the officers who had taken part in the rebellion 
 were either reprimanded or dismissed. Governor Bligh 
 came back with the authority to assume the position of 
 governor for just one hour." 
 
 " Not a very long term for a man to be governor," Ned 
 remarked 
 
 "No, not by any means," was the reply; "but there 
 was a technical advantage in it which was very important. 
 The governor did a great deal in that one hour. He re- 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 7 1 
 
 moved a good many officers and appointed new ones in 
 their places, and he made several changes in the adminis- 
 tration of the colony which were more or less embarrassing 
 to his successor. 
 
 "Governor Bligh was succeeded by Governor Mac- 
 quarie. The quarrel between the free settlers and the 
 emancipists continued during Macquarie's administration. 
 The governor took the side of the emancipists, and at one 
 time there was a good prospect of another rebellion ; but, 
 happily, the new chief of the colony possessed more tact 
 than his predecessor, and no rebellion was ever brought 
 about. Governor Macquarie relaxed some of the severity 
 with which the convicts had been treated, and this, together 
 with his favoring the emancipists, gave him the title of 
 the ' Prisoners' Friend.' 
 
 "As time went on, the number of free settlers in the 
 colony increased, and so did the number of farms in the 
 vicinity of Sydney. As I have already told you, the con- 
 victs were hired out to work on the farms. Of course a 
 o-ood many of them ran away, and then some of them got 
 into the bush, where they remained for various periods, 
 but the majority of them were caught and brought back 
 within a few days. Dogs were used in pursuing them, 
 and several kennels of dogs were kept at the prisons for 
 the purpose of hunting out runaways. Some of the pris- 
 oners' beliefs in regard to the country were very amusing. 
 The idea trot into the heads of many that, by traveling 
 overland for a few days, they would reach China, and 
 quite a number of them tried to do so. One man wan- 
 dered for a month around the bush country, until finally, 
 
72 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 driven by hunger, he ventured to approach a house. 
 There he saw a fellow-prisoner whom he knew, and asked 
 him how long he had been in China. He was very much 
 surprised on learning that he was not in China at all, but 
 on a farm a few miles from Sydney. While he was talk- 
 ing with the friend two soldiers happened along and took 
 him in charge, and then carried him back to the prison, 
 where he received the customary punishment. 
 
 "In 1798 a good many Irishmen who had been con- 
 cerned in the Irish rebellion of that year were transported 
 to Australia. They saw in the mountains back of Sydney 
 a close resemblance to the mountains of Connaught, in 
 their native country, and fancied that if they could cross 
 those mountains they would find themselves at home. 
 Quite a number of them ran away in consequence, but 
 were doomed to disappointment. One man on the voyage 
 out to Australia had given a good deal of time to studying 
 the motions of the ship's compass, and he imagined that if 
 he could only get something of the kind he would be all 
 right and could safely guide himself through the forests 
 of Australia. He watched his chance and stole a book on 
 navigation. One leaf of the book had a picture of a 
 mariner's compass. He tore out this leaf, and, thus 
 equipped, took the first opportunity of running away. 
 
 "Speaking of these Irish rebels reminds me of some- 
 thing I must tell you. They were convicted of treason, 
 either for taking an active part in the rebellion or sympa- 
 thizing with it, and for this crime they were sent as con- 
 victs to the other side of the world. No distinction was 
 made between political and criminal offenders, and the 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 73 
 
 man who had loved his country and tried to set her free 
 was treated with the same severity as the house breaker 
 and highwayman. 
 
 "A great many men were sent to Australia for the 
 crime of poaching. Many a man was condemned to 
 seven, ten, and fifteen years' exile at hard labor because 
 he had taken a trout out of a brook, or snared a partridge. 
 Offenses that in these times would only result in a line 
 were then punished with great severity, and a considerable 
 number of the convicts sent to Australia in the first thirty 
 years of the prevalence of the system were men whose 
 offenses had really been very light. It was for this reason 
 that Governor Macquarie and other high officials took the 
 position that they did in favor of the emancipists. They 
 contended that a man whose offense had been of a trivial 
 sort, and who had shown himself to be honest and indus- 
 trious, ought to receive a helping hand, instead of being- 
 placed under the ban." 
 
 " I quite agree with them,*' said Harry ; " and I wonder 
 that the free settlers were so severe against them." 
 
 " But you must bear in mind," the doctor answered, " that 
 the term ' convict ' is always odious, no matter under what 
 circumstances it may have been obtained. It was not easy 
 at all times for the free settlers to make a distinction among 
 emancipists, and so they came to a quick conclusion by de- 
 nouncing all. However, that state of society has all passed 
 away ; convicts, emancipists, and free settlers of the first 
 quarter of this century are all dead and gone now, with, 
 possiblv, a few exceptions. Time has healed the breach, 
 and this subject is very little talked of at the present day." 
 
^ THE LAM) OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "How about the descendants of the early colonists?" 
 Ned inquired. " Do the sins of the fathers descend upon 
 the children, or are they all forgotten?" 
 
 " As to that," said the doctor, " I must give you a little 
 explanation. It is not considered polite in Australia to ask 
 a man born in the country who his father was, or how he 
 happened to emigrate from England. That is a subject 
 that is ignored in polite society, and, in fact, in society of 
 all kinds. In political life, a man may abuse his opponent 
 as much as he pleases in all ways, except that should he 
 venture in the anger of debate to intimate that his oppo- 
 nent's father came to Australia as an involuntary emigrant, 
 he renders himself liable to heavy damages. I can tell you 
 of a case in point. 
 
 "A prominent official in the government of Victoria is 
 known to be the son of a man who was transported for 
 catching a pheasant. It is an open secret; in fact, one 
 could hardly say that it was a secret at all, as every man 
 who has any knowledge of public life is well aware of 
 it. Once while this man was running for office, his op- 
 ponent, in a fierce debate before a public meeting, men- 
 tioned the circumstance, whereupon the other brought suit, 
 and was awarded damages to the extent of fifty thousand 
 dollars. It is probable that the unlucky defendant of 
 the suit has been more careful in the use of his tongue 
 ever since. 
 
 " One of the convicts that escaped," continued the doctor, 
 "had a most remarkable experience. He wandered off 
 into the bush or forests, and kept traveling until the small 
 amount of provisions he carried was exhausted. Then for 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 75 
 
 two or three days he lived upon roots and leaves and on a 
 bird that he killed with a club. 
 
 " One day, while he was dragging himself along, he came 
 to a mound of earth, which had been freshly heaped up. 
 Standing in this mound there was a stick, and to help him- 
 self along he took possession of the stick, which was like 
 a long walking-cane. He observed, as he took possession 
 of it, that it seemed to have been used before, but he pro- 
 ceeded on his way and thought no more about the matter. 
 
 " After drao-o-inrr himself along for half a mile or more, 
 he suddenly came upon a little encampment of native 
 blacks or aborigines. They raised a shout as they saw 
 him and made a rush in his direction, brandishing their 
 spears and other weapons, and showing signs of hostility. 
 
 " The poor fellow thought his last hour had come, as he 
 had heard that the blacks murdered every white man they 
 came across. What was his surprise when they suddenly 
 lowered their weapons and changed their demonstrations 
 of hostility to those of respect! They gathered about him 
 in the most friendly manner imaginable, and tried to talk 
 with him, but he could not understand a word. They threw 
 up a shelter for him larger than any other shelter in the 
 encampment, and installed him there, and they treated 
 him as though he were a princely ambassador. They 
 brought him food, which he ate ravenously, and they con- 
 tinued to place their greatest delicacies before him until 
 his appetite was fully satisfied. 
 
 "Well, he remained among them for years, and as he 
 was a man of fair intelligence, he soon learned their lan- 
 guage. It did nut take him long to comprehend that he 
 
j6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 was treated as the chief of the tribe, and had been regarded 
 as such from the very beginning. And what do you sup- 
 pose brought it about ? " 
 
 "I'm sure I can't tell," said both of the youths in a 
 breath. 
 
 " It came about in this way," explained the doctor. 
 "The Australian blacks believe, or, at any rate, many of 
 the tribes. do, that the white man is nothing more nor less 
 than a resurrected black man. Those of them who speak 
 English express it in these words : ' Tumble down, black 
 fellow ; jump up, white fellow.' 
 
 "It so happened that the tribe which he joined had just 
 buried its chief, and when they bury one of their dead 
 they heap a mound of earth above the spot, and upon the 
 top of the mound some implement or weapon belonging 
 to the deceased. In this case they had stuck the old 
 chief's walking-staff in the top of the mound, and it was 
 this very staff that the white man took from the mound 
 where the chief was buried, to help him along on his way. 
 When the blacks saw the man approaching they proceeded 
 to kill him after their custom, but as he came near and 
 they saw that he carried the staff of their chief, they at 
 once concluded that the chief had come to life airain in 
 the shape of the white fellow. That is why they showed 
 him so many honors and made him chief of their tribe. 
 It was in their minds a clear case of ' tumble down, black 
 fellow; jump up, white fellow.'" 
 
 " I suppose he was quite contented to stay with them, 
 and not return to Sydney and its punishments ? " remarked 
 one of the youths. 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 77 
 
 "Yes, indeed he was. For years rumors came to Syd- 
 ney, from time to time, that there was a white man living 
 in one of the aboriginal tribes as their chief. Word was 
 sent him several times by means of the blacks, giving the 
 governor's promise that he would not be molested if he 
 would come to Sydney and tell his story, but he was sus- 
 picious, and for a long time refused to come. Finally an 
 officer of the government went out, and with a great deal 
 of difficulty succeeded in having an interview with him. 
 He received the most solemn assurance that he would not 
 be interfered with, and finally said that if a full pardon 
 were sent to him, he would come. A full pardon was 
 accordinglv forwarded and he ventured to Sydney, where 
 he received a good deal of attention. His story was taken 
 down from his own lips, and afterward published in a 
 book. After a few months he became dissatisfied with 
 civilization and returned to his wanderings." 
 
 " That is a curious idea of the blacks, that they become 
 white after their death,"' Xed remarked. 
 
 " Yes, it is curious," said the doctor, " and they carry it 
 out in forming attachments for the white people who em- 
 ployed them. At a station where quite a number of blacks 
 were emploved, one of the eldest of the women used to say 
 to the foreman of the place : ' You are my son. I your 
 moder, and I take care of you. My big bov tumble down, 
 vou white bov tumble up. You my piccaninny.' After a 
 time the man got married and brought his wife to his 
 home. The next day another woman of the tribe adopted 
 and laid claim to her as her child. The two women be- 
 came very fond of each other, and when, in the course of 
 
78 THE LAM) OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 time, the black woman died, the white one mourned ex- 
 ceedingly for her." 
 
 " We will have an opportunity to see some of the abo- 
 riginals while we are in the country, and then we will learn 
 more about them," continued the doctor; "but of one 
 thing let me remind you, do not speak of them as ' natives/ 
 In Australia, the term ' native ' is applied to a white person 
 born in this country, while the real natives, as we ourselves 
 would speak of them, are termed 'blacks' or ' aborigines.'" 
 
 The youths promised to bear the advice in mind, and 
 then Harry asked how the discontinuance of convict emi- 
 gration was brought about. 
 
 " It was brought about," the doctor replied, " through 
 the hostility of the Australians themselves. They pro- 
 tested repeatedly against receiving convicts, and their 
 protests were heeded to the extent that for awhile the emi- 
 gration ceased ; but one day a ship appeared in the harbor 
 of Sydney with a fresh batch of convicts. Thereupon the 
 local authorities took vigorous action, and refused to allow 
 the convicts to be landed. The ship then went to Mel- 
 bourne, with the same result. The people of Melbourne 
 would not have the undesirable emigrants, and the captain 
 was obliged to £o around the southern coast to West Aus- 
 tralia, where no opposition was made to the human cargo 
 being put on shore. Convict emigration to New South 
 Wales and Victoria ceased about 1S40, and to Tasmania in 
 1853, but it was continued to West Australia until 1858. 
 Since that time it has been entirelv given up by the British 
 government, and the class of people that used to be sent 
 here is now taken care of in British prisons at home. 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. 79 
 
 "The old idea about transportation of criminals was. 
 that it rendered society at home better by removing the 
 criminal class. In practise this theory was found to be a 
 mistaken one. Thievery and similar crimes were found 
 to be trades, and as fast as criminals were transported 
 others came up to take their places, so that, practically, no 
 matter how many criminals were sent away, their places 
 were soon filled and the business went on as before. 
 France began the practise about the middle of this cen- 
 tury of transporting criminals to New Caledonia and other 
 islands of the Pacific; she still keeps it up, but, according 
 to accounts, there is no diminution of crime in France, nor 
 is there likely to be. 
 
 " It is proper to say in this connection that there was a 
 considerable party in Australia in favor of the transpor- 
 tation system, on account of the money the government 
 expended here in consequence. This was particularly the 
 case in Van Dieman's Land, which is now called Tas- 
 mania. That island received a great number of convicts, 
 and the government expended a very large amount of 
 money for their support and for the construction of prison 
 establishments. Many of the public works of Tasmania 
 were built by the convicts. For example, they built an 
 excellent road one hundred and twenty miles long, run- 
 ning across the island from Hobart to Launceston. It is 
 said to be the finest wagon and carriage road in all the 
 country, but is now comparatively little used, having been 
 superseded by a railway. 
 
 "The ruins of a very extensive prison are still to be 
 seen at Port Arthur, about thirteen miles from Hobart : it 
 
80 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 stands on a peninsula which is connected with the main- 
 land by a very narrow neck. Across this neck of land there 
 were chained a lot of savage dogs, so near each other that 
 nobody could pass without being within reach of at least 
 one of the dogs. The water all around the peninsula 
 abounded in sharks, so that if a man attempted to swim 
 across the bay he was liable to become the prey of one, 
 or perhaps a dozen, of these sea wolves. And yet a 
 good many men, first and last, managed to escape from 
 Port Arthur and get into the bush. 
 
 "Generally the runaways were caught before being at 
 large manv days, and when brought back many of them 
 were condemned to death. At one time the keeper who 
 had charge of the prisons at Ilobart complained to the 
 authorities of the inadequate facilities for putting men to 
 death by hanging. He said it was impossible to hang 
 conveniently more than thirteen men at once, and as the 
 hangman had been very busy of late, he thought that the 
 facilities ought to be increased so that the work could be 
 performed with greater expedition.*' 
 
 Dr. Whitney reminded his young friends that it was 
 time for them to start if they wished to employ the fore- 
 noon advantageously ; accordingly, a carriage was called 
 and the party went out for a drive. They proceeded in 
 the direction of the lake, a pretty sheet of water in the 
 northern part of Adelaide — about two miles long and in 
 some places half a mile wide. The lake is an artificial 
 one, and is formed by throwing a dam across the river 
 Torrens and restraining the waters which come down in 
 times of flood. For the greater part of the year the 
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES. Ol 
 
 river is little more than a dry bed of sand, and one of the 
 inhabitants told Harry that sprinkling-carts were driven 
 through the bed of the river every morning and evening 
 to keep down the dust. The city is supplied with water 
 from this river : it is taken from a stream several miles 
 above Adelaide, and brought through heavy iron pipes. 
 
 Harry wished to know the population of the city, and 
 was told that it was not far from sixty thousand. There 
 is a considerable suburban population, and the man from 
 whom Harry obtained his information said he thought 
 there was fully another sixty thousand people living within 
 a radius of ten miles from City Hall. He said the whole 
 population of the colony of South Australia was not far 
 from one hundred and thirty thousand including about five 
 thousand aboriginals. 
 
 When the country was first settled it was thought that 
 the aboriginals numbered twelve or fourteen thousand, but 
 contact with civilization had reduced the figures very 
 materiallv here, as in other parts of the world. Where 
 white men and aboriginals have come in contact, the latter 
 have suffered all over Australia : their relations have not 
 changed in Xew Zealand and Tasmania, and this is es- 
 pecially the case in the last-named colony. Not a single 
 aboriginal Tasmanian is now alive, the last one having 
 died in 1S76. When the island was first occupied by the 
 English, the number of aboriginals was estimated at four 
 or five thousand. The storv goes that when the British 
 landed there the natives made signs of peace, but the 
 officer who was in charge of the landing thought the 
 signals were hostile instead of friendly. He ordered 
 
82 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the soldiers to fire upon the blacks, and thus began a war 
 which lasted for several years, and when it terminated, 
 only a few hundreds of the blacks remained alive. In 
 1854, there were only fifteen of them left, and the number 
 irraduallv diminished, until the last one died as related. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACROSS AUSTRALIA TALLEST TREES IN THE WORLD. 
 
 OUR friends were invited to visit a large wheat farm 
 twenty or thirty miles north of Adelaide, and 
 accepted the invitation with great pleasure. Leaving the 
 city early in the morning, the railway train took them to a 
 station a few miles from the farm, and there the owner met 
 them in his carriage. After a substantial breakfast at the 
 owner's residence, they were driven to the field, or, rather, 
 to one of the fields, where the work of harvesting was 
 going on. 
 
 It roused their national pride somewhat to find that 
 American reaping-machines were in use on the farm, and 
 they also learned that the plowing was done with Ameri- 
 can plows. The field stretched out to an almost limitless 
 extent, and it needed very little play of the imagination 
 for the youths to believe that they were on one of their 
 own western prairies instead of being at the antipodes. 
 
 The farm seemed to be managed in a most systematic 
 manner, and before they departed the owner showed them 
 a copy of the rules which the men were required to sign 
 when they were engaged. Before signing, the rules were 
 read to them line by line, and sentence by sentence, and 
 each man acknowledged that he had a full understanding 
 of the documents to which he affixed his signature. 
 
 Perhaps it may interest our readers to know something 
 
84 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 about these rules. Sixty men are employed on a farm 
 throughout the whole year, and in the busy season three 
 times that number are engaged. Here is the substance of 
 the rules : — 
 
 "The bell rings at five o'clock in the morning, and 
 this is the signal for everybody to get up. Horses are 
 groomed and fed before six o'clock, and at that hour the 
 men are served with breakfast. At seven o'clock the 
 teams are harnessed, and teams and men go to the field. 
 At noon one hour is allowed for rest and dinner, and then 
 work goes on until five o'clock in winter and six o'clock 
 
 cf 
 
 in summer. Then the teams return to the stables, and the 
 men get their suppers at seven o'clock. The "horses are 
 fed and watered at eight o'clock, and by ten o'clock every- 
 body must be in bed." 
 
 First-class hands on these farms receive twenty shill- 
 ings ($5) per week, and employees of other grades are paid 
 in proportion. One clause in the rules says that any man 
 in charge of horses who abuses them or neglects to care 
 for them properly will be discharged at once, and forfeit 
 all wages that may be due him. Penalties are stated for 
 every sort of offense, all of them being in the shape of 
 fines or loss of situation, or both. Every laborer who be- 
 gins in a low position is promised an advance in pay and 
 place as a reward of his industry and good conduct. 
 
 "There are a good many farms of this sort in South 
 Australia," said Ned in his journal, "and we are sorry 
 that time prevents our visiting all those that we have been 
 invited to see ; but our regret is modified by the recollection 
 that one farm is very largely a repetition of another farm, 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 85 
 
 and so we accept the situation and say nothing more about 
 it. South Australia is a great wheat-growing country, and 
 ships an immense quantity of wheat to England. In good 
 \ ears it produces fully fifteen millions of bushels for export, 
 in addition to the quantity required for home consumption. 
 
 " Xext in importance to the wheat crop in South Aus- 
 tralia is the crop of wool. There are nearly seven millions 
 of sheep in the colony, and between the wool and bread- 
 stuffs, the income to the country is very considerable. We 
 now understand the uses of the immense sheds, and the 
 grain elevators that we saw when we landed at Port Ade- 
 laide. Large as they are, the capacities of these places of 
 storage must be taxed to their utmost in busy times. 
 
 " They have given considerable attention to the cultiva- 
 tion of the grape. Grapes, apricots, peaches, and other 
 fruits grow in great abundance, so much so that in the 
 fruit season they are retailed in the market of Adelaide at 
 a penny a pound, and all of them are delicious. Quite an 
 industry is being developed in canning fruits for exporta- 
 tion, and it will probably increase gradually as the years 
 go on." 
 
 Our friends were invited to make a journey on the line 
 of the Great Northern Railway, which is ultimately in- 
 tended to reach the northern coast of Australia. The 
 distance across Australia, from north to south, is about 
 seventeen hundred miles ; about four hundred miles of the 
 line are completed, leaving thirteen hundred miles yet to 
 be built. It will cost a great deal of money to finish the 
 railway, but the people are ambitious, and will probably 
 accomplish it in the course of time. 
 
86 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 They already have a telegraph line, running for the 
 greater part of the way through a very desolate region. 
 For hundreds of miles there are no white people, except 
 the operators and repairers at the stations, and in many 
 places it is unlikely that there will ever be any inhabitants, 
 as the country is a treeless waste, and, at some of the sta- 
 tions, water has to be brought from a considerable distance. 
 Artesian wells have been bored at many of the stations ; at 
 some of them successfully, while at others it was impossible 
 to find water. 
 
 The railway official who invited our friends to make the 
 journey, told them that he was connected with the telegraph 
 company at the time of its construction, and he gave an inter- 
 esting account of some of the difficulties they encountered. 
 
 " The desert character of the country," said the gentle- 
 man, " caused us a great deal of inconvenience. We 
 were obliged to haul or carry provisions and material for 
 long distances. Where it was practicable to use wagons 
 we used them, but where we could not do so we employed 
 camels. Camels were introduced into Australia forty or 
 fifty years ago, and they have been a great deal of use to 
 us in parts of the country where water is scarce. The 
 conditions of Northern and Central Australia very much 
 resemble those of the regions of Northern Africa, where 
 the camel had its origin, or, at all events, where it abounds 
 to-day in greatest numbers. Had it not been for the 
 ' Ship of the Desert,' it is possible that we might not have 
 been able to build the telegraph line across Australia. 
 The camel is so highly appreciated here that the govern- 
 ment has established several breeding stations for those 
 
Across Australia. 87 
 
 ungainly creatures, and their number is increasing every 
 year. 
 
 " You know already about the scarcity of water in the 
 desert region. Springs are few and far between, and rain 
 is of rare occurrence. It was frequently necessary to 
 carry water thirty or forty miles, and on account of the 
 great heat it was impossible to carry it in skins or in 
 wooden cases, owing to the rapid evaporation. Cases or 
 cans of galvanized iron proved to be the best receptacles 
 for water, so far as evaporation was concerned, but the}' 
 have the disadvantage of becoming cracked and leaky in 
 the rough treatment to which they are subjected. 
 
 " Poles for the telegraph had to be hauled a long dis- 
 tance for a large part of the way. Iron poles are gener- 
 ally used, owing to an insect that destroys wood with great 
 rapidity. I wonder if you have yet seen any of the 
 ravages of this little creature?" 
 
 This last remark was made in the form of an interroga- 
 tion, to which Harry responded that he had not yet ob- 
 served anything of the kind, nor had his attention been 
 called to it. Xed remarked that he had been told of the 
 destructiveness of this worm, but had not yet seen any- 
 thing of its work. 
 
 "If you had seen it you would remember it," said the 
 gentleman. "The worm abounds more in the country 
 districts than in the city, and it does not seem to get so 
 much into the city houses as it does into those of the rural 
 districts. Suppose you settle in South Australia, and build 
 yourself a house or buy one already built, and proceed to 
 take your comfort. Some day when you are sitting in 
 
88 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 your parlor you suddenly feel a leg of your chair going 
 through the floor, and down you go with a crash. Some- 
 body runs to your assistance, and the additional strain put 
 upon the floor causes the break to increase, and, together 
 with the person who has come to your aid, you go down 
 in a heap through a yawning chasm in the floor, no 
 matter whether your room is carpeted or not. If it is the 
 former, the ravages of the worm have been quite con- 
 cealed by the carpet ; while in the latter case the surface 
 of the wood presents the same appearance, while the whole 
 interior of the plank or board has been turned to dust. 
 This sort of thing has happened in many an Australian 
 house, and will doubtless continue to happen." 
 
 Harry asked if there was any way of preventing the 
 ravages of this destroyer. 
 
 His informant replied that there were two or three kinds 
 of wood which these insects would not touch. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, they were higher priced than ordinary 
 wood, and consequently the temptation was to use the 
 cheaper article. Houses could also be built of cement, 
 brick, or other substances which defied the wood worm, 
 but these, again, were expensive and could not be afforded 
 by newly arrived emigrants, whose capital was generally 
 very limited. 
 
 " Returning to the subject of the telegraph," the gentle- 
 man continued, " we found a great deal of trouble with 
 the insects destructive to wood, and then, too, we had 
 considerable difficulty with the blacks, though less than 
 we had anticipated. We managed to inspire them with a 
 very wholesome fear of the mysterious fluid that passed 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 89 
 
 through the wires, and though they have burned stations, 
 and killed or wounded quite a number of our people, they 
 have never meddled with the wires. ' 
 
 " How did you manage to inspire them with such fear?" 
 queried Harry. 
 
 "We did it in this way." was the reply. "Whenever 
 a native visited us, we managed to give him a shock of 
 electricity, and if we could shock an entire group at once 
 it was so much the better. On several occasions we got 
 two or more of their chiefs at stations hundreds of miles 
 apart, and then let them talk with each other over the 
 wires. Where they were well acquainted, they were able 
 to carry on conversations which none but themselves could 
 understand. Then we would have them meet half way 
 between the stations and compare notes, and the result 
 was something that greatly astonished them. Savage peo- 
 ple generally attribute to the devil anything they cannot 
 understand, and they very quickly concluded that ' His 
 Satanic Majesty ' was at the bottom of the whole busi- 
 ness and it would be well for them to let it carefully 
 alone. 
 
 '•An amusing thing happened one day when we were 
 putting up a portion of the line. There was a crowd of 
 native blacks watching us, and the principal man among 
 them walked for an hour or two along the line, making a 
 critical examination of the posts and wires and pacing the 
 di>tance between the posts. 
 
 " When he had evidently made up his mind as to the 
 situation he walked up to the foreman of the working party 
 and said, with an accent of insolence : — 
 
9 o 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " ' My think white fellow one big fool.' 
 
 " When the foreman tried to find out his reason for ex- 
 pressing contempt in that way, he pointed to the telegraph 
 line and said : — 
 
 " ' That piece of fence never stop cattle.' 
 
 "Before the foreman could explain what the supposed 
 thing was intended for, he walked off with his nose very 
 much in the air and never came near the telegraph line 
 again, as far as we know." 
 
 After a short laugh over the incident, one of the youths 
 asked how far apart the stations were. 
 
 "The distances vary considerably according to circum- 
 stances," said their informant. " In some places they are 
 within thirty or forty miles of each other, and there are 
 portions of the line where they are one hundred miles 
 apart. There are two operators and two repairers at each 
 station. These are all white men, and some of them have 
 their families with them. In addition to the white residents 
 at the station, there are all the way from two or three to 
 eight or ten blacks. The blacks in our service are gener- 
 ally faithful, and we put a great deal of dependence upon 
 them. Sometimes they are treacherous, but not often, as 
 treachery is not a part of their nature. 
 
 " I was making a tour of inspection of the line shortly 
 after it was completed, and happened to be at one of the 
 stations at a time when the blacks were threatening trouble. 
 One of the operators, Mr. Britton, was accompanied by 
 his wife. Her husband wanted her to go to a place of 
 greater safety, but she refused, and said she would stand 
 bv bis side. She was a good shot with the revolver, and 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 91 
 
 promised that in case of trouble she would put her abilities 
 to a practical test. 
 
 " The blacks came about the station to beg, and also to 
 ascertain the strength of the company, and one evening 
 word came that they were going to have a corroboree in a 
 little patch of forest near the station. Perhaps you don't 
 know what a corroboree is." 
 
 Both of the youths shook their heads and acknowledged 
 their ignorance. 
 
 "Well, it is a wild sort of dance, something like the 
 dances among your American Indians, with local varia- 
 tions to suit the climate and people. The dancing is done 
 by the men, who get themselves up in the most fantastic 
 manner imaginable with paint of various colors. They 
 daub their faces with pigments in streaks and patches, and 
 trace their ribs with white paint, so that they look more 
 like walking skeletons than like human beings. Generally 
 at one of these dances they wear strips of skin around their 
 waists, and ornament their heads with feathers. 
 
 " I said that the dancing was done by the men, though 
 this is not absolutely the rule, as there are certain dances 
 in which the women take part, though not a very conspicu- 
 ous one. Generally the dances are by the people of one 
 tribe, though there are a few in which several tribes take 
 part. As a usual thing, however, this kind of a dance 
 ends in a fight, as the dancers work themselves up to a 
 condition of frenzy, and if there is any ill feeling among 
 them it is sure to crop out. 
 
 "The dances in the neighborhood of the telegraph sta- 
 tion to which I referred included men of several tribes, and 
 
92 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 we knew that mischief would be likely to come of it. Two 
 of our black fellows went as near to the scene of the dance 
 as they dared go, and from time to time brought us par- 
 ticulars of the proceedings. 
 
 "We got revolvers and rifles readv, Mrs. Britton tak- 
 ing possession of one of the revolvers, and loading it very 
 carefully. All along during the evening we could hear the 
 yelling of the natives at their dance, but an hour or so 
 before midnight the noise diminished, and one of our black 
 fellows came in to tell us that they were preparing to attack 
 the station. 
 
 "The principal building of the station was a block 
 house built for defense against the blacks, and strong 
 enough to resist any of their weapons ; but, of course, they 
 would be able to overpower us by surrounding the place 
 and starving us out, though we had little fear of that. 
 The great danger was that they would come upon us in 
 great numbers, and as we were not sufficiently numerous to 
 defend all parts of the building at once, they could set it on 
 fire and thus compel us to come out and be slaughtered. 
 
 " The warning brought by our black fellow proved to 
 be correct. The men who had been engaged in the dance 
 had left the scene of their jollification and moved in the 
 direction of the station. We could hear their voices as 
 they approached, and it was much to our advantage that 
 the moon was of sufficient size to give a fairly good light. 
 The station was in such a position that no one could 
 approach it without being seen. 
 
 "In a little while we saw in the moonlight a mass of 
 dark figures crossing the open space to the south, and, 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 93 
 
 judging by the ground they covered, there were at least 
 a hundred of them. They advanced quietly about half 
 way across the clearing and then broke into a run, while 
 they tilled the air with yells. In a few moments they 
 were all around the building, and quite a number of them 
 threw their spears at it — a very foolish procedure, as the 
 weapons could do no harm whatever to the thick sides of 
 the structure. It was our policy not to take life or even 
 to shed blood if we could possibly avoid it, as we were 
 anxious to be on friendly terms with the- black people along 
 our line. I had been thinking the matter over in the 
 evening, and suddenly hit upon a scheme that I thought 
 would save us from injuring anybody, and at the same 
 time <nve our assailants a thorough scare. 
 
 " There happened to be in the station a package of 
 rockets, which had been brought along for signaling 
 purposes during the work of construction. Just as the 
 crowd of blacks reached the station, I asked Mr. Britton, 
 the chief operator, to bring me one of the rockets. 
 
 " He complied with my request, and I fixed the missile 
 so that it would go just above the heads of the crowd of 
 veiling blacks. Then I touched a match to the fuse, and 
 away sailed the rocket through the night air. 
 
 " Not one of those aboriginals had ever seen anything 
 of the kind before. They started not upon the order of 
 their going, but went as though pursued by wild tigers or 
 guilty consciences. They could not have been more 
 astonished if the moon had dropped down and exploded 
 among them. They gave just one yell, and it was five 
 times as loud as any yell they had previously given. 
 
94 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " In less than two minutes from the time the rocket was 
 fired, there was not a hostile black man around the station. 
 Our own black fellows had been trembling with fear, as 
 they knew that, in case of capture, they would share what- 
 ever fate was in store for us, the wild blacks being greatly 
 prejudiced against any one of their number who takes 
 service with the whites. The crowd fled in the direction 
 of the scene of their corroboree, but they did not stop there. 
 We learned the next day that they ran three or four miles 
 before coming to a halt. 
 
 "We saved the station and ourselves without shedding 
 a drop of blood. The story was told by the blacks far 
 and wide that we ' shot a star at them.' This gave us a 
 hint on which we acted, and we took pains to circulate the 
 report that we had power to bring all the heavenly bodies 
 to our aid whenever we needed them. Several times we 
 offered to chief of the tribe to bring down the moon, or 
 any of the stars that he might designate, but for fear that 
 he would take us at our word, we always said that we 
 would not be responsible for the consequences. In view 
 of these circumstances, he invariably asked us to leave 
 the denizens of the heavens alone. 
 
 " All the attacks on our stations have not been as blood- 
 less as the one I have just described," the gentleman con- 
 tinued. "Three or four years after the line was opened 
 the blacks attacked a station about one thousand miles north 
 of Adelaide. One of the operators, Mr. Stapleton, was 
 mortally wounded, and so was one of the line repairers. 
 Both the other white men at the station were slightly 
 wounded, and one of the blacks in our service was killed. 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 95 
 
 The attack lasted only a short time, and the assailants 
 were driven away by the well-directed fire of the people 
 at the station. 
 
 "The mortally wounded operator, Mr. Stapleton, was 
 placed on a conch, while the other operator was telegraph- 
 ing the news of the occurrence to Adelaide. A doctor 
 was called to the telegraph office in the city, and on learn- 
 ing the nature of the wound he pronounced it mortal. 
 Mr. Stapleton's wife was a telegraph operator, and was 
 then employed in the station at Adelaide. A telegraph 
 instrument was placed at the bedside of the dying man, 
 and connected with the instrument on his wife's desk. 
 The two exchanged loving messages for a few minutes, 
 and then the husband with his last efforts telegraphed an 
 eternal good-by to his wife, dropped the instrument from 
 his hand, and fell back dead. I was in the office at 
 Adelaide at the time of this occurrence, and was one of 
 those in the room where Mrs. Stapleton sat. Nearly all 
 of those present were experienced operators, and could 
 understand the clicking of the instrument. Every eye 
 was filled with tears, and every heart was full of sym- 
 pathy for the woman who had been so tragically widowed. 
 As she received the final message of farewell she fell from 
 her chair in a dead faint, from which she did not recover 
 for hours." 
 
 As the foregoing story was narrated to our young 
 friends, their eyes, too, were moist, and so were those of 
 Dr. Whitney, who was sitting close by them. Silence 
 prevailed for several minutes, and then the conversation 
 turned to other subjects. 
 
g6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 The gentleman explained that the northern terminus of 
 the telegraph line was at Port Darwin, where connection 
 was made with the telegraph cable to Singapore, and 
 thence to Europe. " I suppose, in time," said he, "there 
 will be other telegraph connections, but for the present 
 this is the only one that Australia has with the rest 
 of the world. Undoubtedly we shall one day have a 
 cable to the United States, and that will certainly greatly 
 facilitate commerce. At present, telegrams coming from 
 your country to this must come by a very roundabout 
 journey." 
 
 Harry asked what course a telegram would be obliged 
 to take in coming from San Francisco to Adelaide. 
 
 " Let me see," said the gentleman ; "in the first place, 
 it would be telegraphed overland from San Francisco to 
 New York, and then it w^ould go under the Atlantic Ocean 
 through one of the transatlantic cables, and then there 
 would be two or three routes by which it could be sent. 
 It could go by submarine cable to the Straits of Gibraltar, 
 thence under the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the 
 Indian Ocean to Bombay, or it could cross Europe by one 
 of the land lines, and then go through Russia and Persia 
 to the north of India, reaching Bombay by the land route. 
 From Bombay it would be telegraphed across India to 
 Madras, and thence by submarine cable to Singapore, and 
 from Singapore it would be sent by cable to Port Darwin, 
 and thence by the Australian overland line to Adelaide. 
 The message would be repeated six or seven times in the 
 course of its journey, and the fact that so few mistakes 
 are made in the numerous repetitions, many of them by 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. . 97 
 
 people having an imperfect knowledge of English, speaks 
 volumes in praise of the telegraph system." 
 
 Both of our young friends heartily indorsed this remark, 
 and agreed with their informant that the telegraph cer- 
 tainly performed excellent work. 
 
 Our friends made the journey along the line of railway 
 to which they had been invited. They found it interesting 
 though not altogether free from monotony, as there was an 
 excessive amount of sameness in the country through which 
 they traveled. They passed through a range of low 
 mountains which were not sufficiently broken to be pictur- 
 esque. They crossed several dry or slightly moistened 
 beds of rivers, where indications were clearly visible that 
 in times of heavy rains these dry beds or insignificant 
 streams were turned to floods. Here and there the line 
 crossed immense sheep farms and also great wheatfields, 
 but there were wide stretches of land which seemed to have 
 no occupants whatever. Most of the country was open 
 and free from trees. Then there were other parts where 
 the line passed for miles and miles through " scrub/' and 
 at irregular intervals they came upon patches and stretches 
 of Australian forest. 
 
 Harry noted that the forests through which they passed 
 had very little undergrowth, so that it was easy to ride in 
 any direction among the trees. Most of the trees that they 
 saw were eucalypti, of which there are many varieties. 
 The eucalyptus is by far the most common tree of Aus- 
 tralia, and the best known variety is the one that is called 
 "the blue gum."' It is said that fevers do not prevail 
 where the eucalyptus grows, and this theory seems to be 
 
98 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 developed into a well-established fact. Decoctions and 
 other extracts are made from the leaves, bark, wood, and 
 gum of the eucalyptus and are given to fever patients with 
 more or less success. The eucalyptus has been taken to 
 foreign countries, and where the climatic conditions are 
 suitable it has flourished and established itself. The French 
 government introduced it into Algeria and planted it at 
 military stations, where the soldiers had suffered much from 
 malaria. At all those stations the malaria was long ago 
 driven away by the trees, and places that were once un- 
 healthy are now renowned for their salubrity. 
 
 The youths observed that most of the eucalyptus trees 
 were tall and slender. The gentleman who accompanied 
 them said that their trunks were often found with a 
 diameter of ten to twelve feet, and some had been meas- 
 ured that were sixteen feet in diameter at a distance of 
 ten feet from the ground. The trees grow very rapidly, 
 and their timber when green is soft, so that they can be 
 felled, split, and sawed very easily, but when dry it be- 
 comes very hard. It is a very useful wood, as it is adapted 
 for many purposes. The bark contains a great deal of 
 tannin, and it has become to some extent an article of 
 commerce. 
 
 The leaves of the eucalyptus have a leathery appear- 
 ance and generally stand in a vertical position, so that one 
 side receives as much light as the other. A valuable 
 aromatic oil is extracted from the leaves, and is used for 
 medicinal and other purposes. It is said to be very objec- 
 tionable to mosquitoes, and Harry was told that if he 
 scattered a few drops of eucalyptus oil on his pillow at 
 
ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 99 
 
 night, he would not be troubled with mosquitoes, even 
 though there might be many of them in the room. He 
 promised to try the experiment at the first opportunity. 
 
 Ned asked what variety of the eucalyptus was the tallest, 
 and how tall the highest tree of Australia was. 
 
 v ' The giant gum, Eucalyptus amygdalina^ is said to be 
 the tallest tree in the world,*' the gentleman replied. " 1 
 am not sure whether it is really so or not, as you have 
 some very tall trees in the United States, and there are 
 also some of great height in the valley of the Amazon 
 River. I have heard of giant gum trees five hundred 
 feet high, but their location has always been given very 
 vaguely, and nobody knew by whom they had been meas- 
 ured. There is one giant gum tree on "Mount Baw-Baw, 
 in Gippsland, that has been officially measured by a sur- 
 veyor and found to be four hundred and seventy-one feet 
 high. What its diameter is at the base I am unable to say, 
 but probably it is not less than fifteen or sixteen feet. 
 New forests and new groups of trees are being discovered 
 from time to time, and perhaps we will one day find a 
 tree more than five hundred feet high. 
 
 " I will add,"' said their informant, " that the giant gum 
 is also called the ' silver stem,' because when it sheds its 
 bark every year the new surface of the tree, when the old one 
 has come off, is as white as silver. A group of these trees 
 is a very pretty sight, as the trunks are perfectly round, 
 and very often the lowest limbs are fully two hundred feet 
 from the ground." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BLACKS THROWING THE BOOMERANG. 
 
 THOSE giant g 
 remarked, as 
 
 *HOSE giant gums are not easy to climb," Ned 
 the gentleman paused. 
 
 " Not by any means," was the reply ; "at least, not for 
 a white man, but the black fellow will climb one of them, 
 or any other tree, with very little trouble." 
 
 "Why, how does he do it? " 
 
 " He cuts notches in the trunk of the tree where he can 
 place his feet, and he goes on cutting notch after notch as 
 he ascends, making a broad spiral around the tree until 
 he reaches the limbs. Sometimes he passes a piece of 
 rope, made out of twisted bark, around the body of the 
 tree to steady himself, but he is just as likely to take no 
 rope along, and trust entirely to keeping his balance with 
 his feet in the notches." 
 
 "Those black fellows are very accomplished in their 
 way," remarked one of the youths. 
 
 " They are, indeed," was the reply ; " and they do cer- 
 tain things that no white man can ever do. For example, 
 a black fellow employed on a cattle estate will ride at full 
 gallop and follow the track of a runaway cow or steer 
 without making a single mistake. A white man would be 
 obliged to go at a walk, or a very little better, and quite 
 frequently would find it necessary to dismount and examine 
 the ground carefully. The black fellows are fully equal 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. IOI 
 
 to your American Indians in following a trail; they can 
 track men almost as well as bloodhounds can. In parts 
 of Australia we have a police force of blacks, and they 
 perform splendid service in hunting highwaymen and 
 others who have committed crimes and fled into the bush 
 for concealment and safety." 
 
 Harry asked if the blacks were honest in their dealings 
 with white people. 
 
 " I regret to say that their reputation is not by any 
 means the best in the world." was the reply. " Like 
 savages everywhere when brought into contact with civili- 
 zation, they seem to adopt its vices and reject its virtues. 
 They are generally faithful to those by whom they are 
 employed, and in this repect their characters are commend- 
 able. When it comes to ordinary lying and stealing, they 
 are very skillful. They resemble other savages in their 
 fondness for intoxicating drinks, and when they get a 
 little money their desire to go on a spree is very apt to be 
 uncontrolable. They will leave their work and go to the 
 nearest place where intoxicants can be bought, and they 
 keep on buying and drinking until their money is gone. 
 Generally speaking, you cannot keep them in your employ 
 very long. As soon as one learns his business so that he 
 is really useful, he either quits or behaves in such a manner 
 that he has to be sent away." 
 
 Just as this last remark was made, the train halted at a 
 station, and as our young friends looked through the win- 
 dow they saw a group of blacks. They had seen a few 
 black fellows on the wheat farm that they visited, and 
 some had come under their observation in the streets of 
 
102 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 Adelaide. These, however, were dressed in civilized 
 garments, and the group at the station was the first they 
 had seen in aboriginal dress. 
 
 Harry noted the scantiness of their costume, which con- 
 sisted chiefly of a strip of cloth about the waist, and 
 another strip thrown over the shoulder or disposed of in 
 some fantastic way. Their skins were black, though not 
 of the inky, coal-like color of the pure-blooded African 
 negro. Their hair was curly, but did not have a woolly 
 crispness. The features seemed to be more like those 
 of the Malay than of the Negro race, and Ned observed 
 that the hair of the women hung down in wavy plaits, 
 which is not the case with the hair of the negro of the 
 Congo or the Nile. Every man in the party carried a 
 spear, and Ned wondered why they were not armed with 
 bows and arrows. 
 
 "That is for the very simple reason," said their infor- 
 mant, " that the Australian aborigines have never used the 
 bow and arrow ; their only weapons are the spear, club, 
 knife, and boomerang. Their principal weapon for fight- 
 ing is the waddy or club, and each tribe has a peculiar 
 shape for its waddies. This weapon is made of hard 
 wood, and is somewhat suggestive of the night stick of a 
 New York policeman, with the difference that it has a 
 knob on the end to enable it to be grasped with greater 
 security. There is a rule in fighting with the waddy, that 
 you must hit your antagonist on the head. It is not fair 
 to strike him in any other part of the body with these 
 weapons, and the man who would do so would not be 
 regarded as a gentleman in aboriginal society. The dif- 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. IO3 
 
 ference in the waddies is such that you can very often tell 
 what tribe a party belongs to by examining one of their 
 clubs. 
 
 "They are accustomed to spears from their childhood, 
 and can throw them very accurately for a distance of 
 thirty or fort}' yards. I once saw a considerable number 
 of blacks together, and several white men of us got up a 
 competition in spear throwing. We chalked out the figure 
 of a man on the side of a building, and then paced off 
 forty yards from it. We offered a prize of one shilling to 
 every black who would hit this figure with the spear three 
 times out of five at the distance indicated. We had them 
 take turns in succession, and when the competition was 
 over we found that we were obliged to give a shilling to 
 every one of the competitors, as all had hit it three times. 
 Half of them did so four times, and the other half the 
 entire five times." 
 
 Ned asked what the spears were made of. He learned, 
 in reply, that sometimes they were single shafts of wood 
 tipped with stone, bone, or iron. Others had heads of hard 
 wood, while the shafts consisted of light reeds which grow 
 on the banks of the rivers and lakes. The spears are 
 usually from six to ten feet long, at least the lighting spears 
 are. Some of the tribes living along the rivers have spears 
 fifteen or eighteen feet long, intended for fishing purposes 
 and not for war. 
 
 Harry wanted to know what was the religious belief of 
 the blacks, and what were their ideas about the creation. 
 
 " As to religion,** the gentleman answered, kk they don't 
 seem to have much, and the little they do have is of a very 
 
104 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 mixed character. Like all savages, they believe in good 
 and bad spirits, and they treat the bad spirits with much 
 more ceremony than they do the good ones ; on the ground, 
 I presume, that it is necessary to propitiate the bad spirits 
 to save themselves from injury, while the good ones can 
 be relied upon not to do any harm. Some of the tribes 
 believe in a Great Spirit or Supreme Being, while others 
 have no idea of the kind. They have a good many sup- 
 erstitions, and, though not a people of much imagina- 
 tion, they have quite a variety of mythical stories that 
 originated a long time ago, and have been handed down 
 by tradition. It is a curious circumstance that some of 
 these myths repeat quite closely the story of the creation, 
 the fall, and the deluge, but where they came from no- 
 body can tell." 
 
 " Is there any book where we can find any of these 
 traditions?" Harry asked. 
 
 " Oh, certainly ; they have been collected and published, 
 but I can give you the principal ones from memory." 
 
 " The story about the creation is, that one of the spirits 
 that ruled the world created two men out of the dust of the 
 earth, and gave these two men a very rich country to live 
 in. Another spirit created two women and gave one of 
 them to each man. Then he gave spears to each of the 
 men, and told them to kill kangaroos with their weapons, 
 and gave sticks to the women, with which to dig roots out 
 of the ground. Thus it came about that men carry spears 
 and clubs as weapons, while the women perform most of the 
 menial work. The men and women were commanded to 
 live together, and in this way the world in time became full 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. IO5 
 
 of people. They grew so numerous in the region where 
 they were, that the great spirits caused storms to arise and 
 high winds to blow in order to scatter the people over the 
 globe. 
 
 "The tradition about the first sin is, that the first man 
 and woman were ordered by the spirits not to go near a 
 certain tree, as a bat lived there which must not be dis- 
 turbed. One of the women went too near the tree, her 
 curiosity having got the better of her, and the bat became 
 alarmed and flew away. After that death came into the 
 world, having before been unknown. 
 
 "They have another tradition that at one time all the 
 water in the earth was contained in the body of an 
 immense frog, where nobody could reach it. The spirits 
 held an investigation, and ascertained that if the frog could 
 be made to laugh the water would run out of his mouth 
 when he opened it, and the drought then prevailing would 
 be broken. All the animals of the world gathered to- 
 gether and danced and capered before the frog in order to 
 make him laugh, but all to no purpose. Then they called 
 up the fishes to see if they could accomplish anything, but the 
 frog preserved a solemn face until the eel began to wriggle. 
 
 "The wriggling of the eel was too much for the frog 
 and he laughed outright. Immediately the waters flowed 
 from his mouth and the earth was covered with water. 
 Many people were drowned, and all who could do so 
 sought the highest land. The pelican undertook to save 
 the black people ; he made a great canoe- and went around 
 picking up the people, wherever he could find them, and 
 thus saved a great many. 
 
106 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "They have a theory about the sun," the gentleman 
 continued, " that is certainly a very practical one. They 
 say that as it gives out a great deal of light during the day- 
 time, it needs a supply of fuel, and it goes at night to a 
 place where it takes in fuel enough for its next day's work. 
 They say that it used to take in wood exclusively before 
 white people came to Australia, but since the arrival of the 
 whites, and the opening of coal mines, they think the sun 
 takes in both coal and wood at the place where it renews 
 its supply. 
 
 "They believe in dragons, great serpents, and other 
 wonders, and if you are inclined to laugh at them for 
 their beliefs, you must remember that all the rest of the 
 world shared in them two or three hundred years ago. 
 The creature in which they have the greatest faith is the 
 bun-yip, which is supposed to haunt rivers, lakes, and 
 other bodies of water, and possesses remarkable powers. 
 According to their description, he is like a dragon ; he 
 devours black and white people indiscriminately, and can 
 cause all sorts of misfortune. Many natives, and also 
 quite a number of white men, claim to have seen him, and 
 they certainly give some very graphic accounts of his 
 appearance and actions. Not long ago an account ap- 
 peared in one of the Australian newspapers, written by a 
 white man and certified to by another white man, who 
 claim to have actually seen the bun-yip in a small lake, 
 and described him very minutely." 
 
 " And was the story really true?" Harry asked. 
 
 " Well, yes, I suppose it was. That is to say, I believe, 
 as do many others, that there is an amphibious animal liv- 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. 107 
 
 ino- in some of the Australian lakes and rivers of which no 
 specimen has yet been taken. The description of the bun- 
 yip hv those who claim to have seen him, and are not 
 carried away by their imaginations, is very much like that 
 of a Newfoundland dog or a seal. The seal exists in Aus- 
 tralian waters, and I think that is what the bun-yip will 
 turn out to be if one ever allows himself to be taken." 
 
 At the station at the end of the line of railway there was 
 an encampment of blacks, about half a mile away, and our 
 young friends were quite curious to see it. 
 
 Their curiosity was soon satisfied, as there was nothing 
 particularly attractive about the spot. The blacks were 
 civilized enough to live in tents, or, rather, they accepted 
 the bounty of the government which supplied them with 
 tents, though it was evident that they did not intend to 
 give up their old way of living, inasmuch as they had two 
 or three bark shelters of the old-fashioned sort, in addition 
 to the canvas house supplied by the government. And 
 we may remark here that the various colonial governments 
 provide for the support of all the aboriginals living within 
 their territory. Government officials take care of them, 
 supply them with food, clothing, and medical comforts, 
 and assign reservations of land to them, just as the Indian 
 Department of the United States assigns reservations to 
 the red men. But with all the care they receive, their 
 number is steadily diminishing, and the day is not far 
 distant when the last of them will cease to exist. 
 
 A man who could speak the language of the aboriginals 
 accompanied our young friends in their visit to the encamp- 
 ment. At Harry's request, he arranged with the men to 
 
IOS THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 give an exhibition of their skill in throwing the spear, and 
 after that was over he asked them to throw the boomerang. 
 While they were getting ready for their performance the 
 interpreter explained that the boomerang was a great deal 
 of a mystery. He said that no white man, even after 
 years of practise, had ever been able to throw this weapon 
 with any degree of accuracy, and that no Australian black 
 could explain how the weapon was handled. If you ask 
 one of them to explain about throwing the boomerang, he 
 usually says, "You throw him, that all"; and that seems 
 to be all there is to it. 
 
 Ned and Harry watched the performance with the 
 greatest care, and they afterwards said that they knew as 
 much about it before they witnessed it as they did after- 
 wards, with the exception that they had seen with their 
 own eyes what could be done. 
 
 " First, you must understand," said Ned afterwards, 
 " that there are several kinds of boomerangs, the differ- 
 ence being in size, weight, and shape. The variations in 
 shape are so slight that they are not readily perceived by 
 the stranger, though a black would have no difficulty in 
 determining them. The lightest of the boomerangs weigh 
 from four to five ounces, while the heaviest are double that 
 weight. Harry happened to have his spring letter-bal- 
 ance in his pocket, and we weighed one of the boomerangs 
 that we saw used. Its weight was about six ounces and our 
 interpreter said that he considered it rather a light one." 
 
 " The heaviest boomerangs are used for fighting pur- 
 poses and for killing kangaroos, emus, and other large 
 game. 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. 
 
 [O9 
 
 " The boomerang is a queerly shaped weapon. It is 
 made of hard wood and curved like a bow, the curve 
 from point to point being about a quarter of a circle. The 
 piece of wood that forms the boomerang is about half an 
 inch thick, and in the middle it is two and one half inches 
 wide, narrowing steadily towards the end. I took it in my 
 hand and made a motion as if to throw it, whereupon the 
 owner laughed, and indicated by signs that I had seized it 
 by the wrong end. 
 
 ik When he made ready to throw the weapon, the interpre- 
 ter told us to stand perfectly still, lest we might be injured. 
 I asked how it could happen, and he said that the per- 
 former always selected the spot to which the boomerang 
 returned, and by changing our positions, especially after 
 the weapon had been thrown, we might be struck by it 
 when it came back. 
 
 " Both before and after taking his position the performer 
 carefully observed the force and direction of the wind, as 
 it has a great deal to do with the flight of the boome- 
 rang. When he was quite ready he flung the weapon 
 almost straight into the air, where it circled about a few 
 times, and skimmed along near the ground until it anus 
 about three hundred feet distant ; then it turned, made a 
 slight upward motion through the air, and finally fell 
 within an arm's length of where the performer stood. 
 The interpreter explained that this weapon was called the 
 return-boomeranij. 
 
 "The man repeated several times the performance with 
 the weapon, bringing it close to his feet on every occasion. 
 Then a coin was placed in the end of a split stick forty or 
 
IIO THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 fifty yards distant, at the suggestion of the performer, who 
 stipulated that he would knock the coin out without dis- 
 turbing the stick, on condition that he should have the 
 coin, a one-shilling piece, in case he succeeded. 
 
 " He balanced the boomerang with great care and then 
 threw it. It made several gyrations in the air, and when 
 it reached its destination it knocked the coin from its 
 place as neatly as one could have removed it with his 
 fingers. All who stood by applauded the performer, and 
 he was given the opportunity to win several more shillings 
 in the same way. 
 
 " I ought to mention that each time when he threw the 
 boomerang he varied his manner of throwing it. Some- 
 times he sent the weapon straight into the air ; next he 
 skimmed it along the ground, and next he launched at 
 an angle of from forty to sixty degrees. Every time he 
 threw it, it came back to his feet, but when he threw it at 
 the coins in the stick it did not return. 
 
 " The interpreter explained to us that the return-boome- 
 rang was more of a toy than a weapon, as the regular 
 boomerang cannot return when it has hit something in 
 its course. Wonderful stories have been told of the use 
 of this weapon in war, — how the black fellow will launch 
 it two or three hundred yards, and have it kill one or more 
 of his enemies, and then come back to his feet. A moment's 
 thought will convince any one that the two things together 
 are impossible. In order to return to the place whence it 
 started, the boomerang must not encounter or even touch any- 
 thing in its way. When it is used for killing men, or wild 
 animals, it does not come back to the ground of its thrower. 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. Ill 
 
 " From all accounts that I am able to obtain, the boom- 
 erang as a weapon in the hands of a good thrower is very 
 dangerous. It can be made to hit a man concealed behind 
 a tree, rock, or house, where a gun or a spear could not 
 possibly reach him. As a hunting weapon it is of great 
 utility, and many a kangaroo has fallen before it. The 
 skillful thrower, within reaching distance of a kangaroo or 
 an emu, is as sure of his prey as a white man would be 
 with a Winchester rifle." 
 
 Ned and Harry tried to learn from the performer when 
 and by whom the boomerang was invented, and all they 
 could get from him was, " Long time ago ; who knows? " 
 He threw a little light upon the subject by picking up a 
 leaf of the gum tree, holding it at arm's length, and then 
 letting it fall to the ground. It gyrated and changed its 
 course as it descended. Then he picked it up and threw 
 it straight from him, when it gyrated again and returned 
 towards him. It is probable that the idea of the boomerang 
 may have been taken from the motions of a falling leaf, 
 and especially a leaf of the gum tree. As the weapon is 
 known through all the tribes of Australian blacks, it is not 
 likely to have been a recent invention. 
 
 " I have read somewhere," said Harry, "that a weapon 
 similar to the boomerang was known to the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, and that there is also something of the same sort in 
 use among a tribe of Indians in Arizona. If it is true that 
 the Egyptians of old times had this weapon, we may well 
 repeat the off-quoted saying, ' There is nothing new under 
 the sun,' but it seems, at any rate, that the Australian boom- 
 erang is greatly superior to the Arizona one, as it can be 
 
112 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 projected very much further and with far more deadly 
 effect." 
 
 The performer with the boomerang was evidently very 
 well satisfied with his morning's work, and he was certainly 
 very liberally paid for his performances. He invited our 
 friends to take dinner with him, at least, so the interpreter 
 said, though the youths were suspicious that the invitation 
 was all a joke. Anyhow, they did not accept it, as they 
 thought that the meal, with the surroundings- which were 
 visible, would have no temptation either for the eye or the 
 appetite. 
 
 Harry heard the following story, which he duly entered 
 in his notebook : — 
 
 "Once a lawyer undertook the defense of a black 
 fellow who had been arrested for stealing a gold watch. 
 The evidence was wholly circumstantial, as the stolen 
 property had not been found, and the lawyer handled the 
 case so well that the alleged thief was acquitted. A few 
 hours after the trial, the lawyer was seated on the verandah 
 of the principal hotel in the place, engaged in conversation 
 with the magistrate before whom the case was tried, when 
 along came the black fellow. 
 
 " ' Can I wear the watch now?' said the black, at the 
 same time drawing it forth from an inner pocket. 
 
 "The magistrate burst into a loud and hearty laugh. 
 The lawyer laughed, too, but his laughter had a very 
 hollow sound, and then he shouted an emphatic ' No ! ' to 
 the confiding aboriginal." 
 
 Quite a little town had sprung up at the terminus of the 
 railway, and Dr. Whitney said it reminded him of the 
 
AUSTRALIAN BLACKS. 113 
 
 towns along the Pacific railways of the United States 
 during the course of their construction. The compar- 
 ison, he said, was favorable to the Australian town, as 
 the inhabitants seemed far more orderly than did those 
 of the transitory American settlements. During the time 
 of their stay there was not a single fight, and the cor- 
 oner was not called upon to perform his usual official 
 duties. 
 
 The terminus of the railway was in a valley which was 
 dignified with the name of a creek, but no creek was vis- 
 ible. Water was supplied by an artesian well, driven to a 
 depth of eight hundred feet. The water was slightly 
 brackish but quite drinkable, and when it was made into 
 tea or coffee the brackish flavor disappeared. 
 
 Our friends returned to Adelaide by the way they had 
 gone from it, and after a day or two more in the capital of 
 South Australia, they took the train for Melbourne. Ned 
 made note of the fact that had been mentioned to him, that 
 of all the money raised by taxation in South Australia, one 
 fifth of it is used for educational purposes. He further 
 added that the same was the case in all the colonies, and 
 he thought it greatly to their credit. Harry said he did 
 not believe there was a State or city in the whole American 
 Union where such a large proportion of the public money 
 was spent for educational matters. 
 
 The youths learned, in addition, that the schools through- 
 out the colonies are, generally speaking, of excellent quality 
 and the opportunities for higher education in academies, 
 colleges, universities, medical and scientific institutions, and 
 similar seats of learning, are of the best class. Ned made 
 
114 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the following summary from the Education Act of South 
 Australia : — 
 
 " Schools will be established where there is a certain 
 number of children of school age, who will pay a moderate 
 fee to the teachers ; four pence for children under seven, and 
 six pence for older children, per child, per week. In addi- 
 tion to the fees, the teachers will be paid by the government 
 from seventy-five pounds to two hundred pounds per annum. 
 Schoolhouses will be provided, and all the necessary edu- 
 cational material. Four and one half hours constitute the 
 school day- All children of school age are required to be 
 under instruction until a certain standard is reached." 
 
 Provision is made for the free instruction of children whose 
 parents can show that they are unable to pay for it, but fees 
 can be enforced in all cases where inability to pay them has 
 not been proved. Large grants have been made by the 
 legislature for school buildings, teachers' salaries, etc., in 
 order to efficiently aid in the development of a thorough and 
 comprehensive system of education for the young. 
 
 South Australia has a goodly number of schools for 
 higher education, and it also has a university which is well 
 attended. The majority of those who can afford it send 
 their children to private schools rather than to the govern- 
 ment ones, believing, and no doubt correctly, that the edu- 
 cational facilities are greater in the private institutions than 
 in the public ones. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE THE RABBIT PEST DANGER- 
 OUS EXOTICS. 
 
 THE distance from Adelaide to Melbourne is about six 
 hundred miles. Our friends found that the journey 
 was made very leisurely, the trains averaging not more 
 then eighteen or twenty miles an hour. For quite a dis- 
 tance out of Adelaide the train ascends an incline as far 
 as Mount Lofty station, where the hill or mountain of that 
 name is situated. On the way up the last of the incline 
 our friends watched with a great deal of interest the plains 
 stretching out below them, and the city which they had 
 just left lving at their feet like a section of carpet laid off 
 into ornamental squares. Beyond Mount Lofty station 
 the route descended into the valley of the Murray River, 
 whose waters could be seen winding like a thread through 
 the vellow soil. 
 
 "This is the longest river in Australia, is it not?" 
 queried Ned. 
 
 " Yes," replied the doctor, " it is the longest and largest 
 river, and, as you have already learned, it is the only one 
 that remains a real river throughout the year. Its mouth 
 is not many miles from Adelaide, and a considerable part 
 of its course is through South Australia." 
 
 " I wonder they didn't establish the capital city at the 
 mouth of the Murray,*' remarked Harry: "they would 
 
 >'5 
 
Il6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 have had the advantage of a navigable stream, which they 
 have not in the present location." 
 
 "Yes, that is quite true," Dr. Whitney replied; " and 
 they would have illustrated the saying of a philosopher, 
 that great rivers nearly always run past large cities, but 
 there was a practical difficulty in the way, of which you 
 are not aware." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " The Murray at its mouth has a bar that is very difficult 
 and dangerous to cross, and a large area at its entrance 
 consists of shallow water. The mouth of the river, further- 
 more, is swept by southerly winds, which bring in great 
 waves that have their origin in the neighborhood of the 
 South Pole. Consequently it was concluded that the loca- 
 tion of the city at the place with the largest entrance into 
 the sea would not be advantageous, and a location on 
 Spencer's Gulf was considered preferable." 
 
 " Very good reasons," said Ned, " and I have no doubt 
 that the founders of Adelaide acted wisely. They certainly 
 have a very prosperous city where they are, although their 
 seaport is several miles away." 
 
 The train increased its speed as it descended the incline, 
 and the youths found plenty of occupation and amusement 
 in studying the scenery on each side of them, and noting 
 the handsome residences of the merchants and other well- 
 to-do inhabitants of Adelaide. The river was crossed by 
 means of an iron bridge, a substantial structure which was 
 evidently built to last. After crossing the Murray, the 
 railway proceeded for awhile along its valley, and gradually 
 left it to enter a region of long-continued monotony. 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 117 
 
 "For hours in succession," said Harry in his journal, 
 "we had little else but scrub. I imagine that when the 
 surveyors laid out the railway line, they took their bearings 
 by observation of the moon and stars, and laid it directly 
 across from one side of the scrub country to the other. 
 Scrub land is land covered with bushes. There are not 
 many varieties of bushes, and this fact helps along the 
 monotonv. There is one bush that looks like an umbrella 
 turned bottom upwards, and another that resembles an 
 umbrella standing upright, as one holds it to keep off the 
 rain. Then there are bushes and trees, some of them shaped 
 like bottles, others like sugar loaves, and some like nothing 
 else that I can think of at this moment. They vary from 
 three or four feet in height up to fifteen and twenty feet, and 
 sometimes we found them of a height of thirty feet or more. 
 
 " Mile after mile it is the same. I have heard what a 
 terrible thing it is to be lost in the scrub. I can well under- 
 stand that it is terrible, and can also understand how easily 
 such a calamity could be brought about. One mile of 
 scrub is exactly like another mile, or so very nearly like it 
 that it is next to impossible to tell the difference. I have 
 heard that people who stepped only a few yards from the 
 side of the road have wandered for days before finding 
 their way again, or have been sought for by many people 
 before they were found. Many a man has lost his way 
 in the scrub and never been heard of again, or perhaps 
 years after his bones were discovered bleaching at the foot 
 of a tree, where he had sat or lain down for his last rest 
 when he could go no further." 
 
 A portion of the road from Adelaide to Sydney is 
 
Il8 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 called " the ninety-mile desert," in distinction from the rest 
 of the scrub region. It was a great relief to any one to 
 get out of this desert country, and reach the region of 
 farms, and fences, cattle or sheep pastures, and cultivated 
 fields. In some of the districts through which our trav- 
 elers passed they saw great numbers of rabbits, and on 
 calling attention to them, a gentleman who was in the rail- 
 way carriage told them something about the rabbit pest 
 from which the Australian colonies are suffering. 
 
 " If you want to make a fortune," said the gentleman, 
 " find some way for destroying the rabbits in Australia. 
 There is a standing reward of twenty-five thousand pounds 
 (one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of your 
 money) for any method that proves successful. The 
 reward is offered by the colony of New South Wales, and 
 the other colonies will pay as much more." 
 
 " Were there rabbits in this country when it was first 
 discovered?" Harry asked. 
 
 "There were no rabbits here," was the reply; " nor 
 any animals like them. In 185 1, a gentleman living near 
 Dunedin, New Zealand, was on a visit to the old country, 
 and it occurred to him that it would be a nice thing to have 
 rabbits in New Zealand, so that they could amuse them- 
 selves by chasing the little creatures with dogs. On his 
 return from England he brought seven rabbits, and they 
 were the progenitors of all the rabbits in New Zealand, 
 Australia, and Tasmania. For a few years, as fast as 
 rabbits were obtainable they were distributed throughout 
 the colonies, but it was not long before the distributors 
 found out their mistake. 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. HO. 
 
 "The rabbits increased and multiplied at a terrific rate. 
 How many there are now in the colonies, nobody can tell, 
 as it is impossible to take a census of them, but they cer- 
 tainly amount to many millions. They have destroyed 
 millions of acres of sheep pasturage, so that many farms 
 which once supported great numbers of sheep have been 
 deserted in consequence of the rabbits. Let me give you an 
 illustration that I know about, as I was one of the sufferers 
 by these vermin. Fifteen years ago, I owned an interest 
 in a sheep run on the bank of the Murray River in the 
 colony of Victoria. Our holding extended back into the 
 dry and comparatively worthless country. 
 
 "The rabbits got in there, and gradually the sheep 
 were starved out. Year by year the number diminished, 
 and five years ago I sold my interest in the run for a very 
 small sum. From two hundred thousand sheep, the 
 number had diminished to twenty-five hundred, and these 
 were dying in the paddock for want of food. The 
 rabbits were the cause of the whole destruction. They 
 had eaten up all the grass and edible bushes, and it was 
 some consolation to know that they were themselves being 
 starved out, and were dying by the hundreds daily. 
 When the rabbits there are all dead the place can be 
 fenced in, so that no new ones can get there, and it is possi- 
 ble that the grass will grow again, and the run once more 
 become a place of value. 
 
 " The storv I have just told you," the gentleman con- 
 tinued, " is the story of a great many sheep and cattle runs 
 all over Australia and New Zealand. All sorts of means 
 have been resorted to to get rid of the pest, and while some 
 
120 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 have been partially successful, none have been wholly so. 
 The best plan is the old one, to lock the stable before the 
 horse is stolen ; that is, enclose the place with rabbit-proof 
 fences before any rabbits have been introduced. The 
 Australian rabbit is a burrowing animal, and unless the 
 fence is set well into the ground, he is very apt to dig under 
 it. Thus it has happened that many an estate has become 
 infested, even though the owners had gone to the expense 
 of enclosing it. 
 
 " Most of the cities of Australia and New Zealand have 
 a rabbit-skin exchange, just as you have a cotton ex- 
 change in New York. At these exchanges ten or fifteen 
 millions of rabbit skins are sold every year, or an aggre- 
 gate perhaps of fifty or sixty millions, and yet the number 
 does not decrease perceptibly. Factories have been estab- 
 lished for preserving the meat of the rabbits in tin cans, and 
 sending it to market as an article of food. It was thought 
 that this would certainly reduce the number of rabbits, but 
 it has not vet succeeded in doing so. 
 
 "Various kinds of apparatus have been devised for filling 
 the dens of the rabbits with noxious gases that kill them, 
 but the process is too expensive for general introduction ; 
 and, besides, it does not work well in rocky ground. Re- 
 wards are given both by the government and by the owners 
 of land for the destruction of rabbits, and these rewards 
 have stimulated men, who go about the country with packs 
 of doss to hunt down the rabbits for the sake of the bountv. 
 Sometimes the whole population turns out in a grand rabbit 
 hunt and thousands of rabbits are killed. Pasteur, the 
 celebrated French chemist, proposed to destroy the rabbit 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 121 
 
 population by introducing chicken cholera among them ; he 
 thought that by inoculating a few with the disease he could 
 spread it among the others, so that they would all he killed 
 off. He admitted that the chicken population would be 
 killed at the same time, but none of us would object to that 
 if we could get rid of the rabbits, as we could easily rein- 
 troduce domestic fowls." 
 
 Ned said that he wondered why the rabbits increased 
 so rapidly in the Australian colonies and not in the United 
 States or England. 
 
 "Here is the reason of it,"' said the gentleman. "In 
 America there are plenty of wild animals, like wolves, 
 weasels, foxes, ferrets, and the like, to keep down the 
 rabbit population, but here there is not a single animal to 
 interfere with them. They have no natural enemies what- 
 ever, and consequently have things entirely their own way. 
 They breed several times a year and begin to breed very 
 young, so that a pair of rabbits let loose in a given locality 
 will in a few years amount to thousands or even to millions. 
 There, look at that piece of ground and see what you 
 think of it." 
 
 The boys looked where the gentleman indicated, and saw 
 what seemed to be a field of tall grass or grain waving in 
 the wind. A nearer inspection showed that the ground 
 was covered with rabbits, and it was the movements of the 
 animals that caused the illusion just described. 
 
 " Rabbits are not the only pests from which the colonies 
 have suffered," the gentleman continued; " I will tell you 
 about more of them. 
 
 "You must bear in mind," said their informant, " that 
 
122 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 when Australia was settled it contained very few of the 
 products, either animal or vegetable, of other parts of the 
 world. Among the animals there were no noxious ones 
 except the dingo, or wild dog, which was found in various 
 parts of the country. His origin has been a matter of 
 conjecture, some believing that he is descended from dogs 
 which were left here by those who discovered the conti- 
 nent, while others think he is indigenous to the soil. All 
 the other animals, and they were not numerous, were harm- 
 less in their character. There are eight kinds of kanga- 
 roos, all of them herbiverous. They are, as you are 
 doubtless aware, marsupials, that is, they carry their young 
 in a pouch until they are able to run about by themselves. 
 The dingo lived by feeding on the kangaroos, and thus 
 kept down the number of those animals. 
 
 " Horned cattle, horses, and sheep were introduced and 
 successfully raised. The wild dogs killed sheep and 
 calves, and therefore the inhabitants set about killing 
 them. As the dogs decreased in number the kangaroos 
 increased, and they threatened to drive the sheep to starva- 
 tion by eating up all the grass. Many a sheep run was 
 rendered worthless by the kangaroos, and so it became 
 necessary to establish methods of reducing the number of 
 the latter. Battues or hunts were organized, the people 
 gathering from all directions at an appointed time and 
 place, and driving the kangaroos into pens or yards, where 
 they were slaughtered by the thousand. You will probably 
 have an opportunity of seeing a kangaroo hunt before you 
 leave Australia. 
 
 "There were very few native fruits, and we introduced 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 1 23 
 
 the fruits of England and other parts of the world very 
 successfully. We introduced garden plants and vege- 
 tables in great numbers, and nearly all of them turned out 
 to our satisfaction, though this was not uniformly the 
 case. 
 
 "You know that innocent and very acceptable plant 
 called the watercress, which is sold in great quantities for 
 table use in London, New York, and other English and 
 American cities. Well, we brought the watercress to the 
 Australian colonies, and it grew and thrived wonderfullv. 
 It grew altogether too well and thrived a great deal more 
 than we could have wished, as it has choked our rivers, 
 and caused freshets and floods which have devastated 
 farms and fields to a large extent, and on several occasions 
 have been destructive to human life. 
 
 " We introduced the sweet briar, thinking it would form 
 an ornament and rill the air with its perfume. Instead of 
 being ornamental, it has become an impenetrable bush, 
 which neither man nor cattle can go through. It has be- 
 come a nuisance, spreading over the ground and destroying 
 pasturage, and we heartily wish that not a twig of it was 
 ever brought here. 
 
 "When we began to grow fruits we found ourselves 
 annoyed by insects of various kinds, the same sort of insects 
 that are known to fruit growers everywhere. In order to 
 get rid of them, we brought the English sparrow here. He 
 is of great use to the fruit grower in the old country, as he 
 lives principally on insects, or at any rate has the reputa- 
 tion of doing so, and he does not often attack the fruit. 
 
 " Well, we got the sparrow here, and he increased and 
 
I24 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 multiplied until he became very numerous, and what do 
 you suppose the little wretch did? 
 
 " He did not do anything that we wanted him to do. He 
 abandoned his English practise of eating insects, and lived 
 wholly upon grain and fruit. In the fruit season he is a 
 perfect terror in the devastation he makes among our fruit 
 trees. A flock of sparrows will make its appearance in a 
 cherry garden where there are twenty, fifty, or perhaps a 
 hundred cherry trees bending beneath a burden of fruit just 
 about ripe enough to be picked. They save the owner the 
 trouble and expense of picking his fruit, as they take entire 
 charge of it, and in a few clays the whole crop is ruined. 
 Other fruit suffers in the same way, and the testimony is 
 the same from all parts of Australia. One of the colonial 
 governments had an investigation of the subject at one time, 
 and the testimony was something appalling. The sparrows 
 abound here in countless millions, all of them descended 
 from fifty birds that were imported about the vear i860. 
 The owners of vine} T ards, as well as the fruit farmers, com- 
 plain of the ravages of the sparrows, and at the official 
 investigation that I mentioned one vine grower testified that 
 his crop of grapes the previous year would have been two 
 tons, but the sparrows destroyed the entire lot. 
 
 "Another bird almost as destructive as the sparrow is 
 the mina or nn'iw, a bird which was brought here from 
 India. It is quite a handsome bird, and can learn to talk 
 almost as readily as the- parrot, and that is why it was 
 brought here. It lives on fruits and vegetables, and has 
 very nearly the same habits as the sparrow. The colonial 
 government have placed a bounty upon the heads and eggs 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 125 
 
 of the sparrow, and also on those of the mina. A great 
 many boys and men, too, make a fairly good revenue in 
 killing the birds or plundering their nests. The birds arc 
 trapped, shot, or poisoned, but their number does not seem 
 to diminish. 
 
 " Somebody brought a daisy to Australia, as it is a very 
 popular flower in England, and was expected to remind the 
 English settler of his old home. It has spread very rapidly, 
 and on thousands upon thousands of acres it has rooted out 
 the native grasses and taken full possession of the soil. 
 Another plant has a history which would be ludicrous if it 
 were not so serious, and that is the thistle." 
 
 " You mean the regular thistle, such as is known in 
 England and the United States ? " 
 
 " I refer particularly to the Scotch thistle," said the 
 gentleman, " which is not particularly unlike the other 
 thistles with which we are familiar. You know that the 
 thistle is the emblem of Scotland, and may be said to be 
 worshipped by all patriotic Scotchmen. Well, it happened 
 that a Scotch resident of Melbourne, while visiting the old 
 country, took it into his head to carry a thistle with him on 
 his return to Australia. So he placed the plant in a pot 
 and watered it carefully every day during the voyage from 
 London to Melbourne. When he arrived his performance 
 was noticed in the newspapers, and a subscription dinner 
 was arranged in honor of the newly arrived plant. About 
 two hundred Scotchmen sat down to the dinner, at which 
 the thistle was the centerpiece and the great object ot at- 
 traction. Speeches were made, and the festivities contin- 
 ued to a late hour of the. night. The next day the thistle 
 
126 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 was planted with a great deal of ceremony, and more 
 speeches in the public garden at Melbourne, and it was 
 carefully watched and tended by the gardener, who hap- 
 pened to be a Scotchman. 
 
 " Well, the thistle blossomed and everybody rejoiced. 
 You know how the seeds of that plant are provided with 
 down, that enables them to float on the wind. The seeds 
 of that thistle were borne on the breezes, and all over the 
 colony of Victoria they found a lodging in the soil, grew 
 and prospered, and sent out more seeds. That thistle 
 has been the cause of ruin to many a sheep and cattle 
 run all over Australia. Thousands, yes, millions, of 
 acres of grass have been destroyed by that pernicious 
 weed. Anathemas without number and of the greatest 
 severity have been showered upon the thick-headed 
 Scotchman who brought the plant to Australia, and the 
 other thick-headed Scotchmen who placed it in the public 
 garden. 
 
 " While I am on this subject," the gentleman continued, 
 " I may as well tell you of a very curious circumstance in 
 New Zealand." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " When the sheep farmers first established their business 
 in the mountain regions of New Zealand, they observed 
 flocks of parrots occupying the forest, and living entirely 
 upon fruits and vegetables. They were very pretty birds 
 and nobody thought that any harm would come from them, 
 in view of their habits of life. The farmers used to kill 
 some of their sheep for food purposes, and leave the meat 
 hanging out over night in the cool air. It was observed 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 1 27 
 
 that the parrots got in the habit of coming down to the 
 meat frames and picking off the layers of fat, particularly 
 those around the kidneys. Their fondness for this kind of 
 food seemed to increase as time went on, and they finally 
 became such a nuisance as to compel the herders to give 
 up their practise of leaving the meat out of doors in the 
 night-time. 
 
 " After a while the farmers occasionally found the 
 fattest and best of their sheep dead or dying of wounds 
 across the smaller part of the back directly in the region 
 of the kidneys. Nobody could tell how the wounds were 
 made, but it was evident that the mischief-makers were 
 numerous, as a good many sheep, always the finest of 
 the flock, were killed. Finally, one of the men employed 
 about a sheep run ventured to suggest that it must be done 
 by the parrots. His suggestion was ridiculed so earnestly 
 that the man was sorry he had made it, but he gave as his 
 reason for it the fact that he had seen a parrot perched on 
 the back of a sheep and the bird flew away when he 
 approached. 
 
 • ' Watchers were set over the sheep, and the suggestion 
 of the man proved to be the correct one. How the birds 
 ever connected the existence of the fat which they tore from 
 the carcases on the meat frames with the location of the 
 same fat in the living animal, no one can tell, but certain 
 it is that they did so. It was found that a parrot bent on 
 securing a meal, would fasten his claws in the wool of the 
 sheep, and then with his powerful beak he would tear 
 away the skin and flesh until he reached the fat of which 
 he was in search around the kidneys of the struggling 
 
128 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 animal. It was impossible for the sheep to shake him 
 off ; whether it ran or lay down and writhed in its agony, 
 the bird retained its hold until its object was accomplished." 
 
 " Of course this led to a war of extermination against 
 the parrots, did it not? " 
 
 " Certainly it did. As soon as the fact was well estab- 
 lished the colonial government offered a reward of one 
 shilling for each parrot's head, and the business of hunting 
 these birds began at once. Formerly they used to come 
 freely into the presence of man, but now they shun him, 
 and it is very difficult to find them. They live in the 
 forest, concealing themselves in the daytime, and only 
 coming out at night. In fact, their depredations were 
 committed in the night-time, and that is the reason why 
 their offences continued so long without being discovered." 
 
 " Did they cause great destruction among the flocks of 
 sheep? " 
 
 "Yes, until they were found out and the war began 
 against them they were terribly destructive. One man 
 lost two hundred sheep out of three hundred, another lost 
 nineteen out of twentv, and several others in the same pro- 
 portion. Even now, although the number of parrots is 
 diminished enormously, the flocks in the region where 
 they abound lose at least two per cent, every year from 
 that cause." 
 
 " Is there any way of exterminating them by poison?" 
 
 "No way has been discovered as yet, as the birds are 
 very cunning and cannot be readily induced to take poi- 
 soned food. They are more wary in this respect than 
 rabbits and sparrows, as both of these creatures can be 
 
ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE. 1 29 
 
 poisoned, though the danger is that in attempting to poison 
 them the food is apt to be taken by domestic animals or 
 fowls/' 
 
 "Speaking of poisoning reminds me of an instance in 
 Queensland some years ago, where there was a large num- 
 ber of blacks inhabiting the forest near a sheep station. 
 
 "The owner of the station had been greatly annoyed 
 by the blacks, who had killed many of his sheep, and in 
 several instances had threatened the shepherds with death, 
 and driven them from their places. He determined to 
 get even with them, and this is the way he did it. He 
 loaded a cart with provisions such as flour, sugar, bacon, 
 tea, and other things, which were distributed to the shep- 
 herds once a week. Then the cart started apparently on 
 its round. Near the place where the blacks were congre- 
 gated one of the wheels of the cart came off, and at the 
 same time the vehicle became stuck in a gully. The 
 driver took his horses from the shafts and rode back to the 
 station for help, leaving the cart and its load unguarded. 
 
 " Here was a fine opportunity for the blacks to exercise 
 their thieving propensities, and they did not miss it. In less 
 than an hour the cart was stripped of everything edible, 
 flour, sugar, and everything else being carried away. 
 When the driver returned, he found only the empty vehicle 
 with which to continue his journey. 
 
 "That afternoon the blacks had a grand feast over the 
 stolen property. All the members of the tribe came to- 
 gether and took part in the feast, about two hundred in all. 
 It so happened that everything edible had been dosed with 
 strychnine before the cart was loaded, and in a few hours 
 
130 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 all who had partaken of the feast were dead. Much as the 
 white people around there had been annoyed by the blacks, 
 there were few, if any, to- approve of this wholesale poison- 
 ing which the sheep owner had undertaken entirely on his 
 own responsibility.*' 
 
 "I suppose it is due in some measure, at least, to per- 
 formances of this sort that the blacks are diminishing in 
 number," Dr. Whitney remarked. 
 
 " No doubt that has a good deal to do with the matter," 
 was the reply. " I don't know of any other instances than 
 this of wholesale poisoning, but I do know that in a good 
 manv instances, black men have been shot down by whites 
 for the reason that they had speared cattle or committed 
 other depredations. The blacks have been treated very 
 much the same way as your American Indians, and gen- 
 erally with as little provocation : but, beyond all this, it is 
 well known that the number of births among them every 
 year is considerably less than the number of deaths from 
 natural causes. Some people believe that the blacks are 
 addicted to infanticide, and that many of their children are 
 put to death to save the expense of bringing them up. 
 Understand me, nobody knows positively that this is the 
 case, but only surmises it." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CANNIBAL BLACKS MELBOURNE AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 
 
 I II AYE heard," said one of the youths, "that Aus- 
 tralian blacks are cannibals. I wonder if that is 
 really so?" 
 
 " Perhaps all the tribes in the country are not cannibals, 
 but it is pretty certain that some of them are. They know 
 that the white man is prejudiced against eating human 
 flesh, and consequently they conceal very carefully their 
 performances in this line. In former times they were not 
 so particular, and there was the most positive proof that 
 they devoured their enemies killed in battle, and also killed 
 and devoured some of their own people. They were not 
 such epicures in cannibalism as the inhabitants of the 
 Feejee Islands formerly were, and did not make as much 
 ceremony as the Feejeeans over their feasts of human 
 flesh. Some of the tribes that indulged in the practise 
 have given it up, but the belief is that those in the interior 
 still adhere to it." 
 
 " What do they live upon when they do not eat human 
 flesh ? " queried Ned. 
 
 "As to that," was the reply, " they live upon pretty 
 nearly everything they can lay their hands on. They 
 hunt the kangaroo and are fond of its flesh, and they are 
 also fond of the flesh of cattle and sheep. In fact, they 
 commit a good many depredations upon the flocks and 
 
132 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 herds. They eat snakes, lizards, toads, and, in fact, any- 
 thing that lives and moves, and they are not at all partic- 
 ular about the condition of the meat when they eat it. It 
 is all the same to them whether it is fresh or putrid. A 
 man would need have a very strong stomach to accept an 
 invitation to take dinner with a family of uncivilized blacks, 
 or even with one that had become civilized." 
 
 While this conversation was going on the train was 
 speeding on its way, and Harry observed that the houses 
 were becoming more numerous, and the country more 
 densely occupied, as they came nearer to Melbourne. Oc- 
 casionally they caught sight of a house which looked like 
 a gentleman's residence rather than like an ordinary farm- 
 house, and he called attention to the circumstance. 
 
 " We are approaching Melbourne," said their traveling 
 companion, " and from this point on you will find a good 
 many country seats of gentlemen who do business in the 
 city. It is cooler here in summer than in Melbourne, and 
 a great many people have established their summer homes 
 in this region. It is so much the fashion, that it has be- 
 come obligatory for the well-to-do citizen to have a town 
 residence and a country one, and his establishment is 
 considered incomplete unless he possesses both. A good 
 many people occupy their country homes for the greater 
 part of the year, going back and forth by railway accord- 
 ing to the requirements of their business. It is the same 
 in New York, London, and other great cities all over the 
 world. Melbourne considers itself just as important as 
 any other city, and I believe it claims to be the tenth city 
 of the world in point of population." 
 
CANNIBAL, BLACKS. 133 
 
 Ned asked what the population of the city was. 
 
 To this the gentleman replied that he did not have 
 the exact figures at hand, but he believed the last census 
 gave the number of inhabitants as very nearly half a mil- 
 lion. "Including the suburbs," said he, "I think it is 
 fully that, and if it had not been for the dullness of busi- 
 ness for the last two or three years, caused very largely by 
 the labor strikes and other disturbances of trade, I think 
 we would now exceed the half million figure." 
 
 While he was saving this, Ned called attention to a large 
 house on a little eminence about half a mile away, which 
 resembled a palace more than it did a private dwelling. 
 As Ned pointed towards it and told Harry to look in that 
 direction, the gentleman said : — 
 
 "That house was built ten or twelve years ago by a 
 millionnaire merchant of Melbourne. He spent a great 
 deal of money upon it, being determined to have the finest 
 house in the country. About the time of its completion he 
 met with heavy losses in business, and was unable to carry 
 out his plans concerning the grounds around the building. 
 It was his original intention to have a park, in which he 
 would enclose specimens of all the animals of Australia, 
 and an artificial lake, with specimens of all the fishes of the 
 country. He has never carried out this part of the scheme, 
 but declares that he will do so whenever his wealth returns 
 to him." 
 
 " A very good scheme, indeed," said one of the youths, 
 " and I hope the gentleman will be able to carry it out." 
 
 " Yes ; and I hope so, too," was the reply. " The place 
 would be made interesting if he should do so, but, after all, 
 
134 THE LA ND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 you can see the same thing in the parks of the principal 
 cities of Australia. Each has, I believe, collections of the 
 animals of the country, together with many animals of other 
 countries, and any one is at full liberty to go and see them." 
 
 Houses became more numerous, and towns and villages 
 made their appearance as the train went along. Harry 
 observed that in some of the towns which they passed 
 through there were imposing buildings, which seemed 
 rather out of proportion to the number of dwelling-houses. 
 
 Their impromptu guide explained that this was the out- 
 growth of Australian politics. " Every town in Australia," 
 said he, " is desirous of having some of the public money 
 spent within its limits. It wants a court-house, jail, or 
 some other public edifice, and in order to secure his elec- 
 tion to the legislature, a candidate is compelled to promise 
 that he will obtain the desired appropriation. These appro- 
 priations are secured by what you call in America ' log- 
 rolling.' That is, Smith of one town makes an arrange- 
 ment with Brown, Jones, Robinson, and I don't know how 
 many others of as many other towns that he will vote for 
 their appropriations, provided they will vote for his. In 
 this way a town of rive hundred inhabitants gets a court- 
 house and jail large enough for a population of five thou- 
 sand, or perhaps twice that number. A great deal of 
 government money has been wasted in this way, but there 
 is no help for it as long as human nature remains as it is.'' 
 
 This led to a little talk on Australian politics, in which 
 the youths learned that the people were divided into parties 
 very much as in England and the United States, and their 
 quarrels were just as fierce. The part}' in power is always 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. 135 
 
 bitterly denounced by the party out of power, and the outs 
 can always demonstrate how much better they could man- 
 age public affairs than the ins are doing it. The great 
 questions usually before the people are the tariff and public 
 improvements, and the fiercest fights are usually those con- 
 cerning the tariff. 
 
 Protectionists and free traders are just as skillful and 
 just as earnest as the same parties in the United States, and 
 each can demonstrate mathematically how much better its 
 own system is than that of the other side. The colonies 
 are themselves divided on the subject of tariff, all of them 
 favoring protection with the exception of New South 
 Wales, where the free traders are in the majority. 
 
 There has been a great deal of talk about a federation 
 of the colonies, but the stumbling-block in the way of it 
 is the difference in the colonial tariff. Federation would 
 have been brought about years ago had it not been for 
 New South Wales and its free trade policy. 
 
 Ned and Harry started to take some notes on the subject 
 of the tariff, but the doctor reminded them that they had 
 better leave the subject alone, as it was a dangerous one to 
 touch. Consequently they have not given us the benefit 
 of their notes upon it, and we are unable to say what con- 
 clusion they reached. 
 
 At its appointed time the train reached Melbourne, and 
 our friends found themselves in the spacious station of the 
 railway company. 
 
 As soon as they could get their baggage, our friends 
 proceeded to a hotel which had been recommended to 
 them, and which they found quite satisfactory. After 
 
I36 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 securing rooms they went out for a stroll, having been 
 advised to take a promenade along Collins Street. Harry 
 said he was sure that the street had been named after 
 somebody who was prominent in the early history of the 
 colony, at least, he felt that such was the case if Mel- 
 bourne had followed the example of Adelaide. 
 
 " Melbourne was founded before Adelaide was," said 
 Dr. Whitney, " as the first settlement was made here in 
 1835, a year before the first settlement was made in Ade- 
 laide ; but, all the same, your theory is correct. Collins 
 Street was named after Colonel Collins, who established a 
 convict settlement in this vicinity as far back as 1803, but 
 for some reason he gave it up a year or two later, and 
 transferred his convicts and their guards to Tasmania." 
 
 " The next street parallel to this," said Ned, " is 
 Bourke Street. I wonder who Bourke was? " 
 
 " Bourke was the governor of the colony in 1836," the 
 doctor replied, " and that is why he was honored with a 
 street." 
 
 " We know about Captain Flinders," said Harry, " after 
 whom Flinders Street was named. He was a daring ex- 
 plorer who accompanied Captain Bass when the latter 
 discovered Bass's Strait, that separates Australia from 
 Tasmania. There is also a range of mountains named 
 after him." 
 
 " Captain Lonsdale, who was in command of some of 
 the troops at the time that the city was laid out," said the 
 doctor, " was honored with a street, and Swanston Street 
 commemorates one of the early settlers. Then there are 
 King Street, Queen Street, William Street, Elizabeth 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. 137 
 
 Street, which explain themselves, as they indicate the 
 feelings of the early settlers towards the royal family." 
 
 "This street is certainly as attractive to the eye as 
 Broadway or Fifth Avenue in New York," Ned remarked, 
 as they strolled slowly along Collins Street. " See these 
 magnificent buildings. You have only to shut your eyes 
 and imagine yourself on Broadway, and when you open 
 them again the illusion does not require a great stretch of 
 the imagination. And all this has grown up since 1835. 
 Just think of it '. *' 
 
 " Yes," replied the doctor ; "it was about the middle of 
 1835 that one John Batman came herewith a small sailing 
 vessel, and made a bargain with the chief of the tribe of 
 blacks then occupying this neighborhood, by which he 
 purchased about twelve hundred square miles of ground 
 for a quantity of goods worth, perhaps, one hundred 
 dollars." 
 
 "That beats the purchase of Manhattan Island for 
 twenty-four dollars," remarked Harry as the doctor paused. 
 
 "Yes, it does," was the reply : " the government after- 
 wards repudiated Batman's trade, and took possession of 
 the ground he had purchased." 
 
 "A pretty mean piece of business, wasn't it?" queried 
 Harry. 
 
 "As to that," said the doctor, " there are arguments on 
 both sides of the question. Batman felt that he had been 
 unfairly dealt with, although the government paid him 
 about thirty-live thousand dollars for his claim. At the 
 time they paid the money to him the land was worth very 
 much more than that amount." 
 
I 38 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " Did he stay here and go to building a city at once? " 
 queried one of the youths. 
 
 " No ; he went back to Tasmania, whence he had come, 
 in order to get a fresh supply of provisions, and while he 
 was gone John Fawkner came here with a schooner called 
 the Enterprise, and made a settlement. His party con- 
 sisted, if we may include the quadrupeds, of five men, two 
 pigs, one cat, two horses, and three dogs. When Batman 
 came back he was very angry, and as long as both the men 
 lived there was a bitter quarrel between them which threat- 
 ened several times to result in a shooting affray. Batman 
 died in 1839 : nis hen ' s anc * partners took up the quar- 
 rel, and traces of it are said to exist to the present day. 
 The people of Melbourne have erected a monument to 
 Batman's memory, but Fawkner is generally regarded as 
 the founder of Melbourne, as he made the first permanent 
 settlement, and the colony may properly be considered to 
 have bermn on the date of his arrival." 
 
 When the conversation had reached this point, the party 
 found themselves at the corner of Elizabeth Street, which 
 intersects Collins Street at right angles. 
 
 " You observe," said the doctor, " that this street, Eliza- 
 beth, is the dividing line of the city. That is to say, 
 from it the streets are called east and west just as they 
 are so called in New York. At Fifth Avenue, East 
 Fortv-second Street and West Forty-second Street begin. 
 In the same way we have here Collins Street, East, and 
 Collins Street, West; Bourke Street, East, and Bourke 
 Street, West; and so on through the whole list. They 
 put the word designating the point of compass after the 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. 139 
 
 name of the street, while in New York we do just the 
 opposite." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I see," Harry remarked, with a twinkle in 
 his eve. "Melbourne is on the other side of the world 
 from New York, and so they name the streets in the re- 
 verse manner. So, then, there is another proof that Aus- 
 tralia is a land of contradictions." 
 
 Ned laughed, and made no reply other than to ask if 
 the great number of deaths that occurred here during the 
 gold excitement had any allusion to the name of the city. 
 Harry looked at him with a puzzled expression, and asked 
 what he meant. 
 
 " Why, I was thinking," said Ned, " that possibly Mel- 
 bourne might have been ' the bourne whence no traveler 
 returns,' mentioned by Shakespeare." 
 
 " Oh, that is old," said the doctor; " and while you are 
 on this subject, I will inform you that the city obtained its 
 name from Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister of 
 Great Britain at the time that the place was laid out.'' 
 
 " The surveyor who laid out the city," remarked Harry, 
 "had a 'level' head, as well as a leveling one. See 
 what wide streets he gave it." 
 
 "Yes, that is so," replied Ned. " They must be one 
 hundred feet wide, at least that is what I would guess." 
 
 "You guessed very closely," said the doctor, " as they 
 are ninetv-nine feet (one chain and a half) wide, and the 
 tradition is that Melbourne was laid out by an American 
 surveyor. The city, as originally planned, was one mile 
 square, but it has received numerous additions, so that it 
 now covers a great deal more than a square mile. It 
 
I^O THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 really occupies, with its suburbs, an area of nearly one 
 hundred square miles, and every year sees a new suburb 
 added. Of course, when population is mentioned, the 
 whole of the suburbs should be included, and the inhabi- 
 tants claim, with a great deal of reason, that within a radius 
 of ten miles from the city hall, there are fully four hun- 
 dred thousand people residing." 
 
 "That is certainly a very rapid growth," said one of 
 the youths. " All that population since 1835! It is the 
 most rapid growth of any city that I know of, is it not?" 
 
 "Yes, I think it is," replied the doctor. "Neither 
 San Francisco nor Chicago can show a growth equal to 
 that of Melbourne in the first fifty years of its existence. 
 Chicago is now a much larger city, but fifty years from 
 its foundation it could not boast of as many inhabitants 
 as could Melbourne when it was half a century old." 
 
 To the eyes of our young friends Melbourne presented a 
 very busy appearance. Cabs and carriages were rushing 
 hither and thither. Crowds of people were on the side- 
 walks, and other crowds filled the tram-cars and omni- 
 buses. Harry observed that Melbourne was sufficiently 
 up with the times to be provided with electric cars, and 
 that she also had cable lines, as well as the more primitive 
 street cars. It was near the close of the afternoon, when 
 the oreat majority of the population are seeking their 
 homes, and the scene of busy life reminded the youths of 
 lower Broadway, near the end of the day in New York. 
 
 The doctor explained that a very large part of the 
 working population resembled the well-to-do portion, by 
 having their homes in the suburbs, and, consequently, that 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. I-fl 
 
 a great many people required transportation. Hence the 
 rush for the tram-cars and other public means of travel 
 on the part of the great mass of the public, while those 
 with better-lined purses patronized the cabs and carriages. 
 Cab fares are high, being about one third more than in 
 London, but not so high as in New York. In the days 
 of the gold rush the most ordinary carriages could not be 
 hired for less than fifteen dollars a day, and five dollars 
 was the price for an hour or two. 
 
 There is a story in circulation that a gold miner was 
 once bargaining for a carriage for which the driver de- 
 manded twelve pounds (sixty dollars) for a day's hire. 
 The miner said he would not pay it : he handed a ten- 
 pound note to the driver, and said he must be satisfied 
 with that. The driver assented, and there was no further 
 discussion on the subject. 
 
 Prices of all sorts of things throughout Melbourne are 
 somewhat above London figures, but they have been es- 
 tablished a long time and nobody complains of them. 
 
 Our friends continued their walk to the Yarra River, 
 up whose waters Batman and Fawkner sailed when they 
 came here to found the city. Its native name is Yarra- 
 Yarra, but the double word is rarely used by the inhabi- 
 tants of Melbourne in speaking of the stream. Of itself, 
 it is not a river of much consequence, as originally all but 
 very small vessels had difficulty in ascending it. It has 
 been dredged and deepened, so that craft drawing not 
 more than sixteen feet of water can ascend it to Prince S 
 Bridge, the spot where our friends reached the stream. 
 Vessels requiring more water than that must remain at 
 
I 4 2 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 Fort Melbourne, about three miles further down. There 
 are several other bridges crossing the river at different 
 points. Near Prince's Bridge our friends saw several 
 passenger steamers crowded with people, on their way to 
 their homes down the bay. 
 
 On their return towards the hotel our friends loitered 
 among the shops, and especially among those in what are 
 called the Arcades, of which there are four, modeled after 
 the Arcades of London and the "Passages" of Paris. 
 They are delightful places to lounge in, whether one is in 
 search of purchases or not, and the three strangers were in 
 no hurry to get through them. 
 
 One of the arcades is known as the Book Arcade, and 
 the shops inside of it are almost wholly devoted to the sale 
 of books. Harry remarked that he judged the Melbourne 
 people to be a reading one, otherwise there would not be 
 so much space devoted to the sale of books. The youths 
 had a brief conversation with one of the proprietors, who 
 told them that it was one of the largest book stores in the 
 world, in fact, he did not know of any other as large as 
 that. " We can give you anything you want," said he; 
 " everything is so arranged that we know just where to lay 
 our hands on any book that a customer wants." 
 
 Melbourne is a great source of supply for all the interior 
 of Victoria. In the wholesale shops there were great 
 quantities of goods intended for up-country use. " There 
 were," said Harry, " tons and tons of clothing destined for 
 the mines or for sheep and cattle runs, and great quantities 
 of tea, sugar, and other provisions, together with saddlery, 
 harnesses, and ironmongery in great quantity and variety." 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. J 43 
 
 "We observed," wrote Ned, "that between every two 
 wide streets there is a narrow street running in the same 
 direction. I believe you will find the same arrangement 
 in many parts of Philadelphia, and also in the new part of 
 Boston. The original intention of the surveyor was that 
 these small streets should be used as back entrances for 
 the buildings on the larger ones, but this intention has not 
 been carried out in the development of the city. Formerly 
 these narrow streets took the name of the wide ones, with 
 the prefix ' Little ' ; for example, the one between Collins 
 and Bourke Street being known as Little Collins Street. 
 Most of them are now called lanes, and are spoken of as 
 Collins Lane, Latrobe Lane, and the like, and many of 
 them are devoted to special lines of trade. Flinders Lane, 
 between Flinders and Collins Streets, is the principal local- 
 ity of the wholesale dealers in clothing, and Bourke Lane 
 is largely occupied by Chinese. We are told that the 
 renting prices of stores along these lanes are very high, 
 probably greater than either Batman or Fawkner ever 
 dreamed they could be in their wildest moments. 
 
 " When we returned to the hotel we found an invitation 
 for us to dine atone of the clubs, the gentleman who gave 
 the invitation having called during our absence. A\ e 
 dressed as quickly as possible, and went at once to the 
 club house, where we dined on the best that the city 
 afforded. Melbourne is a great place for clubs, quite as 
 much so as London or New York. Nearly everybody 
 belongs to a club, and many gentleman have two, three, or 
 more clubs on their lists. Nearly all of the clubs have 
 lodging rooms for bachelor members, and the popularity 
 
144 TIIE LAND OF TIIK KANGAROO. 
 
 of the institution is shown by the fact that most of these 
 rooms are constantly occupied. 
 
 " Life at a club is somewhat expensive, though less so 
 than at a first-class hotel. One gentleman probably stated 
 the case very clearly when he said that life in a club house 
 is pretty much as each individual chooses to make it. 
 He could live economically or expensively, according to 
 his preference. He could dine on the choicest or on the 
 plainest food, and could entertain liberally or frugally. 
 ' There is no necessity,' he added, ' for a man to waste his 
 money because he lives at a club, but there is no denying 
 the fact that a club affords temptation and opportunity to 
 do so.' 
 
 " During dinner the subject of horse racing came up, and 
 our host said that he did not believe there was any city in 
 the world where so large a proportion of the population 
 w r as interested in equine sports as Melbourne. ' On Cup 
 Day,' said he, ' that is, on the day of the annual race for 
 the cup which is given by the city of Melbourne, people 
 come here from all parts of Australia. 
 
 " ' Everybody who can afford the time and expense is 
 reasonably sure to visit Melbourne, and a great many come 
 here who can hardly afford to do so. Hotels and lodging 
 houses are crowded to their fullest capacities for several 
 days before the great event. When Cup Day comes, it is 
 like the Derby Day in England. Half the population of 
 Melbourne goes to Flemington, when the race is run, and 
 nearly all the scenes of the great Derby Day in England 
 are repeated. The winner of the Melbourne cup is greeted 
 with the heartiest cheers at the close of the race, and if he 
 
CANNIBAL BLACKS. 145 
 
 is put up for sale on the spot, he is .sure to bring an enor- 
 mous price.' 
 
 " ' I asked if the horses competing for the cup were 
 limited to those raised in the colony of Victoria?' 
 
 "'Oh, not by any means,' the gentleman answered; 
 ' horses from any of the colonies can be entered for the 
 great race. They come from New South Wales, South 
 and West Australia, and also from Queensland, and some- 
 times we have them from New Zealand or Tasmania. In 
 some years it has happened that not one of the racers was 
 bred in the colony of Victoria. There is never any lack 
 of competitors, their number being usually quite equal to 
 that in the race for the Derby. The race track is a little 
 more than a mile from the center of the city, so that the 
 public has not far to go. Vehicles of every kind com- 
 mand high prices on Cup Day, and many thousands of 
 people go to the race on foot. For weeks before the 
 event little else is talked of, and the great question on 
 every tongue is, " What horse will win the cup?" 
 
 "Melbourne is very fond of athletic sports, and there 
 are numerous clubs devoted to baseball, football, cricket, 
 golf, and the like. There are also rowing clubs, and 
 their favorite rowing place is along the part of the Yarra 
 above Prince's Bridge. The course is somewhat crooked, 
 but there is a good view of it from the banks, and a row- 
 ing match between two of the crack clubs is sure to 
 attract a large crowd." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "THE LAUGHING JACKASS " AUSTRALIAN SNAKES AND 
 
 SNAKE STORIES. 
 
 OUR friends returned to their hotel, but, before leaving 
 them, their host arranged to call for them after 
 breakfast the next morning, for a drive among the 
 parks and around the suburbs of the city. 
 
 The drive came off as agreed upon, and a very pleas- 
 ant one it was. They visited the Botanic Garden, which 
 is on the banks of the Yarra, and seemed to contain 
 specimens of nearly all the trees on the habitable globe. 
 Harry said he wondered how elms and oaks could have 
 attained the size of some that he saw, when he remem- 
 bered that the city had its beginning in 1835. It was 
 explained that all exotic trees grew with great rapidity in 
 the climate of Melbourne, and not only exotics but natives. 
 The climate seems adapted to almost any kind of vegeta- 
 ble production. 
 
 Our friends found cork trees and palms growing almost 
 side by side with the birch, the pine, and the spruce. 
 Among other things, their attention was attracted to some 
 beautiful fern trees, which were fully twenty feet high, 
 and there were climbing plants in great profusion, some 
 of them clinging to the trees, and others fastened to trel- 
 lis work. 
 
 Almost every kind of tropical fruit tree was represented 
 
 146 
 
A VISIT TO THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS." I47 
 
 in the garden, and the gentleman who led the party said 
 that the garden had been of great use in distributing 
 exotic fruit trees through the colony, after first settling the 
 question whether they would exist in the climate of Vic- 
 toria. Every variety of orange was there, and the orange 
 is among the most abundant of the fruits growing in the 
 colony. Apricots, peaches, pears, mangosteens, the cus- 
 tard apple, mangoes, and other fruits have found a home 
 in Victoria, and demonstrated that they can exist within 
 its limits. 
 
 "We were unwilling," said Harry in his journal, "to 
 leave the Botanic Garden and go elsewhere, as there were 
 so many attractive things to be seen, but time pressed, 
 and whenever our host gave the word we proceeded with 
 him. From the Botanic Garden we went to the Fitzroy 
 Gardens, which are situated in the eastern part of the 
 town, and were to some extent a repetition of the Botanic 
 Garden, though not entirely so. The Fitzroy is more 
 like a park than a garden; it is beautifully laid out 
 with walks and drives, and is rendered picturesque by 
 means of rocky hills, miniature Jakes, and occasional 
 fountains. 
 
 " We afterwards went to the Carlton Gardens and also 
 to the Zoological Garden, the latter being situated in the 
 Royal Park. The ' Zoo,' as it is popularly called, con- 
 tains a tine collection of animals from all parts of the 
 world, including elephants, lions, tigers, and the like, 
 and also specimens of the animals of Australia. Of 
 course it has a cage full of monkeys, — what Zoo is ever 
 without them? — and they look just exactly like the col- 
 
I/j.8 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 lections of monkeys that we have elsewhere in various 
 parts of the world. 
 
 "There is a very fair collection of birds, and we were 
 particularly interested in the specimens of the birds of 
 Australia. And that reminds me of an amusing experi- 
 ence, as we came around to where the aviary stands. 
 
 " We heard somebody laughing very loudly, and a 
 queer sort of a laugh it was. Ned remarked that some- 
 body must be feeling very happy, and I agreed with him. 
 Our host smiled, and so did Dr. Whitney, but nothing 
 further was said, as the laugh died away. 
 
 " When we got close to the door we again heard the 
 laugh, which came from the inside of the bird house. 
 
 " 'The fellow is at it again,' said Ned. 'Wonder if 
 we can't share in the fun? ' 
 
 " I said that I hoped so, as I had not seen anything to 
 laugh at since we started out from the hotel. When we 
 got inside we looked around for the man who had been 
 making the noise, but there was nobody visible except a 
 very solemn-faced keeper, who did not look as if he had 
 laughed for a month. . 
 
 " I remarked to Ned that the old fellow had put on 
 a serious face now because company had come in, to 
 which Ned nodded assent. Just as he did so the laugh- 
 ing began again, and it was such a funny laugh that 
 both of us joined in it. 
 
 "The old fellow's face did not move a muscle, and we 
 saw that he was not the humorous one of the place. We 
 looked in the direction of the laughter and saw that it 
 came, not from a man, but from a bird. In spite of our 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS. 149 
 
 astonishment we burst out laughing, and the doctor and 
 our host joined us in doing so. 
 
 " Our host then explained that the bird which was 
 amusing us was known as the ' laughing jackass.' We 
 had heard of the creature before, but this was our first 
 view of him. We took a good look, and while we were 
 doing so he laughed again, right in our faces. The 
 laugh is almost exactly like that of a human being. It 
 is not musical but is very comical, and, somehow, it has 
 a tendency to set everybody laughing who is within sound 
 of it. 
 
 " The bird is about the size of a full-grown pigeon, 
 perhaps a little larger. He is not handsomely propor- 
 tioned, his head being too large for his body and his tail 
 very small. His feathers are white and black, and he 
 has a comical appearance that harmonizes well with his 
 humorous manner. He is easily domesticated, and will 
 learn to talk quite as readily as the parrot does. 
 
 "The laughing jackass is a friend of the bushman, as 
 he foretells wet weather. When the air is dry and clear, 
 he is a very lively bird, and fills the air with the sound 
 of his laughter ; but if rain is coming, or especially if 
 it has come, he is the very picture of misery and un- 
 happiness. He mopes on his perch, whether it be in a 
 cage, or on the limb of a tree, or in the open air, with his 
 feathers ruffled, and a very bedraggled appearance, like 
 a hen that has been caught in a shower. In the forest 
 he will imitate the sound of an axe cutting at a tree, and 
 many a man has been deceived into walking a mile or 
 more in the expectation of finding somebody at work. 
 
I50 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "The bird belongs to the kingfisher family, but does 
 not hunt much for fishes, his favorite food being snakes. 
 It makes no difference to him whether the snakes are 
 poisonous or not, as his attacks upon them are limited 
 only by their size. Large snakes he cannot handle, but 
 small ones are his delight. He drops down upon them 
 with the quickness of a flash, seizes them just back of 
 the head, and then flies up in the air a hundred feet to 
 drop them upon the hardest piece of ground he can find. 
 
 "The fall breaks their backs, and he keeps up this 
 performance until life is extinct, when he devours his 
 prey. His services as a snake-killer are known all over 
 the country, and consequently he is never shot or trapped. 
 He is intelligent enough to understand his immunity from 
 attack, and comes fearlessly about the houses of the peo- 
 ple in the country districts. 
 
 " Speaking of snakes reminds me that they have a 
 very good collection in the Zoo. We asked the keeper 
 to indicate to us the snakes peculiar to Australia, and he 
 did so. The largest of them is known as the carpet 
 snake, and the specimen that we saw was about ten feet 
 long. It belongs to the constrictor family, being perfectly 
 harmless so far as its bite is concerned, but it has powers 
 of constriction that might be very serious to the person 
 around whom the creature has wound itself. One trav- 
 eler in Australia tells how he was visiting a cattle station 
 in Queensland, and when he went to bed the first night 
 of his stay, he found a carpet snake lying on the outside 
 of his couch. He called loudly for some one to come 
 and kill the serpent. 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS. 151 
 
 " His call was heard by the proprietor, who shouted to 
 him not to kill the snake, as it was one of the family pets, 
 and then the man came and seized the creature by the 
 neck and carried it to a barrel where he said the snake 
 belonged. I hope they won't have any pets of that sort 
 around any house that I visit during my stay in Australia. 
 
 "There are eighty-three distinct species of snakes 
 peculiar to Australia, of which sixty are venomous, and 
 fifteen amphibious. The most common of the deadly ser- 
 pents are the death adder, black snake, brown snake, 
 tiger snake, and diamond snake. The latter is so called 
 on account of the color of his skin, which is laid out in 
 lozenges of a diamond shape, alternately brown and 
 white. The death adder, so the keeper told us, is the 
 most dangerous of all the Australian snakes, as it never 
 tries to escape. It lies perfectly still when approached, 
 but the instant one touches it, it darts its head and delivers, 
 if possible, a fatal bite. The poison speedily accomplishes 
 its purpose, and unless an antidote can be had in a few- 
 minutes death is the inevitable result. 
 
 " People who go about much in the region where this 
 snake abounds wear high-top boots as a protection against 
 these serpents. The black snake and the brown snake 
 are the most common of the deadly serpents. The brown 
 one is the largest of them, and frequently attains a length 
 of eight or nine feet. The tiger snake seems to be related 
 to the 'Cobra-di-Cafcllo; of India, as it has the same 
 power of flattening and extending its neck when irritated. 
 
 " I asked what were the antidotes used for snake bites 
 in Australia? 
 
152 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "To this our host replied that there were various ways 
 of counteracting the effects of a snake bite. One was to 
 cut out the wound and take away the flesh from each side 
 of it for half an inch or so. Another was to swallow 
 large quantities of brandy and whiskey, and the third and 
 most common way was to use a hypodemic injection of 
 ammonia. The last-named antidote is regarded as almost 
 certain, and a great many people, such as stock-men, 
 wood-cutters, farmers, and the like, carry in their pockets 
 a hypodermic syringe, charged and ready for use. 
 
 " ' On that subject I can tell you an interesting story,' 
 said our host. ' There was at one time a man named 
 Underwood, who discovered a positive antidote for the 
 bite of the most venomous serpent. He gave several 
 exhibitions in which he permitted himself to be bitten by 
 snakes in full possession of all their venomous powers, a 
 fact which was established by the immediate deaths of 
 dogs, chickens, and other small animals, which were 
 bitten by the snakes after they had tried their fangs on 
 Underwood. He carried a supply of his antidote about 
 him, and used it whenever he was thus bitten. 
 
 "'Underwood's remedy was a secret known only to 
 himself. He was trying to sell it to the government, the 
 latter intending to make it public for the sake of saving 
 life. One day Underwood gave an exhibition in which he 
 allowed himself, as usual, to be bitten by a venomous 
 snake. He was intoxicated at the time, and in conse- 
 quence of his intoxication was unable to find his antidote ; 
 the result was that he died within an hour, and carried 
 away the secret of his antidote forever.' 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS." 153 
 
 "Newly arrived emigrants in Australia have a great 
 fear of snakes. For the first lew weeks they are startled 
 whenever they hear the least rustling in the bushes, but 
 after a time they get accustomed to it, and think no more 
 about snakes than they do about dragons. It makes a 
 great difference in what part of Australia you are. There 
 are some regions where the snake is rarely seen, while in 
 others great precautions are necessary. Low, swampy dis- 
 tricts are said to be the worst, and men who walk around 
 in such localities are very careful of their steps. 
 
 " Some of the snakes of Australia have an unpleasant 
 habit of coming around the houses, and this is particularly 
 the case with the tiger snake, which in this respect seems 
 to possess the same characteristics as his relative the 
 ' cobra,' of India. Our host told us a story which he said 
 he knew to be a true one, the incident having occurred 
 in a family with which he was acquainted. There was an 
 invalid daughter in the family, and one afternoon, when 
 she was sleeping in a hammock on the veranda, she sud- 
 denly waked with the feeling of something cold, and 
 moist, and heavy near her neck. She raised her hand 
 and happened to grasp the neck of a snake just back of 
 the head. In her paroxysm of terror, she clutched it with 
 terrific force to tear it away. 
 
 "She gave a piercing cry that summoned her father 
 and other members of the family, and immediately after 
 the cry she fainted. But she still continued to clutch at 
 the snake's neck, and although she was utterly uncon- 
 scious of anything surrounding her, she grasped it with 
 such force that the reptile was fairly strangled by her fin- 
 
154 TllE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 gers. Her father realized that it would be impossible to 
 free her hand until consciousness returned, and the indi- 
 cations were that it would not be speedy in coming. So 
 they released her fingers one by one, with a piece of the 
 hammock cord, and removed the dead body of the snake 
 so that it should be out of sight when she revived. 
 Luckily, the creature had not bitten her before she grasped 
 it. 
 
 "It is not at all unusual for a man sleeping on the 
 ground at night to find, on waking, that a serpent has 
 crawled in by his side, or curled itself up on his breast for 
 the sake of the warmth that his body supplies. I have 
 heard a story of a man who thus entertained an unwelcome 
 visitor. He waked during the night while lying flat on 
 his back, and felt something heavy and cold on his chest. 
 He moved a little as he waked, and his movement caused 
 the snake that was lying on him to raise its head. By the 
 light of the camp fire the man saw his predicament. His 
 hair stood on end, and he could feel the blood stiffening in 
 his veins. He knew it would be some time before day- 
 light, and felt that he would lose his mind before morning, 
 or perhaps die of fear. He carried a knife in his belt, 
 and decided, after careful consideration, that his best plan 
 was to reach for the weapon and kill the snake where it lay. 
 '" Slowly, very slowly, he worked his hand to his waist 
 and drew his knife. He could not avoid making some 
 movement in doing so, and at each movement the snake 
 raised its head to ascertain the cause of the disturbance ; 
 then the man became perfectly still until the reptile sub- 
 sided asiain. 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS. 155 
 
 " After the lapse of what seemed to be many hours, the 
 man got his knife and arm in readiness for action. Then 
 he moved his body a little, causing the serpent to lift its 
 head once more. As it did so, the man made a quick 
 movement of his hand, and he declares that he never 
 made a quicker one in all his life. The snake's head 
 was severed by the blow; it fell to one side and the 
 writhing body of the creature followed it. At the same 
 instant the man was on his feet, and he says that he 
 danced for a few minutes in a wild paroxysm of joy, and 
 then fell to the ground in a fainting fit, caused by the 
 sudden reaction in his feelings. The snake that he 
 killed was of a poisonous kind, — the tiger snake, which 
 has already been mentioned. When stretched out to its 
 full length, it measured very nearly five feet. 
 
 "They have scorpions and centipedes in Australia, and 
 their bite is just as deadly as that of the same creatures 
 elsewhere. They have a black spider about as large as a 
 p ea? — black all over except a red spot on its back, — which 
 is found in decaying logs, and, unhappily, has a fond- 
 ness for living in houses. It is aggressive in its nature, 
 as it does not wait to be disturbed before making an 
 attack, and it has been known to cross a room towards 
 where a person was sitting in order to bite him. Its bite 
 is as bad as that of the scorpion or centipede. Sometimes 
 its victims are permanently paralyzed for the rest of their 
 lives, or become hopeless lunatics, and, not infrequently, 
 death results from this spider's bite. 
 
 " One gentleman told me how he was once bitten by 
 one of these spiders on the calf of the leg. He immedi- 
 
IC6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 ately cut out the wound and injected some ammonia close 
 by the side of it, but in spite of these precautions he suf- 
 fered intense pains in the leg for several days. The 
 limb swelled to twice its natural size, and became as soft 
 as putty. At the spot where the wound was a suppurat- 
 ing sore formed and it discharged for several months. 
 He fully expected that amputation would be necessary, 
 and the doctor whom he called to attend him said the 
 chances were five to one that he would lose the leg 
 altogether. Greatly to his and the doctor's surprise and 
 delight, he managed to save it, but for fully a year after 
 the wound had healed the limb did not resume its normal 
 size, and he suffered frequent pains like rheumatism. 
 
 "'You will naturally conclude,' said our friend, 'that 
 as we have spiders here we ought to have flies, and we 
 have them in sufficient abundance to prevent life from 
 becoming monotonous. They are worse in the interior 
 than on the coast ; in the latter region they are only 
 troublesome during the autumn months, while for the 
 rest of the year they are not at all numerous, or may be 
 absent altogether; but in the interior they are always bad, 
 the only difference being that they are worse at some 
 times than at others. In parts of the interior everybody 
 wears a veil when going about the country, and it is often 
 necessary to do so while in the house. On some of the 
 interior plains you can see a man before you see him, 
 as an Irishman might put it. You see in the distance 
 a small black cloud hovering just over the road. It is a 
 cloud of flies around the head of some unfortunate traveler, 
 who is approaching on horseback. They stick to him 
 
" THE LAUGHING JACKASS." 157 
 
 like a troubled conscience and go with him wherever he 
 goes. If another traveler happens to be going in the 
 opposite direction, the clouds about their heads mingle as 
 the individuals meet, and when they separate the flies 
 move on with them, as before.' 
 
 "Flies in the houses are very troublesome, as they are 
 fond of loitering about the table, just like flies in America 
 and other countries. They are a nuisance to which 
 nobody ever gets accustomed, and in some localities they 
 almost render the country uninhabitable. Mosquitoes 
 abound in most parts of the country, especially along the 
 rivers and lakes and in swampy regions, and even' traveler 
 who expects to be out at night carries a mosquito net with 
 him." 
 
 From the Zoo our friends continued their drive through 
 other parks and along some of the principal streets, pass- 
 ing several public buildings, all of which were spacious 
 and attractive. The town hall, post-office, government 
 house, and other public structures of Melbourne would do 
 honor to any city and evince the taste and good judgment 
 of those who planned and erected them. The numerous 
 parks and gardens are a great ornament to the city and 
 give an abundance of breathing space for the people. 
 Our young friends were loud in their praise of what they 
 saw, and their comments were well received by their host. 
 The people of Melbourne are fond of hearing their city 
 commended, and their pride in it is certainly well justified. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE CONVICT HULKS AND 
 
 BUSHRANGERS. 
 
 IN the afternoon the party visited Port Melbourne, for- 
 merly known as Sandridge. Properly speaking, this is 
 the harbor of Melbourne, and it is situated near the mouth 
 of the Yarra, where that stream enters Hobson's Bay, the 
 latter being an arm of Port Philip Bay. It is a busy place 
 and contains the usual sights of a harbor. Ships were 
 discharging or receiving their cargoes, some at the piers 
 which jut out into the water, while some were anchored 
 away from the shore and were performing the same work 
 by means of lighters. On the other side of Hobson's Bay 
 is Williamstown, which is a sort of rival of Sandridge. A 
 great deal of shipping business is done there, and Wil- 
 liamstown contains, also, graving docks and building 
 yards where many vessels engaged in local trade along 
 the coast have been constructed. The gentleman who 
 accompanied our friends called their attention to the rail- 
 ways which connect Williamstown and Sandridge with the 
 city, and remarked that times had changed since the gold 
 rush in the early fifties. 
 
 " At the present time," said he, "you can go between 
 Sandridge and Melbourne for threepence or sixpence, 
 according to the class you select, but in the time of the 
 gold rush prices were very much higher. If you wanted 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. 1 59 
 
 a carriage from here to the city, you would be lucky to 
 escape for a sovereign, and a dray load of baggage drawn 
 by a single horse would cost fifteen dollars. There used 
 to be an omnibus line that carried passengers for two 
 shillings and sixpence, but it was somewhat irregular in 
 its movements, and could not be relied on. Nowadays 
 the omnibus will carry you for threepence. 
 
 '•When a ship arrived and anchored in the bay the 
 passengers had to pay three shillings each to be put on 
 shore, and very often the boatman raised the tariff to five 
 shillings whenever he thought he could induce or compel 
 the passengers to pay it. The charge for baggage was 
 a separate one, and sometimes it cost more to take a quan- 
 titv of baggage from Sandridge to Melbourne than it had 
 cost to bring it all the way from London to Sandridge, a 
 distance of thirteen thousand miles." 
 
 " It was a golden harvest for the boatmen and every- 
 body else engaged in the transportation business," Harry 
 remarked. 
 
 "Indeed, it was," said the gentleman; "and a great 
 many people had the sense to perceive that they had a 
 better chance for a fortune by remaining right here than 
 by going to the mines, where everything was uncertain." 
 
 "I suppose evervthing else was in proportion, was it 
 not? " queried Ned. 
 
 " That was exactly the case," w ? as the reply. "When 
 goods were brought on shore they were loaded into carts 
 for transportation to Melbourne, and the cart was not 
 allowed to move out of the yard until three pounds ster- 
 ling had been paid for taking the load to the city. The 
 
l6o THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 travelers protested and said they would not pay, but they 
 generally did, as there was no other alternative. When 
 they got to the city they found the same scale of prices. 
 
 "The poorest kind of a room without any furniture 
 would bring ten dollars a week, and a stall in the stable 
 of a hotel which would accommodate two men rented 
 readily for ten shillings a night. Hotel-keepers made 
 fortunes, or at least some of them did, and others might 
 have done so if they had taken care of their money. 
 I have heard of one hotel-keeper who had his house 
 crammed full of patrons, none of them paying less than 
 ten shillings a night for their lodging, while he had 
 seventy-five lodgers in his stables, each of them paying 
 five shillings apiece. 
 
 " A great many people spread tents on the waste ground 
 outside of the city to save the expense of lodgings. They 
 did not succeed altogether in doing so, as the government 
 required them to pay at the rate of sixty dollars a year for 
 the privilege of putting up a tent. Everybody was anxious 
 to get away from Melbourne as quickly as possible, but 
 they underwent great delays in getting their goods out of 
 the ships." 
 
 " I suppose you had no railways at that time to facilitate 
 travel," one of the youths remarked. 
 
 ' ' No ; there were no railways and the only way of travel 
 was by the ordinary route, and very ordinary it was in 
 many places. It was not a graded and macadamized road 
 such as you find in England, but simply a rough pathway, 
 principally of nature's manufacture. It was full of ruts 
 and gullies, very muddy in the rainy season, and terribly 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. l6l 
 
 dusty in the dry times. Travelers went to the mines in all 
 sorts of ways, some on foot, and some by ox and horse 
 wagons, and if they had plenty of money, and were 
 determined to have luxury and speed at whatever cost, 
 they traveled by stage-coach. An American firm, Cobb 
 & Company, came here in the early days and established 
 lines of stage-coaches, first from Melbourne to the mines, 
 and afterwards all over Australia. Cobb's coaches are 
 still running on some of the interior routes that are not 
 covered bv railway, but wherever the locomotive has put 
 in its appearance it has forced them out of the way." 
 
 " I have read somewhere," said Harry, " that traveling 
 on the road to the mines was not very safe in those days." 
 
 " That depended somewhat on the way one was going," 
 was the reply. " Travelers going towards the mines were 
 not very liable to attack, as they were not supposed to 
 have anv money, but it was not so with those coming from 
 the mines to the coast. The natural supposition was that 
 an individual moving in the direction of Melbourne had 
 ' made his pile ' and was on his way home. The country 
 was infested with ex-convicts and men who had escaped 
 from convict service in Australia and Tasmania. They 
 were known as 'bushrangers,' and great numbers of them 
 were along the routes to the mines. They lived in caves 
 among the hills, or in the open air, and occasionally took 
 shelter in out stations on sheep runs. They supplied 
 themselves with food by stealing sheep and cattle from the 
 ranches, and by robbing wagons laden with provisions on 
 their way to the mines. Clothing they obtained by the 
 same system of plunder, and whenever the haunt of a gang 
 
l62 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 was discovered by the police it was almost invariably 
 found to be well stocked with provisions and clothing. 
 
 "These were the fellows that made life miserable to 
 the miners returning to the coast. The bushrangers 
 traveled in gangs of all the way from five to fifteen or 
 twenty, and sometimes more, and each gang was led by 
 the most desperate man among them. They used to 
 ' stick up ' solitary travelers, or travelers in groups of a 
 dozen or more. They lay in wait at turnings of the road 
 or near the summits of hills, and generally took their 
 victims by surprise. If a man submitted quietly to be 
 robbed, he was generally left unharmed, but if he made 
 any resistance, he was knocked senseless or shot down 
 without the least compunction. Sometimes these gangs 
 were so numerous that hardly a traveler escaped them. 
 Then there would be a lull in the business for a time and 
 the road would be particularly safe. 
 
 " Once a week or so, gold was sent down from the 
 mines by the government authorities, and of course it was 
 accompanied by a strong and well-armed escort of police. 
 Many people entrusted their gold to the escort, paying 
 a high premium for the guarantee of safe delivery in 
 Melbourne. A good many people used to accompany the 
 escort for the protection it afforded, but the number 
 became so great and troublesome that the government at 
 length refused to permit travelers to go in that way unless 
 they paid the same premium on the gold that they carried 
 as was paid by those who shipped the precious metal. 
 Not infrequently the bushrangers attacked the government 
 escort, and on several occasions they were successful. 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. 163 
 
 " It was a piece of good fortune that, as a general thing, 
 the bushrangers were never able to agree with each other 
 very long. After a gang had been organized and selected 
 its leader, dissensions arose very speedily, particularly as 
 to the division of the spoil. The leader always believed 
 that he ought to have a larger share of the plunder than 
 anybody else, while all the subordinate members believed 
 just as earnestly that their stealings should be divided 
 equally. In this way quarrels took place. The captain 
 would be deposed and another one selected, and he in 
 time would share the fate of his predecessors. 
 
 "Some of the bushrangers were quite famous for their 
 bravery and daring, and they used to give the police a 
 great deal of hard fighting. On the other hand, the 
 police acquired a high reputation for their skill in fight- 
 ing and capturing bushrangers. They were instructed to 
 bring in their captives alive, if possible, but it did not 
 injure their reputations at all if they killed the scoundrels 
 on the spot. The government wanted to be rid of the 
 rascals, and frequently offered rewards for their capture, 
 ' dead or alive.' 
 
 " Whenever the bushrangers made a haul of gold dust it 
 was divided as soon as possible, each man taking his share 
 and doing with it what he pleased. They generally hid their 
 booty in spots known only to themselves, and when any of 
 the bushrangers were captured, the police usually proceeded 
 to draw from them the information as to where their gold 
 was concealed. Naturally, the fellows were unwilling to 
 say, and if they refused to tell, various means were 
 resorted to to make them give up the desired information. 
 
164 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 Singeing their hair, pinching their fingers and toes, or sub- 
 mitting them to other physical tortures, were among the 
 means commonly used. 
 
 " When ordinary methods failed, a favorite device was 
 to tie the bushranger hand and foot, and then place him 
 on an ant hill. The black ant of Australia has a bite that 
 is very painful, and when hundreds of thousands of ants 
 are biting a man all at once, the feeling is something fear- 
 ful. The ant-hill torture was generally successful. After 
 submitting to it for a time, the bushranger generally gave 
 up the secret of the whereabouts of his gold. I do not 
 mean to say that all the police officials indulged in this 
 harsh treatment, but it is certain that many of them did. 
 
 " It is probable that a great deal of stolen gold is con- 
 cealed in the country bordering the road from Melbourne 
 to the gold diggings which will never be found. Many 
 of the bushrangers were killed while fighting with the 
 police, died of their wounds, or in prison, or managed to 
 flee the country without giving up the secret which would 
 have enabled the authorities to find where their treasures 
 were concealed. Occasionally one of their deposits is 
 found by accident, but there are doubtless hundreds which 
 nobody will ever come upon. 
 
 " There was a great deal of lawlessness in and around 
 Melbourne in those days. One afternoon a band of 
 robbers took possession of the road between Melbourne 
 and Sandridge, and ' stuck up ' everybody who attempted 
 to pass. People were tied to trees and robbed, and for an 
 hour or two the bandits were in full possession of the road. 
 They had one of their number on watch who gave the sig- 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. l6$ 
 
 nal when the police approached, and thus they were en- 
 abled to get away in good time, leaving their victims 
 fastened to the trees. 
 
 "Once a ship was anchored in the harbor, ready to 
 sail for England, with several thousand ounces of gold 
 on board. She was to leave the next forenoon, and was 
 to receive her crew and passengers early in the morning. 
 There were only some ten or twelve persons on board. 
 Along about midnight a boat came to the side of the ship, 
 and, when hailed by the lookout, the answer was given 
 that two passengers were coming on board. Two men 
 came up the side of the ship dressed like ordinary pas- 
 sengers, and without any suspicious appearance about 
 them. 
 
 " While they w^ere in conversation with the lookout and 
 asking about the location of their rooms, they suddenly 
 seized and bound him, and put a gag in his mouth to pre- 
 vent his making an outcry. Then several other men came 
 up the side of the ship very quickly, and one by one all 
 on board were bound and gagged so quietly and speedily 
 that they could not give the least alarm. The robbers 
 then opened the treasure-room, took possession of the gold, 
 lowered it into their boat and rowed away. They were 
 not on the ship more than half an hour, and as no one 
 came to ascertain the state of affairs and give the alarm 
 until the next morning, the robbers succeeded in getting 
 away with all their plunder. It was a very bold perform- 
 ance, but from that time such a careful watch was kept on 
 board of the ships that it could not be repeated. 
 
 " A fair proportion of the successful miners kept their 
 
I 66 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 money and went home with it, but there was a large number 
 who seemed to believe that the best use to be made of gold 
 was to get rid of it as quickly as possible, and they found 
 plenty of people ready and willing to help them in this 
 work ; and it was not infrequently the case that miners 
 were killed for the sake of their gold, and their bodies 
 disposed of in the most convenient way. Most of the men 
 who thus disappeared had no relatives or intimate friends 
 in the country, and consequently their disappearance caused 
 no inquiries to be made concerning them. If the waters 
 of Hobson's Bay would give up their dead, and the dead 
 could speak, there would be a long series of fearful tales." 
 
 " Those bushranger fellows must have been terrible 
 men," remarked Harry as the gentleman paused. "What 
 did the authorities do with them whenever they caught 
 any?" 
 
 "They disposed of them in various ways," was the 
 reply. "Those who had been guilty of murder or an 
 attempt at it were hanged, while those against whom mur- 
 der could not be proved were sent to the hulks for life or 
 for long terms of imprisonment." 
 
 "What were the hulks? I don't know as I understand 
 the term." 
 
 "Oh, the hulks were ships, old ships that had been 
 pronounced unseaworthy and dismantled. They were 
 anchored in Hobson's Bay after being fitted up as prisons, 
 and very uncomfortable prisons they were. A most 
 terrible system of discipline prevailed on board of these 
 hulks. The man who established the system, or rather, 
 the one who had administered it, was beaten to death by a 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. 167 
 
 gang of desperate convicts, who rushed upon him one day 
 on the deck of one of the hulks, with the determination to 
 kill him for the cruelties they had suffered. Before the 
 guards could stop them they had literally pounded the 
 life out of him and flung his body overboard." 
 
 " How long did they keep up that system? " one of the 
 3'ouths asked. 
 
 "From 1850 to 1857," their informant replied. "In 
 the last-named year the practise of imprisonment on board 
 of the hulks was discontinued and the convicts were put into 
 prisons on shore. Four of the hulks were sold and broken 
 up, and the fifth, the Success, was bought by speculators 
 and kept for exhibition purposes. She was shown in all the 
 ports of Australia for many years, and was at last taken 
 to England and put on exhibition there. She was five 
 months making the voyage from Australia to England, and 
 at one time fears were entertained for her safety ; but she 
 reached her destination all right, and has probably reaped 
 a harvest of money for her exhibitors. She was built in 
 India in 1790, her hull being made of solid teak-wood. 
 She was an East Indian trader for more than forty years, 
 then she was an emigrant ship, and finally, in 1852, a 
 convict hulk. 
 
 "The convicts on board these hulks, or at any rate the 
 worst of them, were always kept in irons, but this did not 
 deter them from jumping overboard and trying to swim to 
 the shore. Very few of these ever succeeded in reaching 
 the land, as they were either carried to the bottom by the 
 weight of the irons, or were captured by the guard boats 
 that constantlv surrounded the hulks. Most of the con- 
 
1 68 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 victs were confined in separate cells, and the ' history ' of 
 each convict was posted on the door of his cell. 
 
 " Nearly the whole interior of the ship was thus divided 
 into cells, and when candles and lanterns were removed 
 the places were in pitchy darkness. I went on board the 
 Success one dav, while she was on exhibition here, long 
 after she had given up her old occupation, and as a matter 
 of curiosity, I had myself shut up in one of the cells and 
 the light removed. I told them to leave me in for ten 
 minutes only, not longer. 
 
 "It was on the lower deck, where not a ray of light 
 could come in, and the place where they locked me in was 
 one of the ' black holes ' in which prisoners were confined 
 from one to twenty-eight days on bread and water. 
 
 "As soon as they had locked me in and went away, 
 I regretted that I had made the suggestion. You have 
 heard of its being so dark that you could feel the dark- 
 ness ; well, that was the case down there. I felt the 
 darkness pressing upon me, and the air was very thick and 
 heavy. I felt an overwhelming desire to light a match, 
 and discovered that I had no matches in my pocket. 
 
 " One, two, three, and four minutes passed away, and 
 I had had all I wanted. I kicked and hammered at the 
 thick door, and when it was opened and I went out of 
 the hold and up on deck, I was nearly blinded. How in 
 the world a man could stay in one of those places for a 
 single day, let alone twenty-eight days, without losing 
 his reason is more than I can understand."' 
 
 Harry asked if all the prisoners were kept in solitary 
 cells on board of these hulks. 
 
THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. 169 
 
 •• .Most, but not all, of them were confined in this way. 
 There is a space at the stern, and another in the center of 
 the ship, heavily barred with iron, where those who were 
 considered utterly irreclaimable were huddled together. 
 It would almost seem as though the authorities deliberately 
 put them there in order that they should kill each other, 
 as fights among them were very frequent and not a few 
 were murdered by their companions. They did not work, 
 they were simply in prison, that was all. 
 
 "The punishments that the convicts received were 
 various. They had the dark cells and bread and water 
 of which I have told you, and then they had floggings, 
 and plenty of them, too. They were tied up by the 
 thumbs so that their toes just touched the deck, and they 
 were compelled to sustain the weight of the body either 
 on their thumbs or their toes for hours at a time. They 
 were ' bucked,' ' gagged,' and ' paddled,' and < cold- 
 showered,' and treated to other brutalities which have 
 been known in the English army and navy for a long 
 time. In spite of their liability to punishment, many of 
 them paid little attention to the rules, and some were con- 
 tinually yelling in the most horrible manner, and day and 
 night the sound of their voices was heard. 
 
 " Over the hatchway was a wheel by which the food of 
 the convicts was lowered into the hold at morning, noon, 
 and night ; at other times it was used for raising in an 
 iron cage, from the lower decks, convicts who were al- 
 lowed exercise, but the weight of whose irons prevented 
 their ascending by the companionways. Many of them 
 wore 'punishment balls" attached to their irons. The 
 
170 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 punishment balls and chain together weighed about eighty 
 pounds, and frequently bowed the prisoner double. 
 
 " The heaviest leg irons weighed thirty-five pounds, and 
 some of them forty pounds. You will readily understand 
 why it was that men who tried to escape by swimming, 
 with such weights about them, were almost invariably 
 drowned in the attempt. 
 
 "A good many famous criminals were confined on 
 board of the Success and her four sister hulks. Anions 
 them was the notorious Captain Melville, who for several 
 years haunted the country between Melbourne and Balla- 
 rat, and was credited with many murders and countless 
 robberies. When he was finally caught he admitted that 
 his own share of the gold he had stolen amounted to not 
 less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and he 
 claimed that he had hidden it in a place known only to 
 himself. For the last forty years people have been trying 
 in vain to find out where Melville hid his ill-gotten gold. 
 He was in the habit of riding to the top of Mount Boran, 
 whence, by the aid of a powerful field-glass, he was able to 
 see the returning gold miners on the road. Consequently, 
 it is believed that Melville's treasure must be hidden in the 
 neighborhood of Mount Boran, but all attempts to find it 
 have proved fruitless. 
 
 " Melville was tried and convicted and condemned to 
 be imprisoned for thirty-two years on board the Success. 
 He watched his opportunity, and formed a conspiracy with 
 a number of his fellow-convicts to rush upon a boat and 
 the keeper in charge of it and take possession. The plan 
 succeeded and the escaped convicts pulled to the shore in 
 
TIIJ-: HARBOR OF MELBOURNE. 171 
 
 safety, although fired upon by all the hulks and war ships 
 in the harbor. Melville was soon recaptured, and at his 
 trial he defended himself brilliantly, relating in burning 
 words the horrors of the penal system on board the hulks. 
 
 '- The speech was published in the Melbourne papers 
 and caused a great sensation. A great mass meeting of 
 the citizens was held, and resolutions were passed in favor 
 of abolishing the convict hulks. The popular feeding 
 aroused against them was so strong and general that, 
 although the government had sentenced Melville to death 
 for killing the keeper in his attempt to escape, it was com- 
 pelled to commute the sentence to imprisonment for life. 
 He was not sent back to the Success^ but was incarcerated 
 in the jail at Melbourne. According to the official report, 
 he committed suicide there, but the unofficial version of the 
 affair is that he was strangled to death by a keeper during 
 a struggle in which the prisoner was trying to escape. 
 
 '- Melville at one time had eight}* men in his gang, the 
 largest number of bushrangers at any time under a single 
 leader. Another scoundrel who was confined on the Suc- 
 cess was Henry Garrett, who, in broad daylight, -stuck up' 
 the Ballarat bank and robbed it of 16,000 pounds. One 
 of his tricks consisted in wearing a suit of clothes of cleri- 
 cal cut, a white necktie, and broad-brimmed hat. On one 
 occasion he walked into the bank dressed in this manner, 
 stepped up to the safe and began to plunder it. lb' was 
 a man of good education, and varied robbery with the 
 pursuit of literature. He used to write essays and other 
 articles, which he sent to the newspapers, and on one 
 occasion he wrote an essay on crime. 
 
172 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " One man, William Stevens, helped Melville and his 
 gang in their attempt to escape from the Success. He 
 struck down a warder with a stone-cutter's axe and jumped 
 overboard. He was never seen again, and the authorities 
 were always in doubt whether he escaped or went to the 
 bottom, the prevailing opinion being in favor of the latter 
 result. Another famous bushranger was Captain Moon- 
 light, who served his time and became a respectable citi- 
 zen. Another prisoner, after serving for fifteen years, was 
 given the position of ' guide ' upon the vessel by her 
 owners, and made a comfortable income by showing 
 visitors around." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 GEELONG AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES FINDING A BIG 
 
 NUGGET. 
 
 WHEN they had finished with Williamstown and 
 Sandridge our friends went to St. Kilda, which 
 may be called the Coney Island of Melbourne, as it is 
 very popular with those who are fond of salt-water bath- 
 ing. Harry and Ned remarked that there were hotels, 
 restaurants, and other places of resort and amusement 
 such as are usually found at seaside watering places, and 
 Ned thought it would require no great stretch of the 
 imagination to believe that they were at the famous bath- 
 ing place of New York. Ned observed that there were 
 fences consisting of posts set in the ground, not more than 
 ten or twelve inches apart, extending a considerable dis- 
 tance out into the water and completely enclosing the 
 bathing place. 
 
 He asked why the fences were placed there, and was 
 informed that it was because the bay abounded in sharks, 
 and people who came there to bathe had a prejudice 
 against being eaten up by these sea-wolves. " If we 
 should take away the fences," said one of the attendants 
 at the bathing house, "we would not do any more busi- 
 ness here, and you may be sure that we are very careful 
 to keep the fences in order." 
 
 Sharks abound all through the waters of Australia. 
 
174 TIIE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 They have caused not a few deaths, and everybody who 
 understands about them is careful not to venture into the 
 water at any place where the creatures are liable to come ; 
 but occasionally one hears of an incautious or ignorant 
 person falling a prey to these monsters of the deep. 
 When sailboats and other craft are overturned in storms 
 or sudden squalls and their occupants are thrown into the 
 water, they suffer fearful peril. Not long ago a small sail- 
 boat was overturned in Port Philip Bay with two gentle- 
 men and a lady on board, in addition to the boatman and 
 his boy. Before help could reach them the whole five 
 had fallen victims to the sharks. 
 
 Port Philip Bay, into which Hobson's Bay opens, is a 
 grand sheet of water between thirty and forty miles wide, 
 and navigable for ships of all sizes, and the bay affords 
 anchoring space for all the ships in the world, in case 
 they should come there at the same time. The en- 
 trance to the bay is about thirty miles from Melbourne, 
 and at Queenscliff near the entrance there is a fine 
 watering place, which is reached both by railway and 
 by steamboat. It has the advantage of St. Kilda in 
 standing on the shore of the ocean, while the former 
 place has only the waters of the bay in front of it. Many 
 Melbourneites go to Queenscliff to enjoy the ocean breezes 
 and watch the surf breaking on the shore. While St. 
 Kilda may be called the Coney Island of Melbourne, 
 Queenscliff is fairly entitled to be considered its Long 
 Branch. 
 
 On their return to Melbourne, the youths found at their 
 hotel an invitation to make a trip on the following day to 
 
GEELONG. 175 
 
 Geelong. When Dr. Whitney read the invitation to the 
 youths, Harry asked where Geelong was. 
 
 "Oh, I know about that," said Ned; "I happened 
 to be reading about it this morning." 
 
 " Well, where is it?" 
 
 " Geelon"- is a town forty-five miles 'from Melbourne," 
 replied Xed, " and it is a fairly prosperous town, too. 
 It is not quite as old as Melbourne, but at one time the 
 inhabitants thought that their town would outstrip Mel- 
 bourne completely." 
 
 " How is that? " 
 
 "The town stands on Corio Bay, an arm of Port 
 Philip Bay, and has a good harbor : in fact, the harbor at 
 that time was better than that at Melbourne. The peo- 
 ple of Geelong went to work and built a railway from 
 their city to Melbourne, with the idea that if they did so, 
 all the wool that was being shipped from Melbourne 
 would be sent to Geelong for shipment, while the car- 
 goes of foreign goods that landed at Melbourne would be 
 landed at Geelong." 
 
 "The plan did not work as they expected, did it? " 
 
 •■ Xot by any means. As soon as the railway was built, 
 wool coming into Geelong was sent to Melbourne for ship- 
 ment, and goods that were intended for Geelong were 
 landed at Melbourne and sent over by railway. In this 
 way the measures the}' had taken to increase their trade 
 worked exactly the other way and diminished it." 
 
 " Don't they have any foreign commerce at all at Gee- 
 long?" Harrv asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes, they have some, but nothing in comparison 
 
1^6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 with Melbourne. We will learn something about it when 
 we go there." 
 
 As there are three passenger steamers running between 
 Geelong and Melbourne daily, the party went by railway 
 and returned by water. In the railway journey they had 
 a pleasant ride along the shore of Port Philip Bay, and 
 arrived at their destination in a little more than two hours 
 from the time of starting. They found the town pleasantly 
 situated on Corio Bay, being laid out on ground sloping 
 to the bay on the north and to the Barwon River on the 
 south. Along the streets were fine shops, attractive 
 stores, and every indication of an industrious and pros- 
 perous population. 
 
 In the suburbs, where they were taken in a carriage by 
 the gentleman who accompanied them, they found numer- 
 ous private residences, many of them of a superior char- 
 acter. The gentleman told them that Geelong was famous 
 for its manufactures of woolens and other goods, and that 
 it built the first woolen mill in Victoria. Iron foundries, 
 wood- working establishments, and other industrial con- 
 cerns were visited, so that our friends readily understood 
 whence the prosperity of Geelong came. Their host told 
 them that Geelong had long since given up its ideas of 
 rivalry with Melbourne, and had settled down with the 
 determination to develop itself in every feasible way and 
 let things take care of themselves. 
 
 Our young friends thought they would like to see 
 something of the gold mines of Victoria, and asked 
 Dr. Whitney about them. He readily assented, and the 
 trip to Ballarat was speedily arranged, and also one to 
 
GEELONG. 177 
 
 Sandhurst, which is the present name of Bendigo of gold- 
 mining days. Ballarat was the most important place of 
 the two, and its placer mines gave a greater yield of gold 
 than did those of Bendigo. At both places the placer 
 mines were exhausted long ago, but gold is still taken 
 from the rocks and reefs which underlie the whole 
 region. 
 
 The mining establishments of Ballarat are outside of 
 the city itself, and when the visitors reached the place 
 and rode through the town they could hardly believe they 
 were in a gold-mining region. The streets are wide, and 
 most of them well shaded with trees, while some of them 
 are so broad that they deserve the name of avenues 
 rather than that of streets. There are substantial public 
 buildings and a goodlv number of churches, a botanical 
 garden, and all the other features of a quiet and well- 
 established city, and it was quite difficult for them to 
 believe that they were in a place whose chief industry 
 was the extraction of gold from the ground. All the 
 lawless features of the Ballarat of gold-rush days had 
 disappeared, and the town was as peaceful as any one 
 could wish to find it. 
 
 Our friends brought a letter of introduction to a gentle- 
 man of Ballarat, who kindly consented to show them about 
 the place and answer any questions that they wished to 
 ask. 
 
 Ilarrv's first question was, whether the first discoveries 
 of gold in Australia were made at Ballarat or elsewhere. 
 
 "It is very difficult to say exactly," the gentleman 
 answered, kk where the first discoveries were made, but 
 
178 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 certainly they were not made at this spot. According to 
 history and tradition, gold was discovered in the mountains 
 behind Sydney about the year 1814, but the news of the 
 finding of the precious metal was kept a secret by the 
 government. At intervals of a few years from that time 
 small deposits of gold were found at various places in 
 New South Wales and Victoria, but these were also kept 
 a secret, the individuals who found the deposits being in 
 one way or another under the control of the government. 
 
 " In the early part of 185 1 a miner from California, 
 named Hargreaves, discovered gold at Lewis Pond Creek 
 in New South Wales, and about the middle of the same 
 year another California miner, named Esmond, found a 
 deposit of gold at Clunes, sixteen miles from Ballarat. 
 Before the government could take any steps for suppress- 
 ing it the news had spread and the excitement began. 
 The stories were greatly exaggerated, and many people 
 came here believing that they had only to shovel the gold 
 from the ground into barrels and boxes, and send it away 
 to be converted into coin. That was the beginning of the 
 gold rush, and a rush it was, you may be sure. 
 
 " From all over Australia people nocked to the new 
 El Dorado. Mechanics of all kinds left their employ- 
 ments ; shepherds deserted their flocks ; merchants and 
 clerks fled from their counting-houses ; farmers quit their 
 fields and gardens, doctors and lawyers their offices, and 
 the whole country seemed to have gone mad about gold. 
 Youth and 'age got the fever alike; boys of* sixteen and 
 men of seventy walked side by side on their way to the 
 mines. Melbourne and Sydney were deserted, and the 
 
GEELONG. 179 
 
 prediction was made that before the end of the year grass 
 would be growing in the principal streets of those cities. 
 
 " Provisions, clothing, and miners' tools and equipments 
 rose to an enormous price. Picks or shovels worth four 
 or rive shillings apiece in the sea-coast cities were sold 
 for ten pounds apiece at the mines. Nails for building 
 sluices sometimes brought their weight in gold. Bacon 
 and Hour were worth a dollar a pound, and not always to 
 be procured at that figure. The most ordinary shelter 
 was worth ten shillings a night, and the rental price of a 
 house for a month was the equivalent of its cost. 
 
 "The government refused to permit anybody to work 
 at mining without a license, and the miners were so numer- 
 ous that the revenue from the licenses issued was a large 
 one. The money thus obtained was expended in organ- 
 izing a strong police force and preserving order. Where- 
 ever mining fields were opened, a gold commissioner with 
 a police escort at his back made his appearance as soon as 
 possible, and insured a certain degree of safety. Miners 
 could leave their gold with the commissioner, either on 
 deposit, to be called for whenever they liked, or for trans- 
 portation to Melbourne. I presume you already know 
 about the bushrangers and how they used to plunder the 
 homeward-bound miners." 
 
 "Were the early miners successful in finding large 
 deposits of gold ? " one of the youths asked. 
 
 " The question is a difficult one to answer directly/' 
 was the reply. " A great mam- were successful, but, on 
 the other hand, a great many had very poor luck in the 
 mines and hardly succeeded in making a bare living. 
 
l8o THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 We always hear of the rich finds in the mining district, 
 but rarely of the many failures. This has always been 
 the case in gold mining the world over, and Ballarat and 
 the region around it were no exception to the rule. I will 
 tell you of some of the rich discoveries, and leave you to 
 remember that the fortunate miners were in small number 
 compared to the unfortunate ones. It may be safely said 
 that the early yield of the Ballarat mines exceeded that of 
 the best days of California. 
 
 " Some claims eight feet square yielded, each of them, 
 from fifty thousand to sixty thousand dollars. One mine, 
 which was owned by several men in common, was worked 
 about four months and yielded eighty thousand dollars to 
 each man. One tubful of earth which was taken from 
 the bottom of a claim where the bed rock was scraped 
 yielded nearly ten thousand dollars, and one claim which 
 was supposed to have been worked out, and was aban- 
 doned, was again taken up by two men who obtained 
 forty thousand dollars from it in two weeks. Up to the 
 present time it is estimated that very nearly two billion 
 dollars' worth of gold have been taken out of Australian 
 mines." 
 
 Ned asked in what shape the gold was found ; that 
 is, was it in large pieces or small ones, fine dust or 
 nuggets? 
 
 " It embraced everything between the large nugget and 
 fine dust or flakes," the gentleman replied. "A great 
 deal of the gold was in little lumps like bird shot ; a great 
 deal of it was in scales, and then, again, it took the shape 
 of dust so fine that the particles were almost invisible to 
 
GEELONG. l8l 
 
 the naked e)'e. Nuggets the size of hens' eggs were not 
 very unusual, while those the size of pigeons' and spar- 
 rows' eggs were much more numerous. The great nug- 
 gets were the ones most sought for, and of course they 
 were the rarest found. 
 
 " One nugget, resembling in shape and size a leg of 
 mutton, and weighing one hundred and thirty-five pounds, 
 was found a long distance below the surface, where some 
 miners were tunneling to reach the bed rock ; and another 
 nugget was found in such a remarkable way that I must 
 tell you the story of it. 
 
 "A man who was wandering about the scrub in the 
 neighborhood of Ballarat one day, sat down at the foot of 
 a tree to rest. While sitting there he took out his knife 
 to cut a stick, and finding the knife was dull, he pro- 
 ceeded to sharpen it bv rubbing it upon a stone that lay 
 almost completely imbedded in the ground. As he rubbed, 
 he found that the surface of the stone became yellow. He 
 was greatly surprised at this, and then he dug around the 
 stone with his knife, scraping it in several places, and 
 then trying to lift it. He might as well have tried to lift 
 a horse. Do what he could, he could not budge it an 
 inch, and for a good reason, as it was a mass of solid 
 gold. 
 
 "He felt his head swimming and his wits leaving him. 
 He pinched his cheeks and pulled his ears to make sure 
 that he was not dreaming. Here he was with a fortune 
 in his possession and he could not move it ! Then he 
 sat down again and wondered what was best to do. 
 
 " Even if he could move it and started for the camp, he 
 
Ib2 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 might be robbed before he got there, as bushrangers in- 
 fested the country, and he was just as liable to come upon 
 them as upon honest men. He could not stay and watch 
 it, as he had no provisions ; and he was afraid to leave it, 
 for fear that somebody might come upon it during his 
 absence. But there was no help for it, as leave it he 
 must, and after thinking the matter over he acted about 
 as sensibly as he could have done. 
 
 "He covered the nugget up very carefully, replacing 
 the earth and sprinkling it with leaves so that there was 
 no indication that the spot had been disturbed. Then he 
 stripped the shirt from his back and tied it to a neighbor- 
 ing tree, wisely concluding that it was not judicious to 
 hang the garment on the tree beneath which he had sat. 
 Then, on his way out of the scrub, he marked the trees 
 here and there so that he could find the place again, and 
 as soon as he was in sight of the diggings he went straight 
 to the tent of the gold commissioner and told the story 
 of his discovery. The commissioner immediately sent 
 the man back again with a strong escort to secure the 
 valuable find. The man received for the nugget, after 
 deducting all charges and commissions, the sum of fifty- 
 one thousand dollars. 
 
 "A great many fortunes were taken out of the earth 
 around Ballarat before the placer mines were exhausted. 
 The news of the discovery of gold in Australia spread to 
 other countries, and thousands of people came from all 
 parts of the world to search for it. Nearly every nation- 
 ality was represented, and they came in great numbers. 
 Just before the gold discovery there were seventy-seven 
 
GEELONG. lS3 
 
 thousand inhabitants in the colony of Victoria. The 
 population doubled in a single year, and three years after 
 the discovery the colony had two hundred and thirty-six 
 thousand inhabitants. The gold rush properly ended 
 when the placer mines were exhausted, although in the 
 meantime new mines had been discovered in several 
 localities, principally at Bendigo and Castlemaine. Bal- 
 larat was nearly deserted for a time after the placer min- 
 ing gave out, and the same was the case at the other 
 places mentioned. Then the reefs and ledges were at- 
 tacked: crushing machinery was erected, and the form 
 of work which you call quartz mining in America had its 
 beginning. It has gone on steadily ever since and gives 
 employment to a great many people. It also employs a 
 great deal of money, as quartz mining requires capital, 
 while placer mining does not. To get a fortune by quartz 
 mining vou must have a fortune to begin with, while in 
 placer mining you need nothing more than a pick and 
 shovel. 
 
 "Australia will continue to produce gold for a great 
 many years to come," the gentleman continued. "New 
 discoveries are made almost every year, and in some years 
 half a dozen fields will be opened. The government has 
 changed its tactics in regard to gold discoveries. It re- 
 warded Hargreaves and Esmond for their discoveries in 
 1 85 1, and it has rewarded the discoveries of other gold 
 fields. Most of the colonial governments have a stand- 
 ing offer of a handsome pecuniary reward to anybody 
 who discovers a gold field, provided there are not fewer 
 than two hundred men working in that field six months 
 
184 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 after its discovery. This, you see, bars out all those finds 
 that are exhausted in a few weeks, which is the case with 
 the majority of them. 
 
 " Every little while there is an excitement over a new 
 discovery, companies are formed for working the mines, 
 and their stock is placed on the market. It is safe to say 
 that, in the majority of instances, more money is made by 
 shrewd speculators in Melbourne and Sydney manipulat- 
 ing the stock than is taken from the mines. A few years 
 ago there was a wild speculation in mines in what is called 
 the "Broken Hill" district of Victoria, and at present 
 there is an excitement about gold discoveries in Western 
 Australia. According to the latest accounts from the last- 
 named region, there is a difficulty in working the mines 
 there on account of the scarcity of water. You cannot 
 work a mine any more than you can run a steam-engine 
 without water, and many people have paid very dearly to 
 ascertain this fact." 
 
 From Ballarat our friends went to Sandhurst, which 
 was formerly called Bendigo. They found there a min- 
 ing region resembling Ballarat in its general features, but 
 not in all of them. At Ballarat the mines are not in the 
 town but in its suburbs, while at Sandhurst they are 
 directly in the town itself. One of the residents remarked 
 that there was a gold mine in every back yard, and our 
 friends found that this was not very far from the truth. 
 
 Mining operations were carried on in the rear or by the 
 side of the houses, and it was said that sometimes the dust 
 of the streets was gathered up and washed to obtain the 
 gold in it. An individual who certainly appeared credible, 
 
GEELONG. 185 
 
 said that the first brick house ever built in Bendigo was 
 torn down and the bricks crushed in order to obtain the 
 gold in them; this gold amounted to three ounces per ton, 
 and not only the house but its chimney yielded handsomely 
 of the precious metal. 
 
 Bendigo yielded enormously to the placer miners of the 
 early days. When the placer mines were exhausted the 
 place was nearly deserted, and then came the era of quartz 
 mining the same as at Ballarat. Thousands of men are 
 employed at Sandhurst and in its neighborhood, working 
 in the gold mines or in the crushing establishments con- 
 nected with them. The quartz mines thus give employ- 
 ment to a great number of people. Some of the mines 
 have been pushed to a great depth, one of them being 
 twenty-six hundred feet below the surface. There seems 
 to be an inexhaustible supply of gold-bearing rock, and it 
 is a common saying in Victoria that a true ledge has never 
 been exhausted. 
 
 Harry made some inquiries as to the amount of gold 
 annually produced in Victoria, and learned that it was not 
 far from five million pounds sterling, or twenty-five million 
 dollars. He was further told that the cost of production 
 amounted to very nearly the same figure ; that is, includ- 
 ing the cost of the mining machinery, the wages of 
 laborers, and the many other expenses. It was admitted 
 that the best mines showed a fair profit on the investment, 
 but not enough to make a fortune in a short time. 
 
 The youths came to the conclusion that gold mining 
 had been most profitable to the people that never engaged 
 in it. In this number he included the brokers, bankers, 
 
l86 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 storekeepers, farmers, and others who kept out of the 
 actual business of digging gold but profited by their deal- 
 ings with those who were engaged in it. Nothing so 
 delights the owner of a large farm in Australia as to learn 
 of a gold discovery a few miles from his place. He 
 knows that it will give him a good market for all he has 
 to sell, though there may be occasional thefts from his 
 horse or cattle paddocks. Traders of all kinds get an 
 enormous profit at the mines, and as for the brokers and 
 bankers, there is no doubt of their ability to take care of 
 themselves. 
 
 When Harry made the remark contained in the fore- 
 going paragraph, Ned said that it reminded him of a story. 
 
 "Well, please tell it," said Dr. Whitney; "we are 
 always ready for good stories." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Ned spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I was reading a day or two ago about a man who had 
 a large cattle run in a part of Australia where he had been 
 for several years without any near neighbors. Gold was 
 discovered about ten miles from his place, and a good 
 many people flocked there. The gold mines furnished an 
 excellent market for his beef and for all the vegetables 
 he chose to grow on his place ; but, on the other hand, he 
 suffered somewhat by the depredations of lawless charac- 
 ters. Horse stealing seemed to be the popular amusement 
 among the people at the mines, and quite often horses 
 disappeared from the estate and were never seen again. 
 
 "But they had one horse, called Stepney, that was a 
 perfect treasure. He was kept for carriage purposes and 
 would never let anybody mount on his back. He would 
 
GEELONG. 187 
 
 stand perfectly still while being saddled, and while any- 
 thing was being attached to the saddle, but the instant 
 anybody got on his back he was thrown, and there was 
 not a rider in Australia who could stay in the saddle more 
 than a few seconds. 
 
 v- About once in a fortnight Stepney would be missing 
 from the paddock, but he always turned up in a day or 
 two, and almost invariably with a saddle on his back, 
 generally a new one, and a miner's ' swag ' attached to it, 
 and on most of the occasions the swag contained a goodly 
 amount of gold. Once he came back with a brand new 
 saddle and six hundred dollars' worth of gold, which 
 nobody ever came to claim. The owner said that Step- 
 ney was the most profitable horse he ever owned. He 
 paid for himself several times over, and whenever they ran 
 short of saddles, all they had to do was to use Stepney 
 as a trap and 'set' him in the paddock, with entire con- 
 fidence that he would catch a saddle within a day or 
 two." 
 
 " That recalls a story about the way the miners used to 
 try to deceive the bushrangers," said the doctor; " I refer 
 particularly to those who were on their way to the coast 
 with gold in their possession. They used to bore holes 
 in the shafts or frames of their carts and conceal the <£old 
 in these holes, and sometimes they managed to hide quan- 
 tities of gold dust between the inner and outer soles of 
 their boots. One miner took the padding out of his horse's 
 collar and inserted eighty ounces of gold in the hollow. 
 He jogged along the road to Melbourne, suffering a good 
 deal of trepidation at first, but finally arrived within twenty 
 
l88 THE L.AND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 miles of the city with his treasure, and began to feel 
 safe. 
 
 "While he was driving slowly along with his cart he 
 was overtaken by a man on horseback, who explained 
 that he was in a hurry, as the police were after him for a 
 fight he had been concerned in with another man. His 
 horse was exhausted and he would give the miner ten 
 pounds to exchange horses. 
 
 "As the animals were of about equal value, the miner 
 assented and proceeded to unharness his horse. When 
 he took off the collar the other man seized it, put it on 
 his horse and jumped into the saddle, which he had not 
 removed ; then he rode away, to the astonishment of the 
 angry miner, waving his hand and saying by way of 
 farewell : — 
 
 " 'The collar is all I wanted, friend. I don't care to 
 make any horse trade now.' 
 
 " You are doubtless aware," said their Ballarat friend, 
 " of the operations of the bushrangers, and how the police 
 used sometimes to torture those that they captured in order 
 to make them reveal the secret of the hiding place of their 
 gold. They tell a story of a fight between a gang of 
 bushrangers and the police in which the leader of 
 the robbers, known as ' Kangaroo Jack,' was mortally 
 wounded. He was lying on the ground dying ; there 
 could be no mistake about that. The police captain, I 
 will call him Smith, but that wasn't his name, sat down by 
 his side and said : — 
 
 " ' Come, Jack, you are going to die and there is no help 
 for you. Tell me where your gold is.' 
 
GEELOXG. 189 
 
 "'I won't do it,' replied Jack. 'I won't tell you or 
 anybody else ! ' 
 
 " Smith pressed him, but Jack was obstinate. Smith 
 continued to urge and Jack to refuse until death sealed the 
 bandit's lips. 
 
 " Smith was afterward telling the story to one of his 
 fellow-officers, and remarked in conclusion : — 
 
 " < I think it was downright mean of Jack that he 
 wouldn't tell me where his gold was. I know he had at 
 least fifty thousand dollars' worth stowed away somewhere. 
 He knew he couldn't take it with him, and it couldn't do 
 him any good, and it would have been a very tidy sum 
 for me. He couldn't have any personal ill-will to me, as 
 I didn't shoot him myself. I think it was downright 
 mean, don't you? ' 
 
 "His friend agreed with him, and no doubt he would 
 have been willing to share the plunder if it could have 
 been found." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A SOUTHERLY BURSTER WESTERN VICTORIA. 
 
 THE day after their return to Melbourne, our friends 
 were treated to an entertainment which, as Harry 
 said, " was not down on the bills." It was what the Mel- 
 bourneites called a " southerly burster," a storm which 
 is peculiar to Australia, and particularly to the southern 
 portion of it. They had already experienced showers 
 of such force that the gutters of the streets were filled 
 to a depth of a foot and more, and sometimes the whole 
 street was covered. Most of the street crossings are 
 bridged so that the water can run away with comparative 
 ease. 
 
 The water at such times flows with terrific force. Men 
 attempting to cross the gutters, who make a misstep, are 
 lifted off their feet and are instantly swept down by the 
 current, and in case they should be carried under one of 
 the crossings they are liable to be drowned. 
 
 We will listen to Harry as he described in his journal 
 their experience with a southerly burster. 
 
 '•When we arose in the morning," said Harry, "the 
 weather was delightful and we thought it would be a fine 
 day for an excursion. There was not a cloud in the sky 
 and the breeze was blowing from the northeast. A 
 barometer hung in the hallway of the hotel, and Dr. 
 
 Whitney remarked, as he came out from breakfast, that 
 
 190 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 191 
 
 it was falling rapidly. A gentleman who was standing 
 by his side heard the remark and said : — 
 
 " 'I think we are going to have a burster; that is the 
 way it usually begins. If you have any engagements to 
 go out to-day and they are not absolutely imperative, you 
 had better postpone them.' 
 
 "Ned and I overheard what he said and wondered what 
 a burster was. We said nothing, however, as we expected 
 to find out by practical experience. 
 
 "All through the forenoon the barometer continued to 
 fall. The sky remained clear until a little past noon, and 
 the wind blew gently from the northeast as before. Sud- 
 denly we saw a white cloud rolling up from the northeast 
 and spreading over the heavens until they were completely 
 covered. Masses of dust came with the wind, which in- 
 creased in force for a time and then lulled a little. 
 
 " Suddenly the wind went around to the south and blew 
 a gale, ves, a hurricane. It started off at about thirty 
 miles an hour, but before it ended its visit it was blowing 
 fully seventy miles an hour, at least that is what the papers 
 said next day. I am told it sometimes reaches a velocity 
 of one hundred miles an hour, and has even been knowr 
 to exceed one hundred and forty miles. These tremen- 
 dous winds do a great deal of damage. They drive ships 
 ashore or overwhelm them at sea ; they devastate fields 
 and forests and level a great many buildings. 
 
 "The barometer fell rapidly in the forenoon, as I have 
 mentioned ; it was the thermometer's turn in the afternoon. 
 The mercury stood at about ninety degrees Fahrenheit 
 in the middle of the forenoon, and it remained so until 
 
10,2 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the wind chopped around to the south. An hour after the 
 change of wind it stood at seventy degrees, and an hour 
 later at fifty. I am told that it sometimes drops thirty 
 degrees in half an hour, but such occurrences are un- 
 usual. 
 
 " This is a good place to say that sudden changes in 
 the temperature are very common in Australia, and that 
 the change from midday to midnight is far greater than 
 any to which we are accustomed in the United States. 
 When we have a change of twenty or thirty degrees in a 
 single day we regard it as unusual. What would you 
 say to one hundred and ten degrees at noon and fifty 
 degrees at midnight? This is quite common in the in- 
 terior of Australia and not at all infrequent on the coast. 
 
 " The thermometer runs very high in this country, and it 
 is not at all rare for it to indicate one hundred and twenty- 
 five or one hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit. One 
 traveler has a record of one hundred and thirty-nine de- 
 grees in the shade and one hundred and seventy-two in 
 the sun. I am told that in South Melbourne the ther- 
 mometer once made an official record of one hundred and 
 eleven degrees in the shade and one hundred and seventy- 
 nine degrees in the sun. 
 
 " So great is the heat of the sun at midday that trav- 
 elers generally try to avoid it if they can do so. It is 
 the plan of most people who travel on horseback, in 
 wagons, or on foot, to start before daylight, and keep 
 going until nine or ten o'clock. Then they halt and 
 rest until three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when 
 they move on and continue until late in the evening. Of 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 
 
 93 
 
 course, the railways are not run on that principle, as the 
 locomotive is not supposed to be affected by the outside 
 temperature. 
 
 "But I am getting away from the southerly burster. 
 The wind blew like a hurricane. It kept up this rate for 
 about three hours, filling the air with dust so that we 
 could not see across the street. Though the doors and 
 windows were tightly closed, the dust found its way in- 
 side the house and was present everywhere ; every article 
 of furniture was covered with it. 
 
 " We found it in the food, we found it in our beds, and 
 the next day when I opened my trunk to take out some 
 articles of clothing, I actually found that the dust had 
 worked its way inside in a perceptible quantity. One of 
 the waiters of the hotel said, that always after a burster 
 they found dust inside of bottles of mineral water which 
 had been tightly corked up to the time of opening. I am 
 inclined to doubt the truth of his assertion, particularly as 
 he offered no documentary evidence to confirm it. 
 
 "Along towards night it came on to rain, and, oh, how 
 it did rain ! It poured as though the flood gates of the 
 skies had all been opened at once. It rained not only 
 cats and dogs, as the old expression has it, but lizards, 
 scorpions, snakes, and I don't know what else, at least it 
 did figuratively. The gutters of the streets were filled, 
 and then we were able to see how easy it was for a man, 
 and especially for a child, to be drowned in them. I have 
 seen it rain hard in a good many places, but am sure I 
 never saw it rain harder than it did at the end of that 
 southerly burster. 
 
194 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " I remarked as much to a gentleman whose acquaint- 
 ance we had made in the hotel, and he answered : — 
 
 " ' Oh, nonsense. That is no rain at all.' 
 
 "' No rain at all,' I answered. 'Do you have worse 
 rains than this in Australia ? ' 
 
 " ' Why, certainly we do,' he replied. ' I have known 
 it to rain so hard that this would be a sprinkle by com- 
 parison. I remember the 25th of February, 1873, when 
 nine inches of rain fell here in Melbourne inside of nine 
 hours. An inch of rain in an hour is a good deal, isn't 
 it?' 
 
 " Ned and I admitted that it was, and then our inform- 
 ant continued : — 
 
 " ' I happened to be in Newcastle early in 187 1, when 
 they had the greatest rainfall that I ever saw or heard of 
 in any country. In less than three hours ten and a half 
 inches of rain fell, and the story was that it was so thick 
 that the fishes in the harbor could not distinguish between 
 the rain cloud and the bay, and actually swam up half a 
 mile or so into the air. One man said that he had a 
 barrel with both ends knocked out, and the rain went in at 
 the bung hole faster than it could run out at the ends.' 
 
 " I asked the gentleman how long the storm lasted, and 
 he said that twenty-one hours elapsed between the begin- 
 ning and the end of it, and during that time tw r enty inches 
 of water fell, and the streets of Newcastle were like small 
 rivers. 
 
 "The gentleman remarked, in conclusion, that it was a 
 great pity the rainfall was not distributed more evenly, 
 both in time and amount, than it is. Some parts of the 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. I95 
 
 coast get a great deal more rain than they have any use 
 for. The floods destroy a large amount of property, and 
 the superfluous rain flows away in the rivers, inundating 
 large areas of ground and doing more harm than good, 
 but through the greater part of the interior the rainfall is 
 far less than the land requires. The ground becomes 
 parched, the streets dry up, and the grasses wither, and 
 the whole face of nature presents a scene of sterilitv. 
 Sometimes there is no rain for long periods. There have 
 been times when not a drop of rain fell for two years, and 
 but for the heavy dews at night, a vast extent of land 
 would have been absolutely turned to a desert. Cattle and 
 sheep perished by the million, of starvation and thirst. 
 The production of grain fell off enormously and the whole 
 country was very seriously affected. 
 
 " Xed asked if no remedy had ever been found or pro- 
 posed for this state of affairs. 
 
 "A remedy had been suggested, said the gentleman, 
 which would save herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, 
 but it would not save from destruction the crops in the 
 fields. 
 
 " ' What is that? ' Ned asked. 
 
 " ' It is a system of storing water throughout the inte- 
 rior of the country so as to save the precious fluid when 
 the rainfall is excessive. There are many places, great 
 numbers of them, where nature has so formed the ground 
 that the storage of water would be comparatively easy. I 
 have already begun it on my sheep run, and other sheep 
 owners have done the same thing. It is an expensive 
 work, but I believe it will pay in the end.' 
 
196 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " ' There are three places on my land where broad val- 
 leys terminate at their lower ends between hills forty or 
 fifty feet high. Now, by building a dam from one of 
 these hills to the other, I can flood any one of these valleys 
 to any depth I choose up to the height of the hills. It 
 was only recently that I finished work at one of these 
 places, and I have gangs of men busy with the other two. 
 For the present I shall make my dams thirty feet high, and 
 this will give me at each of the three places a lake of 
 fresh water with about forty acres of surface area. If I 
 can fill these lakes every winter with water, I think I will 
 have enough to keep my sheep through the dry season, 
 after making liberal allowance for loss by evaporation and 
 in other ways. Of course, such a system of storing water 
 is only practicable where the owner of a place has suffi- 
 cient capital for the purpose. The poor man, with his 
 small flock of sheep, can hardly undertake it.' 
 
 " ' Preliminary surveys have been made in places where 
 it is proposed that the colonial governments should build 
 extensive works for saving water on a grand scale. The 
 government would be repaid, in part at least, by selling 
 the water to private landholders in the same way that 
 water is sold in California, New Mexico, and other parts 
 of the United States. I am confident that you will see a 
 grand system of water storage in full operation in Aus- 
 tralia before many years.' " 
 
 While on the subject of rainfall, Harry asked Ned if he 
 knew where the heaviest annual rainfall in the world was. 
 
 Ned said he did not know, but he thought that Dr. 
 Whitney might be able to inform them. 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 197 
 
 The question was appealed to the doctor, who paused 
 a moment, and then said that " what might be considered 
 a heavy rain in one place would be a light one in another. 
 In Great Britain, if an inch of rain fell in a day it was con- 
 sidered a heavy rain ; but in many parts of the Highlands 
 of Scotland three inches not infrequently fall in one day. 
 Once in the isle of Sieve twelve inches of rain fell in thir- 
 teen hours, and rainfalls of live and seven inches are not 
 uncommon. Thirty inches of rain fell in twenty-four 
 hours at Geneva, in Switzerland, thirty-three inches at 
 Gibraltar in twenty-six hours, and twenty-four inches in 
 a single night on the hills near Bombav. 
 
 "The heaviest annual rainfall on the globe," continued 
 the doctor, " was on the Khasia Hills, in India, where six 
 hundred inches, or fifty feet, fell in a twelvemonth. Just 
 think of it; a depth of fifty feet of water yearly, and of 
 this amount five hundred inches fell in seven months, dur- 
 ing the southwest monsoons." 
 
 "How do they account for such heavy rains?" Ned 
 asked. 
 
 " It is accounted for," the doctor replied, " by the abrupt- 
 ness of the mountains which face the Bay of Bengal, from 
 which they are separated by low swamps and marshes. 
 The winds arrive among the hills heavily charged with 
 the vapor they have absorbed from the wide expanse of 
 the Indian Ocean. When they strike the hills and are 
 forced up to a higher elevation, they give out their moist- 
 ure with great rapidity, and the rain falls in torrents. As 
 soon as the clouds have crossed the mountains the rain 
 diminishes very much. Twenty miles further inland it 
 
I98 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 drops from six hundred to two hundred inches annually, 
 and thirty miles further inland it is only one hundred 
 inches. The same conditions prevail to a certain extent 
 in Australia. The mountain chains are near the coast. 
 On the side next the ocean there is a liberal rainfall, but 
 on the other side, towards the interior, the rainfall is light. 
 As the clouds charged with vapor come from the sea to 
 the mountains they yield their moisture freely, but, after 
 passing the mountains, they have little left to yield." 
 
 The burster died away along in the evening, and, 
 though the streets were wet in many places, our friends 
 went out for a stroll. During their walk their attention 
 was naturally drawn to the sky, which was now bright 
 with stars. Naturally, their conversation turned to the 
 difference between the night skies of the Northern and 
 Southern Hemispheres, which had not escaped their obser- 
 vation during their voyage from the east coast of Africa 
 down to the Equator, and thence in the Southern Ocean. 
 On this subject Harry wrote at one time in his journal as 
 follows : — 
 
 " We found the famous Southern Cross a good deal of 
 a disappointment. In the first place, it requires a con- 
 siderable amount of imagination to make a cross out of 
 it ; very much more than is needed to make ' The Great 
 Dipper ' out of the constellation so called in the Northern 
 Hemisphere. The Southern Cross consists of three stars 
 of the first magnitude, one of the fourth magnitude, and 
 three of the fifth, and, look at them whichever way you 
 may, you can't make a real cross out of them, either 
 Greek or Roman. Before I investigated the subject, I 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 199 
 
 thought the Southern Cross was over the south pole, but 
 found it is not so. The constellations of the Southern 
 Hemisphere altogether are not as brilliant as those in the 
 northern one. If the principal object of a traveler in this 
 region is to see the heavens, he had better stay at home. 
 
 " An interesting feature of the southern heavens is 
 ' The Magellan Clouds,' two white spots in the sky like 
 thick nebulae of stars. They are nearer to the pole than 
 the Southern Cross is, and are much used by mariners in 
 taking observations. Quite near the pole is a star of the 
 fifth magnitude, called ' Octantis,' and this also is used 
 for observation purposes. It isn't so brilliant, by any 
 means, as the pole star of the north, which is of the 
 second magnitude ; and, by the way, that reminds me of 
 what Dr. Whitney told me in the desert of Sahara, that 
 what we called the polar star in the north is not directly 
 over the pole, but nearly a degree away. The real polar 
 star is a much smaller one and stands, as we look at 
 it, to the left of the star, which I had always believed to 
 be the proper one." 
 
 Melbourne has a Chinese quarter like San Francisco 
 and New York, and our friends embraced an opportunity 
 to visit it. They found the shops closely crowded together 
 and apparentlv doing an active business. There were 
 temples, shops, and a good many stores, some of them very 
 small and others of goodly size. The sidewalks were 
 thronged with people, mostly Chinese, and they hardly 
 raised their eyes to look at the strangers who had come 
 among them. Our friends took the precaution to be 
 accompanied by a guide, and found that they had acted 
 
200 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 wisely in doing so. The guide took diem into places 
 where they would have been unable to make their way- 
 alone, and where, doubtless, they would have found the 
 doors closed against them. 
 
 The Chinese are very unpopular in Australia and in all 
 the colonies. The laws against them are decidedly severe, 
 from a Mongolian point of view. Every Chinaman land- 
 ing in Victoria must pay fifty dollars for the privilege of 
 doing so, and after getting safe on the soil he finds him- 
 self restricted in a business way, and subject to vexatious 
 regulations. John is satisfied with very little and he 
 usually manages to get it. He is a keen trader and always 
 an inveterate smuggler. He is very skillful in evading the 
 custom house, and as soon as one trick is discovered he 
 invents another and his ingenuity seems to be boundless. 
 
 One of the industries in which the Chinese excel is that 
 of market gardening. In driving in the suburbs of Mel- 
 bourne, our friends observed numerous market gardens 
 cultivated by Chinese, and in every instance they remarked 
 that the cultivation was of the most careful kind. John 
 can make more out of a garden than anybody else. He 
 pays a high rental for his ground, but unless something 
 very unusual happens he is pretty sure to get it back 
 again, with a large profit in addition. 
 
 In some of the colonies the restrictions are more severe 
 than in others. In New South Wales the laboring class 
 of white men are politically in control of the legislature, 
 and have enacted anti-Chinese laws of great severity. The 
 tax upon immigrant Chinese in that colony is one hundred 
 pounds sterling, or five hundred dollars. The naturaliza- 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 201 
 
 tion of Chinese is absolutely prohibited, and ships can only 
 bring into the ports of New South Wales one Chinese 
 passenger for every three hundred tons of measurement. 
 The restrictions in regard to residence and trading are 
 very severe. The country is laid out into districts, and 
 in each district not more than five trading Chinese are 
 allowed to live and transact business. Steamers and sail- 
 ing vessels having Chinese stewards or sailors on board 
 are subject to seizure and fines on their arrival at Sydney, 
 and so great have been the annoyances to this class of 
 vessels, that they have been compelled to leave in some 
 other port, before coming to Australia, all their Chinese 
 employees. 
 
 The hostility to Chinese labor in Australia is similar to 
 that on the Pacific coast of the United States, and in the 
 States of the Rocky Mountain region. It will doubtless 
 increase as time goes on, as it increased in the United 
 States, until it culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act 
 of a few years ago. Eventually, the Chinese in Aus- 
 tralia will be shut out from all occupations, and expelled 
 or excluded from the country. A good many intelligent 
 Australians deprecate the hostility to the Chinese, but 
 when it comes to voting, this class of citizens is in the 
 minority. 
 
 During a part of the gold rush, great numbers of Chinese 
 found their way to the mines, where they were perfectly 
 contented to work in abandoned mines and wash the earth, 
 which had already been washed by the white men. Owing 
 to the prejudice against them and the likelihood of inter- 
 ference, they rarely took up fresh claims, but contented 
 
202 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 themselves with what the white man had left. Even this 
 form of work was considered an encroachment by the 
 white miners, who frequently attacked the Mongolians 
 and drove them out at the point of the pistol. Many of 
 these attacks were accompanied by bloodshed, and if the 
 history of Australian mining were written in full, it would 
 contain many a story of oppression, accompanied with 
 violence. 
 
 Our friends made a visit to the famous lake district of 
 Victoria, where they found some very pretty scenery, and 
 from the summit of one hill counted no fewer than fifteen 
 lakes, some of them of no great size, while the largest 
 measured ninety miles in circumference. Harry made 
 note of the fact that this largest lake was called the Dead 
 Sea. It is said to be not as salt as the famous Dead Sea 
 near Jerusalem, but it is a great deal Salter than the ocean, 
 and no fish of any kind lives in it. 
 
 " I asked a resident of the neighborhood," said Harry, 
 " if they had ever tried the plan of putting fish from the 
 ocean into this Australian Dead Sea. They said they 
 had done so, but the fish thus transported always died in 
 a few hours, and the experiment of stocking the lake had 
 been given up long ago. 
 
 " A curious thing that we found regarding the lakes in 
 this part of Victoria," Harry continued, "is that some of 
 them are salt and some fresh, and sometimes the salt lakes 
 and the fresh ones are quite close to each other, and on the 
 same level. We were puzzled how to account for the 
 peculiarity and tried to learn about it. How the circum- 
 stances happened, nobody knows exactly, but the theory is 
 
A SOUTHERLY BURSTER. 203 
 
 that the salt in the salt lakes comes from the drainage of 
 the rocks, and as the lakes have no outlets, the superfluous 
 waters are carried off by evaporation. They told us that 
 in summer these lakes sink a good deal below the level 
 of other times of the year, and when they did so the 
 ground left dry was thickly encrusted with salt, which the 
 people gathered in large quantities. The market of Mel- 
 bourne is supplied with salt from these lakes, and you can 
 readily understand that it is very cheap. 
 
 " Another peculiarity of this part of Victoria is the large 
 quantities of potatoes that are grown there. The land 
 often yields from twenty to thirty tons of potatoes to the 
 acre, and an acre of ground for raising potatoes will fre- 
 quently sell for four hundred dollars, while it will rent for 
 twenty-five dollars yearly. Most of the coast ports of 
 Australia, including the great ones of Melbourne, Ade- 
 laide, and Sydney, are supplied with potatoes from this 
 region. 
 
 " The potatoes are among the finest we ever saw. They 
 are large, rich, and mealy, and when properly cooked 
 they are simply delicious. No other part of Australia can 
 compete with this district in potato cultivation. The 
 excellence of this vegetable is supposed to come from the 
 volcanic nature of the soil. All the country round here 
 was once in a high state of ebullition, and the lakes I have 
 mentioned are the craters of extinct volcanoes." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 JOURNEY UP COUNTRY ANECDOTES OF BUSH LIFE. 
 
 OUR friends accepted an invitation to go up country to 
 visit a cattle station and also a sheep run, and to 
 spend a week or so in the bush. They went by train as 
 far as the railway could carry them, and were met at the 
 station by a wagon which enabled them to finish their 
 journey. They arrived at the station late in the afternoon, 
 after a delightful drive through the gum-tree forest and 
 across a small plain. It was not strictly a plain, however, 
 as the ground was undulating, and in the hollows between 
 the ridges there was generally a growth of trees from 
 a quarter to a half a mile in width which broke the 
 monotony of the landscape. The road was not the 
 smoothest in the world, and before they had gone half 
 way Harry and Ned both remarked that the}' would have 
 excellent appetites for supper, and hoped that the meal 
 would not be long delayed after their arrival at the cattle 
 station. 
 
 The party received a cordial welcome from their host, 
 Mr. Syme, who had preceded them a day in advance and 
 sent his younger brother to the railway to meet them. 
 About half a mile from the house they saw three or four 
 men lying on the ground by the roadside, evidently taking 
 a rest or waiting for something. They reminded our 
 
 young friends of the individuals frequently seen in the 
 
 204 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 205 
 
 United States, and known as " tramps," and after getting 
 out of earshot of the party Ned asked their new acquaint- 
 ance, who was escorting them, what those men were. 
 
 " Oh ! those are sundowners," was the reply, and then 
 there was a pause. 
 
 " Sundowners !" exclaimed Harry. "What is a sun- 
 downer? " 
 
 " A sundowner is what you call a tramp in America," 
 was the reply ; " and he gets his name from one of his 
 peculiarities. It is the custom all over Australia — I mean 
 in the country districts — to feed and lodge anybody who 
 comes along, and if he has no money there is no charge 
 for his entertainment. He is expected to move on in the 
 morning the first thing after breakfast, unless we happen 
 to have work for him and can give him employment at 
 regular wages. If he comes along anywhere in the after- 
 noon before sunset, he is expected to do an)* odd work that 
 may be handy until supper, as a payment in part, at least, 
 for his night's entertainment. 
 
 ••Most of these fellows don't like to work," he con- 
 tinued, "and so they take good care not to arrive at a 
 place before sunset. If they find they are getting too 
 near it, they sit or lie down on the ground and wait until 
 the sun has disappeared below the horizon. That is why 
 we call them sundowners, as they turn up just after the 
 sun has gone down." 
 
 ••It is certainly very liberal on the part of the people in 
 the country to feed and lodge all comers," remarked Xed. 
 
 "Well, we think it's not illiberal. It is the custom of 
 the country which has grown up from the early days 
 
206 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 when farms were far apart and travelers were few in 
 number. When the custom first began, the number of 
 this sort of travelers would not exceed a dozen in a month. 
 Nowadays we often lodge that number in a single night, 
 and sometimes it is a pretty heavy tax on us. I don't 
 think it will be many years before we have laws that will 
 restrict these wanderers somewhat, just as you have tramp 
 laws in many of the States of your Union. There is a 
 very large number of idlers going about the country 
 and subsisting in this way. They always pretend to be 
 searching for employment, but whenever employment is 
 offered, it is not the kind that they want. They are like 
 an American tramp I heard of once, who was always 
 looking in winter for a job at hay-making, and in sum- 
 mer he wanted to find employment at cutting ice. When 
 one of these fellows gets to a sheep station, he says he 
 knows nothing about sheep, but understands everything 
 about cattle ; at the cattle station he reverses his story, 
 and wants a job at shepherding." 
 
 " Don't you have trouble with them sometimes?" one of 
 the youths remarked. " Are they willing to accept what 
 you offer them, or do they demand something better? " 
 
 "As to that," was the reply, " there is a good deal of 
 difference among them. "We don't feed them with the 
 best that the place affords, and the majority of them 
 accept the situation and take what we choose to give. 
 Cold meat and bread are their usual fare, and there is 
 always enough of that. Sometimes they make a row, and 
 demand to be fed just in the same way that we feed our 
 own farm hands. For instance, only last evening I was 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 207 
 
 called into the men's dining-room to quell a disturbance 
 caused by a sundowner. The travelers' table was supplied 
 with cold meat, bread, and tea, while the table of our farm 
 hands had on it bread and hot roast mutton. The sun- 
 downer had a knife in his hand and was threatening to 
 kill the kitchen maid unless she gave him hot mutton 
 instead of cold." 
 
 " What did you do about it? " 
 
 " I told him that if he could not eat cold meat he was 
 not hungry enough to eat anything, and if he did not put 
 that knife away one of our men would knock his head off. 
 He became quiet at once and sat down to his supper, mut- 
 tering something about not being treated like a gentleman. 
 We would like to shut our doors altogether against this 
 class of fellows, but there are difficulties in the way. We 
 would be liable at times to turn away honest and deserv- 
 ing men who were really in search of employment, and 
 furthermore, the revengeful scoundrels would set our build- 
 ings on fire during the night, or perhaps kill our cattle 
 and horses. They would be less likely to do the latter 
 than the former, as the destruction of our buildings by lire 
 would be much easier and safer than the other proceeding. 
 We certainly need some kind of legal restriction over these 
 sundowners, and we will get it in the course of time."' 
 
 The house at which our friends arrived was large and 
 spacious, and its external appearance, as they approached 
 it, betokened hospitality. It covered a considerable area 
 of ground but was only a single story in height, with the 
 exception of one end, where there was an upper story 
 occupied by the female servants. The men employed at 
 
208 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the place ate and slept in a building in the rear of the 
 principal house, the two being connected by a kitchen 
 and a shed. The house was substantially constructed of 
 wood, the sides being double walled with planking, while 
 the roof sloped gently to the front. There were gutters at 
 the eaves to catch all the water which came down in the 
 form of rain, and convey it to a large cistern just in the 
 rear of the main dwelling. Their host explained that they 
 had a fine spring close to the house, from which they usu- 
 ally obtained their supply of water. " This spring some- 
 times gives out in seasons of excessive dryness," said he, 
 " and then we fall back upon the cistern." 
 
 " You have been long enough in Australia," he con- 
 tinued, " to learn the full value of water, and we are 
 obliged to be careful in the use of it and in selecting a 
 location for our house. In the great drought, when we 
 had no rain for two years, we suffered exceedingly and a 
 great many of my cattle perished for thirst. Since then 
 I have built a reservoir for storing water, and if another 
 drought should come, I don't think my herds will suffer as 
 much as they did." 
 
 Dr. Whitney and our young friends were shown to 
 the rooms they were expected to occupy during their stay. 
 Dr. Whitney was assigned to a good-sized bedroom, 
 while the youths were placed in another bedroom close to 
 it and equipped with two beds. They made a brief survey 
 of the room and concluded that they would be very com- 
 fortable. Harry remarked that it was quite as good as 
 any room they had thus far occupied in Australian hotels. 
 They devoted a short time to removing the dust of travel 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 200, 
 
 and putting themselves in a condition of cleanliness, and 
 shortly after they appeared on the veranda, where their 
 host was awaiting them, and dinner was announced. 
 
 The size of the dining-room indicated that the place 
 was an hospitable one, as the table was capable of accom- 
 modating not fewer than twenty people without crowd- 
 ing. Harry took note of the menu which comprised 
 their meal, and according to his memorandum it was as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Soup of kangaroo tail, mutton pie, roast beef, pota- 
 toes, cauliflower and parsnips, hot and cold bread, plum 
 pudding and tea. There were also some canned apricots 
 of home production. Altogether it was a very substantial 
 meal, excellent in quality, liberal in quantity, and well 
 cooked throughout." 
 
 The evening was passed in front of a big fire in the 
 large sitting-room. As the night was chilly and somewhat 
 damp, the tire was very welcome. The time was passed 
 in conversation concerning the cattle business, interspersed 
 with stories of Australian life. Harry and Ned asked the 
 permission of their host to make use of their notebooks, 
 and their request was readily granted. Accordingly, they 
 kept their pencils in their hands, and placed on paper 
 anything which seemed to them particularly interesting. 
 
 Harry made note of a statement of their host concerning 
 the cattle business and its ups and downs. One of his 
 notes reads as follows : — 
 
 "To go into the cattle business, one ought to have a 
 capital of not less than fifty thousand dollars, and he could 
 use one hundred thousand to advantage. His first step is to 
 
2IO THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 secure a tract of land, and this he does by getting a grant 
 from the government allowing him to occupy an area of 
 ground several miles square at a rental of ten or twenty 
 shillings annually for each square mile. His next step is 
 to secure location, and to do this he travels a great deal 
 through the interior, visiting ground that has not been 
 taken up, and exercising his judgment as to the choice 
 of ground. He must take care to find a place where there 
 is good grass and good water ; he wants a certain amount 
 of timber on his land, but not too much, and the water 
 holes must be at suitable distances apart. Many a man 
 has come to grief in the cattle business owing to his bad 
 selection of a location. 
 
 " A man who takes a large area of ground in this way 
 is called a ' squatter.' You can put this down in your 
 notebooks, young men, that a squatter in Australia is just 
 the reverse of the same individual in America. In your 
 country, the squatter is a man who lives upon a small 
 tract of land which he cultivates himself, while here he 
 is a man, as I said before, who takes a large area of 
 ground for pastoral purposes. The equivalent of the 
 American squatter is here called a ' selector,' and between 
 the selectors and the squatters there is a perpetual warfare, 
 as the selector is allowed by law to select a location for a 
 farm on any government land, whether occupied by a 
 squatter or not. The selectors give the squatters a great 
 deal of trouble, and many of us think that the colonial 
 governments have treated us very badly. 
 
 "Well, after getting our ground we proceed to stock it, 
 and with fifty thousand dollars we can buy about twenty- 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 211 
 
 five hundred head of cattle. Then we put up our build- 
 ings, employ our stockmen, and set to work. If we have 
 good luck we can pay our expenses, almost from the be- 
 ginning, by sending fat cattle to market. For the first five 
 years we sell only fat cattle ; at the end of that time we 
 have doubled our original stock, and then we begin to 
 sell ordinary cattle as well as fat ones. From that time 
 on, if no mishap befalls us, we can sell twelve or fifteen 
 thousand dollars' worth of cattle every year, including all 
 kinds. At this rate the profits are satisfactory, and in fif- 
 teen or twenty years, a man who has started out with 
 fifty thousand dollars can retire on eight or ten times that 
 amount." 
 
 Harry asked what were the drawbacks to the cattle busi- 
 ness; that is, what were the kinds of bad luck that could 
 happen to a man who engaged in it. 
 
 "As to that," replied Mr. Syme, "there are several 
 things which it is not possible to foresee or prevent. In 
 the first place, nobody can foresee a great drought when 
 cattle perish of thirst and starvation : added to this danger 
 is that of diseases to which cattle are subject, especially 
 pleuro-pneumonia. Whole herds maybe carried away by 
 this disease, and if it once gets established among the cattle 
 of an estate it is very difficult to eradicate it. Sometimes it 
 is necessary to kill off an entire herd in order to get rid of 
 the disease, and I have heard of cattle runs that were de- 
 populated successively two or three times by pleuro-pneu- 
 monia, and their owners ruined. Sometimes the market is 
 very low in consequence of an over-supply, and the price 
 cattle furnish is a very poor remuneration to stock raisers. 
 
212 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "Sheep farming is more profitable, on the whole, than 
 cattle farming," he continued ; "but the risks are some- 
 what greater in consequence of the greater liability of 
 sheep to disease. There are several diseases peculiar to 
 sheep which carry them off in great numbers, and they 
 are affected by drought quite as much as cattle are. A 
 sheep run can be started with a small capital, and you 
 might almost say with no capital at all. For instance, a 
 man with very little money, or practically with none at all, 
 can find a location and squat upon it, and then go to one 
 of the cities, and if he is known to be a respectable, 
 honest, and industrious man and free from vicious habits, 
 he can find somebody who will supply the capital for buy- 
 ing a few hundred sheep. With these sheep he can make 
 a start, and if he is industrious and attentive to business, 
 and has no bad luck with his flocks, he will make money 
 rapidly. In ten years he will have a comfortable fortune ; 
 but, on the other hand, he is liable at any time to be 
 ruined by two successive bad seasons of drought and 
 disease. Sometimes the price of wool is so low that it 
 leaves very little profit to the sheep farmer after paying 
 for shepherds, shearers, and other employees, and the 
 expense of taking his w r ool to the sea-coast." 
 
 Their host remarked, in conclusion, that he was afraid 
 the good days of cattle and sheep farming had gone and 
 would never come again. " Land has become dear," he 
 said, " and labor unions compel us to pay high prices 
 for stockmen and shearers, especially the latter, and the 
 prices of wool are not as good as they used to be. The 
 wool market of the world is low, and so is the cattle mar- 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 213 
 
 ket. Since the practise of freezing beef and mutton and 
 carrying the frozen meat to England has come into vogue 
 the prices of meat have improved, but the supply is so 
 abundant and the sources of it so numerous that we have 
 not been greatly benefited by the new process. There 
 still remains enough in either business to encourage those 
 who are in it to continue, but the inducements for new 
 enterprises of this kind are not great." 
 
 Some of the stories that were told about experience on 
 cattle and sheep runs were so interesting to our young 
 friends that they made note of them. One of the party 
 told of the dangers surrounding the life of the stock-riders, 
 the men who look after the herds on a cattle estate. 
 
 " He has some hard duties to perform," said the nar- 
 rator. " He gets his breakfast early in the morning and 
 starts out at once, mounted on horseback, and with a horse 
 that is more or less unruly- Each stock-rider, or stockman, 
 as we call him, has a particular part of the run assigned 
 to him, and every morning he goes along the boundary of 
 it, and if his own cattle have strayed across the line, he 
 drives them back again ; likewise, if he finds his neigh- 
 bor's cattle have strayed into his territory, he drives them 
 out. He is expected to show himself to his cattle at least 
 once a day, to accustom them to the sight of men, and also 
 to train them to go where they are wanted whenever he 
 cracks his whip and rides in among them. 
 
 " The group of cattle belonging to each stockman is called 
 a ' herd,' and he is expected to train them so that they will 
 recognize his authority. A bunch of fifty or so is called a 
 ' mob,' and it takes several mobs to make up a herd. All 
 
214 TIIE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 over the run, at intervals of two or three miles, are places 
 where the cattle assemble when they hear the stockman's 
 whip. These places are called ' cattle camps ' ; they are 
 open spaces of level ground and are always near water ; 
 in fact, many of them are used as regular watering places 
 for the mobs and herds of cattle. Occasionally the ani- 
 mals are driven into these camps, either for the purpose of 
 branding the calves or selecting cattle to be sent to market. 
 You will have an opportunity of seeing one of these to- 
 morrow, as a man arrived here to-night who is buying 
 cattle to take to Melbourne. 
 
 "Well, the stock-rider is on horseback for the greater 
 part of the day. Sometimes he takes his dinner with him 
 and sometimes he comes back to the station to get it, and 
 in the afternoon goes to a different part of his section. 
 Sometimes he does not come back at all, and the next 
 morning a search is made for him. Of course there is 
 now and then a man who runs away and leaves his em- 
 ployment, but this is rarely the case, as there is no occasion 
 for him doing so unless he has committed some offense." 
 
 The youths listened in breathless silence, waiting for 
 what would come next. 
 
 " There really ought to be two men riding together at 
 all times, so that if a mishap occurs to one of them, the 
 other can help him out of his trouble, and, if unable to do 
 so, can go for assistance ; and we generally send out a black 
 boy on horseback with each stockman. A few months 
 ago one of our stockmen, who had gone out alone, failed 
 to come home at night, and we were at once apprehensive 
 that something had happened to him. His horse came 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 2l5 
 
 back along about midnight, and the next morning several 
 of us started out to find him. We tried to make use of 
 the intelligence of the horse to guide us to the place where 
 he had left his master, but, unfortunately, it was an animal 
 that he had ridden only a few times and there was no 
 attachment whatever between man and beast. We rode 
 along the boundary where we knew he was accustomed 
 to go, but did not find him. We spread out over all the 
 ground we could cover and shouted continually, in the 
 hope that he would hear us and answer. We made a com- 
 plete circuit of the portion of the run in his charge, and, 
 finding no traces of him, we struck off haphazard across 
 the middle of it. We kept up our shouting and finally 
 heard a faint answer. 
 
 " Then we rode in the direction of the sound, and in 
 fifteen or twenty minutes we reached the man's side. It 
 seems that his horse had stumbled over a fallen log so 
 violently as to pitch the rider over his head. In falling, 
 the man had the misfortune to break his leg. The horse 
 stood and looked at him a few minutes while he tried to 
 call the animal to his side, but to no purpose. The beast 
 threw his head and then his heels into the air and trotted 
 off. He was soon out of sight in the bush and the stock- 
 man was left alone, disabled in the way I tell you. 
 
 "There was no water in this vicinity and he had no 
 food with him, and he could not walk or stand on account 
 of his broken leg. lie could crawl slowly, but only a 
 short distance at a time. He knew that he was out of the 
 regular track of riders, and it might be days or weeks 
 before he would be discovered. He suffered great pain 
 
2l6 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 in his injured limb, and very soon the tortures of thirst 
 began, to be followed later in the day by those of hunger. 
 
 "All the rest of the day and all through the night he 
 lay there in great suffering and wondering if relief would 
 ever come. Along towards morning he heard a rustling 
 in the grass near him, and then other similar sounds, which 
 he soon concluded were caused by snakes. When day- 
 light came he found that his fears and horrors were real- 
 ized. Moving around him were several serpents, and they 
 manifested a tendency to approach nearer and nearer. 
 Some of them went away as the sun rose and the full light 
 of day shone upon him, but others remained in his imme- 
 diate neighborhood. He beat the ground with the butt of 
 his whip in the hope of scaring them away : his effort was 
 partially successful but not wholly so. One large snake 
 came close to his side and actually traversed his body. 
 He dared not make a motion, for fear the serpent would 
 turn upon him and inflict a fatal bite. He lay there as 
 still as a block of marble till the snake, having satisfied his 
 curiosity, glided away into the grass. 
 
 "All through the afternoon and until we found him, 
 the reptiles remained there. They seemed to understand 
 that the man was disabled, and evidently they were deter- 
 mined to take their own time in enjoying his sufferings. 
 This was the state of affairs when we found him. He 
 said that when he heard our call he almost feared to reply, 
 lest it should rouse his unpleasant neighbors and cause 
 them to take the aggressive. 
 
 "We killed two of the snakes not a dozen yards from 
 where the man was lying, and if we had made a vigorous 
 
JOURNEY UP COUNTRY. 2 17 
 
 search, it is probable that we could have despatched more 
 of them. We brought the man to the house as quickly 
 as possible, improvising a rude sort of litter, which was 
 carried, with the man upon it, by two of our blacks. Two 
 of us relieved them occasionally, when they were wearied 
 of carrying the burden. In a short time the man was 
 well again, but he said that the horrors of that night were 
 too much for him, and he would seek some other occupa- 
 tion than that of stock-rider. He left us as soon as he 
 recovered, and I don't know what became of him." 
 
 " That reminds me," said another of the party, " of the 
 case of a man who met with a similar accident, being 
 thrown from his horse and getting a broken leg. The 
 place where he fell happened to be near a large ant hill, 
 and in a few moments he was covered with the terrible 
 black ants that we have here in Australia. He was hor- 
 ribly bitten by them all over his body, but principally on 
 head and hands, the other parts being somewhat protected 
 by his clothing. After two or three hours of torture he 
 managed to crawl away from his awful position, but for 
 several hours afterwards the ants continued their attacks ; 
 and when he was found by one of his fellow-stockmen, his 
 face was so swollen that he could not see, and he was 
 barely able to articulate. Face and hands became a mass 
 of sores, and it was weeks before he recovered. When 
 he got well, his face was pitted like that of the victim of 
 an attack of smallpox, and he suffered for a long time 
 with a partial paralysis of his limbs. I have heard of one 
 or two other instances of the same sort, and can hardly 
 imagine anything more terrible." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH AUSTRALIAN HORSES. 
 
 " A NOTHER of the gentlemen/' wrote Harry in his 
 i\ notebook, " told us a story about a young woman, 
 with a child in her arms and an older child at her side, 
 being lost in the bush." She had been on a visit to an 
 acquaintance who lived about four miles away, and was 
 to start for home in the afternoon of a certain Frida}', 
 having gone there in the forenoon of the same day. She 
 did not reach home in the evening, and it was thought 
 at first that she had concluded to remain until Saturday. 
 Not until Sunday did her husband go to the house where 
 she had been visiting, and there he ascertained that she 
 had left the place on Friday afternoon, as agreed, and 
 carried no provisions except a pound of butter which she 
 was taking home for her husband. 
 
 " It was at once concluded," said the gentleman, 
 " that she had missed her way and been lost in the 
 bush ; and when one is thus lost, it is very hard to find 
 the way out again. The general features of the land- 
 scape are so similar that it is very difficult to distinguish 
 one part from another, and the alarm and perplexity 
 natural on finding oneself in such a situation increases 
 the danger which attends it by robbing the wanderer of 
 the presence of mind which is so necessary in such an 
 emergency. When the sun is obscured by clouds the 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 2IO. 
 
 most experienced traveler is liable to stray and become 
 lost, and even when the sun is shining it is not every one 
 who can take advantage of its position to guide him out 
 of trouble. The course of the streams in a well-watered 
 country is of great use in guiding an inexperienced trav- 
 eler, but Australian streams, like most others, wind about a 
 great deal, and make the road along their banks a very 
 long one. 
 
 " It was the rainy season of the year when this woman 
 was lost, and the streams were flooded. If she had fol- 
 lowed the creek which would have led her to her home, she 
 would have been compelled to keep to the high ground on 
 either side of its valley, as the low, flat land was covered with 
 water. The weather was cold and wet and the winds were 
 keen and piercing. There was not the least supply of 
 nourishment to be obtained in the bush, and when we heard 
 late on Monday what had happened, we all felt that the 
 unhappy wanderers must have perished from hunger and 
 cold. Still, there was a possibility that they might yet sur- 
 vive, and, as it was too late for us to start that day, we 
 determined to set out on Tuesday morning in search of 
 them. We sent off to the nearest police station and 
 obtained the assistance of several blacks who had been 
 trained to the police service. You have probably heard 
 about the wonderful skill of these people in following a 
 track, and as soon as they arrived on the ground we set 
 them at work. 
 
 "All day Tuesday these native trackers sought dili- 
 gently to find traces of the missing ones, but none could 
 be discovered. Then on Wednesday morning we renewed 
 
220 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the search, covering as much ground as possible and 
 examining it with the greatest care, occasionally discharg- 
 ing a revolver in the hope that its sound might be heard, 
 and frequently shouting the Australian ' coo-ee,' which 
 can be heard at a great distance. We returned home com- 
 pletely discouraged and gave up the wanderers for dead, 
 being satisfied that any further search w r ould be useless. 
 
 " But on reaching home we heard news that gave us 
 encouragement. A woodchopper returning from his work 
 told us that he found on a hill, some distance away, a 
 rude mia-mia or wind shelter made of the branches of a 
 wild cherry tree. He said it was not like those usually 
 put up by the blacks, nor were there any traces of fire 
 near it, which would certainly have been the case if it had 
 been a native mia-mi. We started at once, under the guid- 
 ance of the workman, to inspect the place for ourselves, 
 and on examining the shelter carefully we felt sure that it 
 had been put up by the lost woman. A few pieces of a 
 Melbourne newspaper were lying on the ground and a 
 strip of calico had been fastened to the bushes, evidently 
 in the hope of attracting attention. 
 
 "We collected these little articles carefully and took 
 them to the husband, who instantly identified the strip of 
 calico as belonging to a gown his wife had worn, and he 
 also remembered that she had taken a Melbourne news- 
 paper with her. He was greatly excited at the sight of 
 the articles, and so were we. It was too late to do any- 
 thing that day ; in fact, it was dark before we reached 
 home, and so we made all preparations for an early start 
 on Thursday morning. We were on the way soon after 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 221 
 
 daylight, and the native trackers expressed the fullest 
 confidence in their ability to find the missing wanderers, 
 now that they were able to start on the track. 
 
 " We first went to the mia-mia, or wind shelter, and then 
 took a course to the northeast, walking over a succession 
 of low ranges and shallow gullies where the water often 
 reached up to our knees. The trackers were much dis- 
 appointed, as the amount of water which spread over the 
 country made it impossible for them to follow the trail. 
 We passed through thick scrubs and prickly plants, and 
 over sharp rocks which were rough walking even for 
 men ; what must they have been for the woman and her 
 children? 
 
 "We continued our search for several hours, and had 
 almost resolved to give it up, when one of our party fired 
 at a kangaroo which he had disturbed, and which fled 
 before us. The animal fell wounded, and as we were ad- 
 vancing towards it, we thought we heard a distant coo-ee. 
 We stood still to listen, and faintly, yet quite distinctly, 
 it was repeated. We walked on with great eagerness in 
 the direction whence the sound appeared to come, and 
 every little while we coo-eed and waited for an answer to 
 assure us that we were on the right track. We did not 
 get an answer every time, and when we did it was not a 
 strong one ; but there was no mistaking the sound, and we 
 realized each time that we were getting nearer the spot 
 where it was made. 
 
 "We reached the edge of a gully thickly overgrown 
 with tangled scrub about twelve feet high. We pressed 
 forward through this scrub, wading occasionally through 
 
222 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the water, and pushing aside the last bushes, found our- 
 selves at the edge of a small open plain. There we saw, 
 standing at a little distance, a gaunt, ragged woman with 
 a child in her arms. As she caught sight of us she turned 
 and fled ; either she mistook us for black fellows, or the 
 surprise and relief of obtaining help had turned her brain. 
 We shouted loudly to her to stop, and as our voices fell 
 on her ear she stood still and we approached. She looked 
 at us with a half-crazed expression in her eager, gleaming 
 eyes ; her cheeks were thin and sunken, and her whole 
 appearance was one of great wretchedness. 
 
 " We gave her some tea which she drank greedily, and 
 it revived her somewhat. Seeing that she had only one 
 of her children with her, the youngest, we asked where 
 the other was, and she led us to a large, hollow tree in 
 which she placed the little girl. The poor child's feet 
 were so cruelly cut and blistered that she could no longer 
 walk, and the mother, hoping to reach home and find help, 
 had thought best to leave her and travel on with the other 
 child. She had built up the opening of the tree with logs 
 and brush-wood in the hope of protecting the child against 
 the attacks of the wild dogs, but when her preparations 
 were complete the little girl wept so piteously that the 
 distracted mother could not consent to leave her alone. 
 So she made up her mind to stay there and die with her 
 children. 
 
 "Just as she had reached this conclusion she heard the 
 report of the rifle, and with all her remaining strength she 
 uttered the coo-ee which brought relief to her. She did 
 not faint or lose her self-possession, and she astonished us 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 223 
 
 all by her strength. She would not wait to allow us to 
 send for a dray or other conveyance, but insisted that she 
 could walk with us ; it was a walk of seven miles, but she 
 went on bravely, carrying her boy, who would not leave 
 her arms. The men by turns carried the little girl, and 
 offered to take the boy, but she would not give him up. 
 
 " She solemnly declared that neither she nor the chil- 
 dren had found anything to eat during the time they were 
 in the bush. On the first night, she divided the pound of 
 butter between the children, and ate nothing herself. Her 
 only sustenance for the whole time had been water, and it 
 was the only sustenance of the children after the butter 
 was consumed. Every morning they had begun to wan- 
 der, hoping to reach home before night; and every night, 
 as the darkness closed in, they huddled together, cold, 
 and hungry, and footsore, on the wet ground, and with no 
 shelter except a few scanty bushes. 
 
 " The children slept fairly well, but the mother said 
 she listened through the greater part of every night, hear- 
 ing the howling of the wild dogs around them, and con- 
 stantly dreading their attacks. She said she heard the 
 report of our rifles on the first day of our search, but un- 
 happily the wind was blowing directly from us towards her, 
 and consequently we were unable to hear her answering 
 calls, though she had strained her voice to the utmost to 
 make herself heard. She had been almost frantic with 
 despair, knowing that help was so near at hand and yet 
 beyond her reach. She thought, and we agreed with 
 her, that another day in the bush would have ended their 
 lives, or at any rate that of the little girl.'' 
 
224 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 As the narrator paused, Harry asked if the woman re- 
 covered her health and strength completely. 
 
 " She recovered her strength very soon," was the reply, 
 "but her mind was affected by her exposure and suf- 
 ferings, and she was never quite herself again, mentally. 
 The children recovered completely after a few weeks of 
 nourishment, and the little girl who was so near dying in 
 that hollow tree has since grown up and married." 
 
 " I think it is time for a story of less mournful char- 
 acter," said one of the party. 
 
 " By all means," said another; " let us have one." 
 
 " Well, here it is," was the reply. 
 
 " At the station of a wealthy squatter a party as- 
 sembled one evening for a good time and a supper. 
 There were young men and young women, as well as 
 men and women who were not altogether young, who had 
 been invited for miles around, and they had a jolly time, 
 you may well believe me. Some of the young fellows, 
 wishing to have some fun, disguised themselves in rough 
 clothes, blackened their faces, and frowzed up their hair 
 in the roughest kind of way. Then they suddenly ap- 
 peared at the door of the large room, and the cry of 
 " Bushrangers ! " was raised. Some of the ladies fainted 
 in alarm, and all were more or less frightened. The joke 
 was not kept up very long, as the counterfeit bushrangers 
 were not good impersonators, and were speedily detected 
 by their friends. There was a great deal of fun and 
 laughter over the trick that had been played, and then the 
 performers in the scheme resumed their ordinary dress 
 and continued in the games with the others. 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 225 
 
 " An hour or so later, rough voices were heard outside 
 of the house, and soon there appeared in the doorway six 
 or eight rough-looking men with begrimmed faces, un- 
 trimmed hair, and very shabby-looking garments, who 
 entered the hall with a very determined manner. Some 
 of the party burst out laughing, and exclaimed, " Bush- 
 rangers again ! " declaring that they would not be fooled 
 a second time. Some of the others had an instinctive per- 
 ception that this time the bushrangers were real ones." 
 
 The narrator paused, and Harry asked if that was the 
 case. 
 
 " It was exactly," was the reply. " The men were no- 
 torious bushrangers who had been troubling that part of 
 the country for some time. The robbers drew revolvers 
 and ordered the men to " bail up ! " (hold up their hands) 
 which they did in a hurry, and then they were commanded 
 to stand in a row with their faces next to the wall. 
 
 "Then the bushrangers ordered the ladies to provide 
 them with refreshments, while one was commanded to sit 
 at the piano and entertain them with music. No one was 
 allowed to leave the room except under the escort of a 
 bushranger, for fear that word would be sent to the police. 
 
 " The scoundrels ate and drank freely, and then took 
 possession of all the watches, jewelry, money, and other 
 valuables in the possession of the party. After making 
 their collection they left the place. Word was sent to the 
 police as soon as possible, but as the police station was 
 several miles away, the information was of no practical 
 value." 
 
 " Were the scoundrels ever caught?" inquired Ned. 
 
226 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 "Yes, they were eventually caught and hanged," was 
 the reply. "They troubled that region for some time. 
 The inhabitants dared not pursue them, for fear of their ven- 
 geance, though all wanted to be rid of them. Four men 
 came from Melbourne with authority for taking these 
 robbers, dead or alive, and with the promise of a large 
 reward. It was impossible to keep their errand a secret, 
 and none of the people dared give them any assistance in 
 consequence of their dread of what the bushrangers might 
 do if they heard of it. I know of one instance where these 
 four men applied to a squatter for a night's lodging and 
 supper. He dared not let his family know about the men 
 being there, but lodged them in an out-building, and with 
 his own hands carried the food to them for their supper." 
 
 " And did these four men capture the bushranger 
 gang ? " queried Harry. 
 
 " Not by any means," was the reply. " They were 
 riding one day along the road, when they suddenly found 
 themselves face to face with the bushrangers. A fight 
 followed as a matter of course, and eveiy one of the four 
 was killed. When the corpses were discovered, one of 
 them was found in a kneeling posture, as though he had 
 died in the act of begging for mercy. A ten-pound bank 
 note was found sticking in a wound in his breast, and 
 evidently the bushrangers put it there, to show that in 
 this instance, at least, their object was revenge and not 
 plunder. 
 
 "That the bushrangers were a bad lot," continued the 
 gentleman, " no one will deny, but in many instances they 
 showed chivalry and appreciation of bravery. It was rare, 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 22J 
 
 indeed, that they ill-treated women or children, and it was 
 also very rarely the ease that they committed murder ex- 
 cept in self-defense or for revenge. This led a good 
 manv sentimental people to regard them rather in the light 
 of dashing heroes than that of downright criminals. Yon 
 have probably heard of Captain Melville, have you not ? " 
 he asked, turning to Harry and Ned. 
 
 The youths nodded, and said the name of that famous 
 bushranuer was familiar to them. 
 
 " Well, it once happened," said their informant, " that 
 Captain Melville had in his power a man whom, of all 
 others, he had most occasion to dread, — an officer of high 
 standing in the police force, at that time engaged in pur- 
 suit of the robber, whom he declared he would take alive 
 or dead. This officer was riding one day alone and 
 slightly armed, when he suddenly met Melville with his 
 entire gang. The police uniform readily told the rank of 
 the officer, and it happened that Melville and several of 
 his men were familiar with the officer's face. 
 
 "He was immediately surrounded and disarmed: his 
 hands were tied behind his back, and his captives took him 
 triumphantly to their camp. When the camp was reached, 
 the prisoner was bound to a wagon wheel while his captors 
 held a counsel to decide what to do with him. The officer 
 was noted for his courage, and when Melville came near 
 him, he was taunted by his captive for his cowardice in 
 taking him at the time when he was defenseless and 
 alone. 
 
 " Melville became angry at the taunt, and, walking 
 towards his prisoner, he placed a loaded revolver at his 
 
228 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 head and said, ' Say another word and I'll blow your brains 
 out.' 
 
 " 'You dare not do it,' replied the officer, and he looked 
 with an unflinching eye at the robber. 
 
 " Melville's eyes glared, and probably the slightest show 
 of fear on the part of the officer would have provoked a 
 fatal shot. 
 
 4 ' Melville held the pistol at the prisoner's head for a few 
 seconds and then lowered it, saying, as he did so, ' You 
 are too brave a man to be shot,' and then he turned and 
 walked away. The officer afterwards managed to escape 
 and reach Melbourne safely. The supposition is that he 
 was assisted in escaping by one of the bushrangers who 
 was tired of life on the road and desirous of leaving it. 
 The officer was able to promise him immunity from punish- 
 ment in return for his service in aiding the latter's escape." 
 
 " That reminds me of a story I heard not long ago," 
 said Harry. 
 
 " A lawyer in Australia was once defending a man 
 whose family antecedents and record were anything but 
 good. Ignoring this, he made a most touching plea about 
 the gray-haired parents in England waiting to celebrate 
 Christmas with their returned wanderer. The jury found 
 the man guilty, however, and the judge, after sentencing 
 him, remarked that the learned counsel would have his 
 wish ; the convicted client was going to the same prison 
 where father and mother were already serving sentences. 
 Their Christmas would be passed under the same roof." 
 
 Other stories were told during the course of the evening, 
 but we have no room for any more of them. When the 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 229 
 
 last story was given, the youths looked at their watches 
 and were surprised to find the hour so late. They imme- 
 diately retired to their room and slept soundly, or at least 
 Ned did. Harry said he was disturbed somewhat by 
 dreams of snakes, bushrangers, unruly cattle, and horses, 
 and of being lost in the bush. Evidently the disturbance 
 was not serious, as he was out at an early hour with Ned to 
 investigate the place and learn the peculiarities of an up- 
 country station in Australia. Here is what he wrote con- 
 cerning what he saw and heard before the announcement 
 of breakfast : — 
 
 "The sights and sounds were not altogether unlike 
 those of a farm in New England, but there were many more 
 of them, in consequence of the greater size of the station. 
 A farm in New England covering two or three hundred 
 acres of ground would be considered a large one. This 
 station covers an area ten miles square, or one hundred 
 square miles. They have five thousand head of cattle 
 upon it and more than one hundred horses. Most of the 
 cattle, in fact, nearly all of them, are fully half wild. 
 The domesticated ones comprise a few yokes of oxen and 
 a small herd of milch cows, and even the cows are no- 
 where near as tame as the same animals would be in New 
 England. We went out to the milking yard and witnessed 
 the operation of milking three or four cows which had 
 been driven in from the paddock. Not one of the crea- 
 tures would stand quietly to be milked, as a well-mannered 
 cow should do, and each one had to be driven, led, or 
 pulled into a frame or cage something like the frame in 
 which oxen are shod. When the cow was thoroughly se- 
 
23O THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 cured in this way, with one fore leg tied up so that she 
 could not lift either of her hind legs, the milkmaid, who 
 was a big, rough-looking man, proceeded to milk the ani- 
 mal. When the operation was concluded, another cow 
 was brought up and put through the same process. 
 
 " I asked if they had any cows that would stand peace- 
 ably and submit to the milking process. They answered 
 me that they had such cows occasionally, but not often ; 
 and the man with whom I talked seemed to be rather 
 proud of the circumstance, that Australian cows were more 
 high-spirited than American ones. 
 
 " The stockmen had had their breakfast and were about 
 starting for their daily rounds. Some fifty or sixty horses 
 had been driven in from a paddock and enclosed in a yard 
 large enough for five times their number. A man went 
 into the yard to select his horse for the day's riding, and 
 having singled out the animal, he made several ineffectual 
 attempts to capture him. When he approached the group, 
 it divided and started off for a different part of the yard. 
 Then the man was joined by another, and the horses at 
 once concluded that it was time for their fun to cease. 
 They submitted quietly to being bridled and saddled, and 
 one after another they were led out of the yard as soon as 
 this operation was complete. 
 
 " One of the stockmen remarked that he would like to 
 see one of us youngsters go in there and get a horse. 
 
 "I replied that I had heard too many stories of the 
 character of Australian horses to induce me to make the 
 attempt. 
 
 " You are very wise not to do so," he answered. " They 
 
LOST IN THE BUSH. 231 
 
 would have fun with you by the hour, and then you would 
 not be able to lay hands on one of them. Whenever we 
 get a new chum that is a green hand, we have a jolly 
 time seeing him work. He goes inside with one of the 
 black boys, and between them they manage to get a horse 
 off into a corner. Then the new chum takes his bridle 
 over his arm and approaches the horse, talking to him all 
 the time. Australian horses don't understand that sort of 
 thing, and you might as well talk to the surf on the sea- 
 coast as to one of them. Just as the new chum gets up to 
 within about four feet of the horse's neck, the beast spins 
 around on his hind legs, and is off like a shot. He kicks 
 and prances, and sometimes he lies down and rolls, and 
 all the time he is saying to himself, ' What a jolly time I 
 am having.' 
 
 "Then the new chum and the black fellow try it on 
 again, and with the same result. All the old hands sit 
 around the fence and have a good laugh, and we let the 
 new chum keep at it until our sides are sore. After awhile 
 we agree that we have had enough of it, and then we turn 
 in and catch the horse and saddle him in about half no 
 time. 
 
 " But there is more fun to come," continued the stock- 
 man, " and that is when the new chum tries to ride. He 
 gets into the saddle, and just as he gets fairly seated the 
 horse begins to buck-jump. Perhaps you don't know 
 what buck-jumping is? " 
 
 "I have heard of it," I said. "In fact, I have seen 
 what was said to be a very good performance of it, and 
 that was in Buffalo Bill's show." 
 
232 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " How high up in the air did the horses throw the fel- 
 lows in the show? " 
 
 "Oh, a little ways," I answered; "enough to pitch 
 them out of the saddles and bring them to the ground." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense," said the stockman ; " you wait till you 
 see an Australian horse send a new chum up into the air. 
 I've seen a fellow tossed up so high that he didn't look 
 bigger than a dog. He must have gone up fifty feet, at 
 least, and he came down astraddle of the horse again." 
 
 The man said this with all possible gravity, but I 
 thought I could see a twinkle at the corner of his eye. 
 I smiled politely, as I did not want to contradict him, and, 
 at the same time, did not wish him to believe that I swal- 
 lowed his preposterous story. 
 
 "Some of our horses," he continued, "will stand still 
 and allow themselves to be saddled, and then they will 
 take a long breath, swell themselves up with air, burst 
 the girths, and throw the saddle up at least twenty feet 
 above them, and all this in one motion." 
 
 "Seems to me, I have heard of something of the kind 
 in America," I remarked. " As I remember the story, they 
 first fed the horse with self-raising flour, and then gave 
 him a pail of water to drink." 
 
 The man stood silent for a moment, and then said, 
 "You'll do, youngster; you ought to stay in Australia." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION A KANGAROO 
 
 HUNT. 
 
 " '"TMIEY breed good horses in Australia," continued 
 1 Harry in his journal. " As a general thing, how- 
 ever, the horses of this part of the world are vicious, and 
 it is no wonder, when we consider that they are harshly 
 treated all their lives, and very rarely hear a kind word. 
 The owner of the cattle run gave orders that the gentlest 
 animals should be reserved for the visitors to ride, and I 
 have no doubt that they were so reserved. We found 
 them anything but gentle, from our point of view, but man- 
 aged to get through the day without being thrown out of 
 the saddles. They danced and pirouetted more than was 
 to our liking when we first mounted, and it was only after 
 we had ridden several miles that their behavior was what 
 might be called quiet. 
 
 " The process of breaking horses to the saddle here is 
 interesting, though it is rough and cruel. The horses are 
 kept all together in a large paddock ; some of them 
 already broken, and some that have never known saddle, 
 bridle, or halter. Every morning they are driven up by 
 the black boys. Selections are made of the animals re- 
 quired for the day's riding, and then the remainder are 
 turned loose into the paddock again. The daily visit to 
 the paddock accustoms the younger horses to the presence 
 
234 THE LA ND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 of men, so that they are not altogether wild when they are 
 taken in hand for breaking. 
 
 "There is a class of men going about the country 
 whose business it is to break horses at so much a head ; 
 usually two pounds, or ten dollars. The whole herd is 
 driven into the yard, and then the horse breaker proceeds 
 to his work. With the aid of two or three black fellows 
 he lassoos a horse and puts a strong halter on him. Then, 
 while the black fellows hold the animal, he is saddled and 
 bridled, and the breaker gets on his back. The halter is 
 gathered up around the horse's neck, and at the word of 
 command the black fellows jump away from him. 
 
 " Then begins a lively performance of bucking and 
 jumping, the rider all the time clinging to the saddle with 
 his knees. Sometimes the horse tries to lie down and roll 
 in order to free himself from his incumbrance ; he suc- 
 ceeds occasionally, but as a general thing he does not. 
 Even should he manage to shake off his ride , the latter 
 is on the creature's back again before he gets fairly on his 
 feet, and then the kicking and jumping are renewed. 
 The rider keeps at the horse until he has subdued him 
 and ridden him several times around the yard ; possibly 
 he may take a spin out into the paddock and back again, 
 but he does not always do so. The great point is to con- 
 quer at the first riding, and a good horse-breaker never 
 stops until he has done so. 
 
 "After this lesson is over the horse is left with the 
 saddle on his back, and it is not taken off until he is turned 
 into the paddock at night. The next day he receives 
 another lesson of the same sort, and after a few days of 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 235 
 
 this kind of training he is pronounced properly broken, 
 and lit ' for a lady to ride.' I shouldn't want any lady 
 of my acquaintance to venture on the back of such an 
 animal. 
 
 " I mustn't forget a trick that these horse-breakers have, 
 and that is, of getting on the back of a bucking steed, 
 placing a half-crown piece between each thigh and the 
 saddle, and allowing the animal to go through all the per- 
 formance she chooses to, without once displacing the coins. 
 Exactly the same thing is done by the rough riders of our 
 western States and Territories, with the difference that 
 they use half dollars instead of half crowns. 
 
 "We found the morning air around the station very 
 agreeable. A gentle breeze was blowing, and we caught 
 the odor of the fragrant eucalyptus mingled with that of 
 the numerous flowers which ornamented and brightened the 
 grounds near by. We could hear the notes of several birds, 
 and louder than all the rest of their voices was that of the 
 laughing jackass, which has already been described. One 
 of these birds perched on the fence of the yard where the 
 men were catching horses, and Ned and I approached 
 within twenty feet of him before he flew away. Before 
 doing so he treated us to a very jolly laugh, and both of 
 us laughed, too, in concert with him. 
 
 fc> Breakfast was announced, and we went in to enjoy it. 
 We had oatmeal, mutton chops, and ham and eggs, with 
 plenty of bread and butter, and honey. I looked around 
 the table for coffee, but saw none. There was a large 
 pot of tea, and Ned and I took it without a word of objec- 
 tion, though we would have preferred coffee. We were 
 
236 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 already aware that coffee is but little used in tne country 
 districts of Australia, tea being the almost universal bever- 
 age, for the reason that it is more stimulating than coffee 
 and better for a steady diet. It is carried about and pre- 
 pared much more easily than coffee, and this, no doubt, is 
 one cause of its popularity. In the old days of placer 
 mining, every miner carried at his waist a ' billy,' or tin 
 cup for drinking purposes, and he regarded a billy of tea 
 as a very important part of any meal. At the present day, 
 a goodly proportion of sundowners and other Australian 
 pedestrians carry billies at their waist belts and treasure 
 them with great care." 
 
 We will listen to Ned as he tells the story of their ride 
 among the cattle. 
 
 " While we were at breakfast,'' said Ned in his journal, 
 "the horses were saddled and bridled and brought up to 
 the front of the house. There were seven of us altogether. 
 Our host, Mr. Syme, and his two brothers, a black fellow 
 called Jack, Dr. Whitney, Harry, and myself. Our host 
 and the doctor led the way ; John, the elder of his brothers, 
 rode with Harry, the younger, William, with me, and the 
 black fellow by himself. That is to say, the black fellow, 
 Jack, brought up the rear, to be ready for use in case of an 
 emergency. We found our companions well informed, 
 and ready to give us any information in their power, 
 
 " For a mile or so we rode through an open, undulating 
 region where the grass was fairly abundant, though not 
 densely so. One of our escorts explained that the season 
 had been a little dry, and the grass was not appearing as 
 well as usual. After passing this open stretch we entered 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 237 
 
 a forest principally of gum trees, whose white stems ex- 
 tended np a long distance into the air before throwing out 
 any limbs. From the gum forest we passed into a stretch 
 of scrub, and then entered a valley, through which ran a 
 small stream. The banks of the stream were fringed 
 with trees, and the open parts of it were thickly covered 
 with grass. A mob of some fifty or sixty cattle was graz- 
 ing in this valley, and by the orders of our host, the black 
 fellow rode in among them, cracking his whip loudly, 
 and starting them off with heads and tails in the air. 
 
 "'They'll go straight to the cattle camp,' said Mr. 
 Syme, ' and that's where we want them.' 
 
 " I asked if each herd had its own cattle camp, and 
 whether it was possible to drive the animals to two or more 
 different camps. 
 
 " ' We never try to do that,' said the voung man at my 
 side ; ' we think it quite sufficient if they will go to one 
 camp only. You must remember they don't have much 
 chance for education, and there is a limit to their powers 
 of understanding. 
 
 " We chatted on various topics as we rode along, and 
 in two hours from the time of starting we reached the 
 cattle camp. There was a herd there of several hundred 
 cattle, which pretty well tilled the open space forming the 
 camp. Half a dozen stockmen were there with as mam- 
 black fellows, and there was also the Melbourne cattle 
 dealer with two or three assistants. 
 
 "At one side of the camp there was a little hill or 
 mound, and Harry and I went there, as it afforded a better 
 view of the camp than the lower ground. It was a very 
 
238 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 interesting sight that we had from the mound. The mass 
 of cattle was moving about uneasily ; the bulls were bel- 
 lowing, and pawing, and having an occasional fight; the 
 cows were lowing for their calves, from which they had 
 become separated, and the young bullocks were making 
 mild disturbances in the ways peculiar to the bovine race. 
 The stockmen and black fellows were kept busy in pre- 
 venting the straying of the animals, but even with all their 
 vigilance a refractory animal would occasionally break 
 away and disappear in the scrub. The cattle dealer had 
 already begun to select his purchases, and we watched 
 with a good deal of interest the process of separating them 
 from their companions, and this is the wa} r they did it: — 
 
 " They cut out a small mob of cattle, perhaps a dozen 
 or twenty animals, and drove them off to one side. This 
 was called the draft mob, or rather it was the beginning 
 of the draft mob. The cattle that were picked out from 
 the rest of the herd were put with these in order to keep 
 them quiet while the operation was going on, and then the 
 original of the draft mob were allowed to go back to the 
 rest of the herd. 
 
 " The cattle selected by the dealer were mostly young 
 and fat bullocks, possessing a good deal of strength and 
 tempers of their own. They were what is called ' rowdy ' 
 in this country, that is, they were badly behaved, and it 
 was no easy job for the stockmen to handle them. 
 
 "The cattle dealer would indicate an animal that he 
 wanted, and then two of the stockmen would bring the 
 creature out. Generally the bullock was disinclined to go, 
 and made things pretty lively for the stockmen. Each 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 239 
 
 man was mounted on a horse that knew his business and 
 had done the same kind of work many times before. The 
 horses stuck to their work just as earnestly as did the 
 riders, and whenever a bullock tried to run away they ran 
 after him, and kept up with him, too. I wonder that 
 horse and riders did not break their necks in this perform- 
 ance, and one of the young gentlemen with us said that 
 accidents were by no means infrequent. He said that 
 sometimes the bullocks showed a tendency to use their 
 horns and charge upon the men and their horses just as the 
 bull does in a Spanish bull-fight. No accident happened 
 while we were looking on, and for this I am very thankful. 
 
 " One by one, the cattle which the dealer wanted were 
 separated from the herd and placed in the draft mob until 
 their number amounted to eighty. Then the animals 
 originally constituting the draft mob were allowed to re- 
 join the herd, and the herd was permitted to scatter wher- 
 ever it liked. The draft animals were then taken in charge 
 by the stockmen and started on the road to Melbourne ; 
 perhaps I ought to say that they were started for the 
 nearest railway station and completed their journey with 
 the aid of steam. 
 
 " By the time the drafting was completed the sun was 
 past the meridian, and Harry and I were as ' hungry as 
 hunters,' to use the old expression. We thought we would 
 have to ride back to the station to get our luncheon, and 
 were agreeably disappointed when we found that a black 
 fellow had just arrived with a hamper, or rather a bag of 
 provisions, tied behind his saddle. Our host led the way 
 to a well-shaded nook where there was a spring of water, 
 
240 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 and we gathered around the spring at the indication of our 
 host, and prepared to do justice to the food that had made 
 such a welcome appearance. 
 
 " A fire was kindled near by, and soon a steaming pot 
 of tea was ready. Tin cups made their appearance along 
 with tin plates and knives and forks, and I had a realizing 
 sense of the delicious taste of a cup of tea in the open air 
 when one is hungry. The luncheon was a cold one, but 
 it was abundantly satisfying, and we thanked our host for 
 his thoughtfulness in providing it. 
 
 "When we were near the end of our meal, one of the 
 stockmen came in and said something in a low tone to 
 Mr. Syme. 
 
 "The latter nodded briefly, and said, 'All right,' and 
 then the stockman went away. 
 
 " Then Mr. Syme remarked, turning to us : — 
 
 " < On our way back to the station well go by a dif- 
 erent road, and I think I can show you something that 
 will be new to you.' 
 
 " He said nothing more, and left us to wonder what the 
 new sight would be. 
 
 " I forgot to mention that when we started from the 
 station we were accompanied by several dogs. They had 
 a good time ranging around over the plain and through 
 the forest after the manner of dogs when let loose, and 
 seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly. They were large 
 and rather lank animals, and capable of making high 
 speed when necessary. We asked our entertainer what 
 they were specially used for, and were told that the animals 
 were kangaroo dogs. 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 24I 
 
 " 'We use them for hunting kangaroos,' said the young 
 man who accompanied me ; ' and a well-trained kan- 
 garoo dog is a valuable piece of property to have. The ^ 
 kangaroo is an ungainly looking creature, but he can get 
 over the ground with wonderful rapidity. He goes four- 
 teen or sixteen feet at a jump, and he can jump at a very 
 lively rate. Ordinary fences are nothing to him, as he can 
 clear a six-foot fence at a single bound.' 
 
 ' ' While we were at luncheon the dogs were close about 
 us on a keen lookout for any scraps or slices of meat that 
 came in their w r ay. 
 
 " The remains of the luncheon were given to them after 
 the black fellow Jack had been duly cared for, but there 
 wasn't enough of the provisions remaining to give the 
 animals an cverdose. 
 
 "When all was ready we mounted our horses, and our 
 host led the way, first announcing that he would show us 
 some wild kangaroos. We came out on the plain, and 
 after riding three or four miles, approached a clump of 
 low trees and bushes, which was pointed out by the stock- 
 man whom I mentioned. 
 
 " ' There are the kangaroos,' said Mr. Syme ; ' we will 
 go in on one side of the clump, and give them a chance to 
 make a run.' 
 
 "Following his directions, we spread out into a some- 
 what extended line and approached the bunch of timber 
 from the northern side. The dogs began to show uneasi- 
 ness, but were held in check by their young masters, who 
 spoke to them in very emphatic tones. 
 
 " We advanced a short distance into the bushes, keeping 
 
242 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 in line as well as we could. Suddenly there was a great 
 stir and a series of sounds, as though some one was pound- 
 ing violently on the ground with a club. 
 
 " ' There they go ! ' shouted Mr. Syme. ' Let off the 
 dogs ! ' 
 
 " Evidently the dogs understood what he said, as they 
 did not wait for the permission of their young masters. 
 Away they went at full speed after the kangaroos. There 
 must have been twenty or thirty of the latter making off 
 across the plain in a southerly direction, but run as fast as 
 they did, the dogs could not keep up with those high- jump- 
 ing creatures. The speed was something prodigious. Our 
 whole party started in full gallop behind the dogs, the 
 horses seeming to enter into the spirit of the race quite as 
 much as did their riders. 
 
 "There wasn't much chance for conversation during 
 this run, but the young man who was acting as my escort 
 managed to tell me that we would have a race of about 
 three miles. ' The kangaroo always runs for water,' he 
 said ; ' and the nearest water in that direction is about 
 three miles away. They'll fetch up at a small pond and 
 make a stand there.' 
 
 "I learned afterward that this was a peculiarity of the 
 kangaroo, to seek water whenever he is pursued. The 
 country over which we rode was not the smoothest in 
 the world, being broken in some places by rocks, and en- 
 cumbered by fallen timber in others. Here is where the 
 jumping powers of the kangaroo came in handily, as he 
 could clear rocks and logs with the utmost facility, and 
 he had the ability to select a comparatively smooth spot to 
 
THERE THEY GO!" SHOUTED MR. 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 243 
 
 come down upon. His jumping is done with the muscles 
 of his very powerful hind legs. He doesn't use his fore 
 legs at all in walking or jumping, employing them prin- 
 cipally as hands and arms, very much as the American 
 squirrel uses his paws. He can give a tremendous hug 
 with his fore legs, and that is one of his methods of 
 fighting. 
 
 "This is a good place to say something about the 
 natural history of the kangaroo. 
 
 " Australia is, emphatically, the home of this animal, as 
 he is found in a wild state in no other part of the world. 
 Nearly all of the Australian animals are marsupials ; that 
 is, they have pouches in which their young are carried 
 until able to take care of themselves. Of the large kanga- 
 roo there are eight species, and the largest of them are 
 fully six feet in height and weigh one hundred and 
 fifty pounds or more. Geologists say that at one time 
 there were, in Australia, marsupial animals closely resem- 
 bling the kangaroo but equaling the rhinoceros in size. 
 They must have been formidable fellows to attack ! 
 
 "The largest of all the kangaroos is the red one, and 
 he is the one that we hunted. Of the small kangaroos, 
 weighing, say from ten to fifteen pounds, there are seven- 
 teen species. Away in the interior of Australia there are 
 some silky-haired kangaroos about the size of an ordinary 
 rabbit, and there are several varieties still smaller, until you 
 get down to those about as large as an ordinary squirrel. 
 All of them are easily domesticated if taken when young, 
 and the}' are very gentle pets. They tell me that they had 
 two at this station last year, and the dogs, whose business 
 
244 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 it was to hunt the kangaroo, clearly understood that they 
 must leave these pet ones alone. Not only did they not 
 harm the animals, but got on very good terms with them, so 
 that it was no uncommon sight to see the kangaroos and 
 the dogs lying down together in a very well-mannered 
 group. But one day, while the pets were in the front of 
 the house, a pack of strange dogs happened along and 
 killed them. 
 
 " We didn't overtake the kangaroos until they reached 
 the water ; in fact, we heard the loud barking of the dogs 
 before we came in sight of the pond. One of the largest 
 males, commonly denominated here as an ' old man,' was 
 on a little mound of earth just even with the surface of 
 the water, while around him was a depth of about four 
 feet. The dogs in front of him were at a respectful dis- 
 tance, as they had a great dread of and respect for his 
 hind feet, which are a part of his fighting equipment. 
 The kangaroo's hind foot has three very strong toes, the 
 center one especially so. His method is to seize his 
 assailant with his fore paws, and rip him to death with 
 his hinder ones, and sometimes he drowns a dog by hold- 
 ing him under water. Many an incautious or verdant 
 dog has been killed in this way, and occasionally men 
 have fallen victims to the powerful hind feet of these 
 animals. 
 
 "The 'old man' kangaroo was defending himself 
 bravely, and he had his assailants at an advantage. The 
 water was too deep for them to wade in. Some were 
 swimming about in front of him, carefully keeping out 
 of reach, while others were assailing his back. All of the 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 245 
 
 dogs kept up a loud barking, and kept looking around 
 for human help. 
 
 " The kangaroo was more than fifty feet from the 
 shore of the pond or pool, and when our party reached 
 it, the animal was despatched by means of a rifle in the 
 hands of one of our party. The carcass was brought to 
 the shore and skinned, and a portion of the meat was fed 
 to the dogs as a reward for their exertions, and they ate 
 it with avidity. In addition to the ' old man,' we killed 
 a young kangaroo, and the carcass, after being disem- 
 boweled, was placed on the black fellow's horse and sent 
 to the station. 
 
 "We had kangaroo steaks for dinner, and very tooth- 
 some they were, reminding us more of mutton than any 
 other meat. These steaks came from the young kan- 
 garoo I just mentioned. The flesh of the ' old man ' is too 
 rank for human food, though it is sometimes eaten when 
 no other food is to be had. The flesh of the vouncr kan- 
 
 J O 
 
 garoo is put up at meat-canning establishments for trans- 
 portation to England, and they also export large quantities 
 of soup made from kangaroo tails. Some people think 
 this soup is preferable to ox tail, or even to turtle. I asked 
 one of our friends about it, and he said, with a smile, that 
 it was better when you couldn't get either of the others. 
 It is certainly an excellent soup, and it's a pity that so 
 much of the raw material goes to waste. 
 
 " In returning from our hunt we crossed a portion of 
 the ground where we had chased the kangaroos. One of 
 the dogs scented something in the grass, and barked in a 
 maimer to attract the attention of his owners. The men 
 
246 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 hastened to the spot and found a ' joey,' or baby kan- 
 garoo, which its mother had taken out of her pouch and 
 laid upon the soft grass, intending to return and pick it up 
 after the danger was over. It was a pretty little creature, 
 about a foot long, and covered with soft, silky hair. One 
 of the young men took charge of it and carried it care- 
 fully to the station, his intention being to raise it and make 
 a pet of it, as he had made pets of the kangaroos that they 
 lost the year before. When taken at this age, the kan- 
 garoo becomes perfectly docile, and never shows the least 
 desire for a wild life. 
 
 " Our host told us that when the kangaroos are hunted, 
 and there is no water within reach, an ' old man,' if 
 cornered, will place his back against a tree and sell his 
 life as dearly as possible. It is very dangerous to go near 
 him when he is thus defending himself, and it is consid- 
 ered a fortunate circumstance in a fight of this kind if 
 none of the dogs are killed or injured. 
 
 "When the first settlements were made in Australia 
 the kangaroos were not especially numerous, though they 
 were probably more abundant than any other animals. 
 Their numbers were kept down by the aboriginals, who 
 used to hunt them for food and clothing, for which the 
 kangaroo skin was used, and they were also kept down 
 by the dingoes, or wild dogs. The dingoes were then 
 abundant, and unhappily they were fond of mutton, and 
 when sheep were brought to Australia the flocks were 
 very much reduced by the operations of the wild dogs. 
 Of course, the sheep raisers took vengeance on the din- 
 goes, and poisoned them in great numbers. 
 
Experiences at a cattle station. 247 
 
 " At the same time, the aboriginals diminished steadily 
 in number, owing to causes previously stated, and those 
 that remained preferred to live upon mutton and beef ob- 
 tained from the settlers rather than take the trouble of 
 hunting the kangaroo. Thus, the two natural enemies of 
 that animal were removed, and with their immunity from 
 destruction the kangaroos increased at a terrific rate. 
 Their flocks and herds blackened the fields for miles. 
 They were frequently to be seen feeding among the sheep, 
 and as one kangaroo eats as much grass as three sheep, it 
 will readily be understood that the sheep farmer's flocks 
 were in danger of being starved out. 
 
 " Millions of acres of land were thus rendered unfit for 
 sheep or cattle pasturage. The settlers presented their 
 case to the colonial governments, and the latter placed a 
 bounty on kangaroo scalps. Meantime, it was found that 
 the skins were worth something, and then the slaughter of 
 the creatures began. 
 
 " Hunting with dogs in the way I have already de- 
 scribed was altogether too slow, and a quicker method 
 was devised and found successful. This is the way 
 of it: — 
 
 " A clump of trees a few acres in extent is selected as a 
 central point. Among these trees a stout yard is built, 
 with a fence not less than ten feet high and strong enough 
 to resist any attack the kangaroo can make. From the 
 entrance of this yard two diverging fences of a somewhat 
 lighter character are built out upon the plain, the point of 
 the fences where thev terminate being not less than a mile 
 apart. When all is read}', a day is appointed for the hunt, 
 
248 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 and notice is sent to everybody within thirty or forty miles. 
 The hunt is in charge of one of the oldest settlers, and 
 everybody is bound to obey his orders. 
 
 " The day before the hunt or drive is to take place, the 
 principal men to engage in it meet at the house of the 
 leader and receive their orders. All the squatters and 
 other settlers who can do so come to the hut, and with 
 them all their stockmen and black fellows who can be 
 spared from their daily work. Sometimes as many as a 
 hundred people take part in the drive, and they are spread 
 out in such a way as to include a very large area of 
 ground. 
 
 "At the appointed hour, they begin to move in a long 
 line in the direction of the clump of bushes where the yard 
 is located, or rather in the direction of the jaws of the 
 extended fences. Whatever kangaroos there may be in 
 the area of the country enclosed by the hunters are 
 driven in the direction of the yard, and the driving is done 
 very quietly, to avoid alarming the animals before the ends 
 of the line of men reach the ends of the diverging fence. 
 When this takes place the drive is pushed more rapidly, 
 and the thoroughly frightened animals make rapid leaps 
 in the direction of the clump of timber, not suspecting that 
 in doing so they are going to their death. Before they are 
 aware of it they are inside the yard, and as the last of the 
 drove enters, the gate is closed and the animals are hope- 
 lessly imprisoned. 
 
 " Sometimes thousands of kangaroos are taken in a 
 single drive, and the bounty obtained from the government, 
 added to the value of the hides, is divided among those 
 
EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION. 249 
 
 who have participated in the hunt, or it may be applied to 
 some needed public work in the neighborhood. 
 
 " The hides are pegged out and dried, and after being 
 packed into bales they are shipped to various parts of the 
 world. There is an increasing demand in the United 
 States for kangaroo leather, as you are doubtless aware. 
 Kangaroo flesh is put into tin cans for the market, but by 
 far the greater part of the meat obtained from a single 
 drive is left on the ground. 
 
 " Mr. Svme tells us that when the aboriginals used to 
 hunt the kangaroos, they killed them with the boomerang 
 or the spear. In hunting with the boomerang, they would 
 creep up very slowly until within range, and whenever they 
 threw the weapon, it was generally with fatal effect. In 
 hunting with the spear, a native used to dress up so as to 
 look like a bush, by surrounding himself with twigs and 
 vines. He carried his spear in an upright position, so that 
 it appeared to form an apex of the bush. Then he walked 
 slowly along, standing perfectly still when the kangaroo 
 raised its head to look around, and only moving while the 
 animal grazed. In this way, and by taking plenty of 
 time, he would get up within spear-throwing distance, and 
 the rest of the story tells itself." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS AN AUSTRALIAN 
 
 SHEEP RUN. 
 
 IT was pretty well along in the afternoon when the party 
 reached the station on its return. Our friends agreed 
 that they had had an excellent day, and the sights they 
 had witnessed were full of interest. 
 
 Mr. Syme asked the doctor and our young friends if 
 they were good shots with the rifle or shot-gun. They 
 modestly and truthfully answered that they had had yery 
 little experience in shooting, but were willing to make a 
 trial of their skill. 
 
 " Very well," said the host, " we will go out to-morrow 
 and make an effort to obtain some birds. We will begin 
 with the largest bird of Australia, the emu, and see what 
 luck we can haye with him." 
 
 "I've read about that bird," said Harry; "he doesn't 
 fly, but he can run very fast. I have read that he will out- 
 run a horse ; is that really so? " 
 
 " Yes," was the reply ; "he can outrun most horses ; in 
 fact, it requires an exceedingly fleet steed to overtake him. 
 It is very little use to try to run him down by a dead chase 
 after him. The best way is to station the horses along in 
 a line about half a mile or so apart, and then chase the 
 
 bird in their direction. Each horseman takes up the chase 
 
 250 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 25 1 
 
 with a fresh animal until the emu is tired out, and then the 
 dogs are sent in to finish the work." 
 
 Our young friends slept well that night, the result of 
 their exercise on horseback in the open air ; in fact, they 
 didn't care to sit up late, and retired much earlier than on 
 the previous evening. 
 
 The next morning the party started very soon after 
 breakfast, and the way was taken to an open plain, three 
 or four miles across, and fringed with timber. When 
 they neared the plain they met a black fellow, who had 
 been sent out early in the morning to find the game. He 
 had found it, and informed his master where it was. 
 
 Then the horsemen were spread out in the manner 
 already mentioned, and the bird was started out of a little 
 clump of timber where they had taken shelter. Harry 
 and Ned were surprised to see the manner in which he 
 ran. He seemed to be ready to drop with exhaustion, and 
 Harry confidently predicted that he would fall dead from 
 fright before going a mile. But somehow he managed 
 to keep in advance of his pursuers, and whenever they 
 quickened their pace he quickened his, but all the time 
 keeping up the appearance of weariness. The last of the 
 horsemen, however, approached within two hundred yards 
 of the emu, who was by this time really tired. Then the 
 dogs were turned loose, and they speedily overtook the 
 bird and pulled him down. One of the dogs was quite 
 severely injured in the fight with the bird, but his wounds 
 were dressed and bandaged, and his owners said he would 
 soon be well again. 
 
 The emu is called the Australian ostrich, and he re- 
 
252 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 sembles that bird in being unable to fly, running with 
 great rapidity and using his feet for fighting purposes. 
 He strikes a heavy blow with his foot, and a single stroke 
 of it is sufficient to disable a dog or break a man's leg. 
 The young man who accompanied Harry told him that he 
 knew of an instance where an emu was chased and over- 
 taken by a man on horseback, accompanied by dogs. The 
 bird became desperate at finding he could not escape. As 
 the horse approached, the bird threw itself on its back and 
 kicked savagely, ripping the side of the animal with its 
 claws. The horse was so badly lacerated that it was 
 necessary to shoot him. 
 
 If caught when young or hatched out from an egg, the 
 emu can be easily domesticated, but he is a dangerous pet to 
 have about the premises. Like the ostrich, it has a love for 
 bright things, and has been known to swallow silver spoons 
 and other shining articles. One day a stranger, standing 
 close to the fence of a yard where a tame emu was kept, 
 took out his gold watch to ascertain the time. The bird 
 was attracted by the glittering object, and with a quick 
 motion he seized it and dropped it down his throat. Sev- 
 eral black fellows were called, who secured the bird with 
 some difficulty, poured a powerful emetic into his stomach, 
 and then hung him up by the feet. This heroic treatment 
 had the desired effect, and restored the watch to its owner. 
 
 The eggs of the emu are in demand as great curiosities, 
 and Australian jewelers work them into various orna- 
 mented articles and sell them readily at a high price. The 
 perpetual hunt for the eggs, which is kept up by the 
 blacks, is steadily diminishing the number of these birds, 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 253 
 
 and, in course of time, there is danger that they will be- 
 come extinct. 
 
 Another bird that was seen by our friends, but not cap- 
 tured, is the one known as the native companion. It is a 
 large bird, belonging to the crane family. Its head stands 
 about three feet from the ground, its legs are long, and its 
 plumage is a lavender gray. It is rarely seen alone, there 
 being generally two of them together, and very often a 
 dozen or more. In this instance there were two birds, 
 which went away rapidly on their wings and were soon 
 lost to sight. When there is a large number of them to- 
 gether, they indulge in a series of evolutions which have 
 a close resemblance to the movements of accomplished 
 dancers. They advance, recede, turn, return, and go 
 through a variet}' of figures like dancers in the quadrille 
 or the minuet. Sometimes they keep up these perform- 
 ances for an hour or more, and seem to indulge in them en- 
 tirely for the sake of amusement. 
 
 Harry asked if they would have an opportunity to see 
 the famous lyre bird of Australia. "We saw two of 
 them," said he, "in the Zoo at Melbourne, and therefore, 
 know what their appearance is, but we would like very 
 much to see them in their wild state. 
 
 "The lyre bird is getting very scarce in Australia,'' 
 said their young friend, " and I have never seen one in 
 this locality. The bird frequents mountainous regions 
 where the forests are somewhat dense, and very rarely 
 comes out into the open plain. It is about the size of an 
 ordinary barnyard fowl, but looks much larger, owing to 
 its beautiful tail, which is very long, and grows exactly 
 
254 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 in the shape of the instrument after which it is named. 
 It is a very clever mocking bird, and will reproduce the 
 notes of all its forest companions, but it is very shy and 
 difficult to get at, and unless it is got when very young it 
 cannot be domesticated. 
 
 "We have wild turkeys here," continued their in- 
 formant; " and they are very good eating ; perhaps some 
 of our party will be fortunate enough to bring down a 
 turkey or two before we go back. There is one fowl 
 here called the mallee bird, about the size of the pheasant, 
 and resembling him in many ways. He generally lives 
 near the edge of the mallee scrub, and his flesh is very 
 much esteemed by all who have eaten it. The mallee 
 is a gregarious bird, and at the breeding season large 
 numbers of them come together. They collect great 
 heaps of dry leaves, among which a number of hen birds 
 lay their eggs, indiscriminately taking care to cover them 
 up warmly. 
 
 "They dont take any trouble to hatch their eggs, but 
 leave that for the heat of the dry and decaying vegetable 
 matter. When the time approaches for the chicks to 
 break the shell, the male birds hover about on the watch 
 for their appearance, and snakes, also, like to come 
 around, in the hopes of securing a few of the tender birds 
 as they emerge into daylight. When the chick comes 
 out from the egg, his skin is pink and bare, and hardly 
 a sio-n of a feather is visible ; but within twenty-four hours, 
 during which the feathers spread so rapidly that you can 
 almost see their growth, the bird is fully fledged and 
 feathered, and able to take care of itself." 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 255 
 
 An amusing circumstance happened during the day's 
 excursion. Ned was the victim of it, and he did not con- 
 sider it at all amusing until after it was all over. This 
 was the way of it : — 
 
 While the party was halted at one time, discussing 
 where next they would go, the dogs disturbed something, 
 but neither of our young friends could make out what it 
 was. They were in the open country at the time, though 
 not far from the edge of the bush. The something- that 
 the dogs had disturbed came directly towards the party, 
 and Ned happened to be nearer to it than anvbody else. 
 The creature looked like a small alligator, and that's what 
 Ned and Harry thought it was. Ned had dismounted 
 from his horse and was standing by the animal's head, 
 waiting for the decision about their movements. The an- 
 imal came directly up to Ned and climbed up his side. 
 It was about five feet long, and a very formidable-looking 
 creature. The youth immediately began fighting the 
 animal, and shouted for his friends to pull him off. 
 
 " Lie down on the ground," said one of the Austral- 
 ians ; " lie down on the ground, and he will leave vou at 
 once. He is just as much frightened as you are." 
 
 Ned flung his horse's bridle to one of his friends, and 
 then obeyed instructions. He dropped to the ground, and 
 immediately as he did so the horrid-looking creature left 
 him. 
 
 " What in the world is that?" said Ned, as he rose to 
 his feet again and regained his composure. 
 
 "That's an iguana, or lizard," was the reply. "It is 
 perfectly harmless as long as you know how to deal with 
 
256 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 it. When it is pursued by dogs, it runs to its hole if it 
 can ; if its hole is not available, it climbs a tree until it is 
 out of reach of its pursuers, and if no tree is at hand, it 
 will climb on a man or a horse. It selected you as a 
 place of shelter, and I warrant it was more scared than 
 you were." 
 
 " It might be easily mistaken for an alligator," said 
 Ned, surveying the animal as it was stretched on the 
 ground, having been killed by a blow on the head from 
 the butt of a stockman's whip. 
 
 "Yes, it is often mistaken for a young alligator, j 
 have known of an iguana to appear in a party of pleasure 
 seekers, picnicking in the woods, and make quite a serious 
 disturbance. The ladies screamed and fled and some of 
 them fainted. Some of the men fled, too, but those who 
 knew about the creature quickly despatched him." 
 
 " Is it useful for food ? " 
 
 "Yes; the blacks use it, and are very fond of it, but 
 white men don't ' hanker after it,' as your American 
 phrase is. However, those who have been bold enough 
 to taste it assert that, when well cooked, the flavor is ex- 
 cellent." 
 
 "Well, it doesn't look very inviting," Ned remarked ; 
 " and I don't think I would care for iguana for dinner." 
 
 "You may not care for it," was the reply, "but the 
 black fellows will. Here, Jack," he continued, addressing 
 the aboriginal, " you can have this." 
 
 Jack needed no second invitation. With a smile on his 
 face, he quickly took possession of the huge lizard and 
 strapped it to his saddle. No doubt the meat of the 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 257 
 
 iguana gave the blacks at the station a supper that they 
 greatly enjoyed. 
 
 Another day was spent at the cattle station, Harry and 
 Ned going out with one of the stockmen and accompany- 
 ing him on his morning round. Dr. Whitney thought he 
 did not care for any more horseback exercise just then, 
 and spent the day around the station. The youths enjoyed 
 their ride very much, and returned to the house in time for 
 luncheon. 
 
 It had been arranged that our young friends should visit 
 a sheep run about twenty miles away, and on the morning 
 of the fourth day Mr. Syme took them in his covered 
 wagon to their destination. The road was not a very 
 smooth one, but the wagon, which was well built, suffered 
 no injury, and as for the passengers, they did not mind a 
 little jolting. They reached their destination with very 
 sharp appetites, and evidently their new host, Mr. John- 
 son, was aware of what their condition would be, as a 
 substantial meal was on the table a few minutes after their 
 arrival ; and you may be sure that it received ample atten- 
 tion from the strangers. 
 
 After the meal was over, the party went out for a stroll 
 among the buildings connected with the station. The 
 house where the owner lived was a solidly built affair, not 
 unlike the one they had sojourned in for a few days at the 
 cattle station. There was this difference, however, that 
 it was elevated on posts about six feet from the ground, 
 giving free circulation of air beneath it, and furnishing a 
 good place of storage for various things connected with 
 the station. 
 
258 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 In reply to an inquiry by Harry, Mr. Johnson said that 
 this arrangement of the building was a good one to keep 
 out snakes. " It doesn't keep them out altogether," said 
 he, " as there are snakes that will climb posts, but ordi- 
 narily serpents do not attempt that performance. When I 
 first came to Australia, I lived in a house which stood right 
 on the ground. The region was a snaky one, and every 
 little while we would find a snake in the house, and have 
 a lively time driving him out or killing him. None of the 
 family was ever bitten by a snake, but we certainly had 
 some narrow escapes. When I came here and built this 
 house, I determined to have a dwelling which these un- 
 pleasant visitors could not easily enter." 
 
 Harry remarked that a snake-proof house was certainly 
 quite to his liking, and he hoped the building would con- 
 tinue to display its admirable qualities as long as he re- 
 mained there. 
 
 The youths were impressed with the size and extent of 
 the wool shed belonging to the establishment, and Ned 
 remarked that they must have a very active time during 
 the shearing season. 
 
 "It is our most active time," was the reply; "the 
 busiest of all the year. Ordinarily the life on a sheep 
 run is quiet and humdrum, but when shearing time begins 
 everything is lively. We engage the shearers as they 
 come along, in parties or gangs. They are a difficult lot 
 of men to deal with, as they have a very powerful trade 
 union which stands by its members, with little regard to 
 right or wrong. The shearing is done by piece work. 
 We used to pay three pence for shearing a sheep, or 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 259 
 
 rather we paid five shillings a score. A good shearer can 
 do fourscore in a day, and consequently he earns twenty 
 shillings or one sovereign. That's pretty good pay, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 "Seems to me that it is," replied Harry. "Do you 
 board the shearers, or do they find themselves ? " 
 
 " Oh, we have to board them, of course, and we have 
 to board their horses, as most of the shearers travel on 
 horseback. But the feed of a horse isn't of much conse- 
 quence, as we simply turn him into the paddock and let 
 him graze there. Sometimes we hire a tiddler to play for 
 the men while they are at work in the shearing house, and 
 also in the evening, when they are off duty. Sometimes 
 a gang of shearers brings along its own cook. They pay 
 the cook's wages themselves, but the emplover supplies 
 the material out of which the shearers' meals are made. 
 These fellows are very particular as to their treatment, and 
 if they feel that they are ill-used in any way, they are liable 
 to quit work and go awav.'" 
 
 "They ought to earn a very nice little sum of money 
 during the shearing season," observed Ilarrv. 
 
 "They certainly do," was the reply; " especially as, 
 for the last two years, they have demanded four pence and 
 even five pence for each sheep sheared. I expect they'll 
 get it up in time so as to take most of the profits of the 
 business. It makes little difference to the great majority 
 of them how much they get tor their work, as it is gener- 
 ally gone by the end of the shearing season." 
 
 "That reminds me," said Mr. Johnson, "of the visit 
 of a gentleman from Melbourne to a sheep station up 
 
260 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 country- He went there with a friend, reaching the station 
 about dinner time. He was introduced to the owner of 
 the station, who greeted him cordially enough, and invited 
 the two of them to remain at dinner, which would be 
 ready shortly. He strolled about the buildings for a 
 little while, and when dinner was announced, he went in 
 and joined the others at table. 
 
 "The table was well supplied, and he had no occasion 
 to complain of the quality or quantity of the food set be- 
 fore him ; but he was somewhat surprised to find that 
 no one spoke to him, except in the briefest manner, and 
 that every one seemed desirous of being rid of him as 
 soon as possible. In fact, there was very little conversa- 
 tion at the table, anyway, and as soon as they were 
 through dinner he suggested to his friend that they had 
 better be moving. Their team was brought out, and they 
 continued their journey, their temporary hosts not even 
 taking the trouble to say good-day to him. 
 
 " When they were out of earshot of the place, the Mel- 
 bourne gentleman remarked to his companion, who, by 
 the way, was a good deal of a practical joker : — 
 
 " « I don't think much of your friends from a civility 
 point of view. They were as rude to me as a party of 
 savages could be.' 
 
 " ' I don't wonder at it,' was the reply. 'Just for the 
 fun of the thing, I told them you were president of the 
 Sheep Shearers' Union.' 
 
 " ' If you told them that outrageous lie,' said the other, 
 ' I am not at all surprised that they treated me as they 
 did, but please don't do it again.' 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 261 
 
 " I don't believe that the president of the Shearers' 
 Union would receive a hearty welcome at any sheep run 
 in Australia. Sheep farmers have good reason for a 
 serious grudge against the whole concern : but, after all, 
 it is no worse than most of the other trade unions. Nearly 
 all of them are oppressive to a high degree, and are a 
 great injury to business and commercial prosperity." 
 
 Ned and Harry were especially interested in the place 
 where the shearing was done. The building was a large 
 structure of quadrangular shape, with a bulkhead running 
 across the middle of it and dividing it into two portions. 
 There is a platform for the shearers around one of the en- 
 closures formed, and by the bulkhead at shearing time ; 
 this is always kept full of sheep ; in fact, it is crowded full, 
 so that the shearer can lay hands on a sheep at any time 
 without the necessity of running after it. The shearers 
 stand at their work. They have tried various devices for 
 sitting down or for placing sheep on a bench or table so as 
 to avoid bending their backs, but none of the experiments 
 have succeeded, and the old process remains in use. It is 
 decidedly fatiguing for a beginner, but in course of time 
 one gets used to it, as to everything else. 
 
 " What is that little door for, and the little yard outside 
 of it? " queried Ned, as he pointed to one of a series of low, 
 small doors at the outside of the shearers' platform, oppo- 
 site the enclosure. 
 
 " Oh, that is for the shearer to let out his sheep after he 
 has removed the fleece. He takes the animal to be sheared 
 out of the enclosure, as I told you, and then when he has 
 sheared it, he lets it out through this door into the little 
 
262 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 yard ; that is to enable us to count the men's work in a 
 way to avoid all disputes. In the early days of Australian 
 sheep farming, the men who gathered up the fleece kept 
 the accounts of the shearers, but there were constant dis- 
 putes on the subject, which led to the adoption of the 
 present system. You see there isn't any chance for mis- 
 understanding now." 
 
 " Certainly, you have it now beyond question," remarked 
 Harry ; " and I am sure that every shearer is very careful 
 about letting his sheep out through his own door." 
 
 " That he is," was the reply ; " and we never have any 
 complaints about unfair counting. At the end of the day's 
 work everybody can count up for himself." 
 
 " I suppose," said Ned, " that the shearers occasionally 
 cut the sheep while shearing them." 
 
 "Occasionally!" was the reply ; "you had better say 
 frequently, or very often ; and some of them are much 
 worse than others. We have proposed to the Shearers' 
 Union to establish a system of fines for ' tomahawking ' 
 sheep, but the union refuses to do anything about it. We 
 always have a boy here, and sometimes two boys, while the 
 shearing is going on. The boy is provided with a tar 
 bucket and brush. Whenever a shearer cuts the skin of a 
 sheep he calls out "Tar! " not stopping a moment in his 
 work. At the sound of that word, the boy runs forward 
 with his bucket and brush and covers the wounded spot 
 with tar, which keeps the flies away from it. Tar is the 
 best thing we can find for this purpose, and is in use on all 
 the sheep runs in the country. 
 
 "Many of the shearers," continued their host, "pride 
 
ilL'NTIXd THE EMU AND OTHER UIRDS. 263 
 
 themselves on the skill with which they perform their work. 
 The shearer places the sheep between his knees with its 
 head upwards ; he begins at the throat and shears down- 
 ward, so that, when his work is completed, the fleece drops 
 off in a single piece. As fast as the sheep are sheared, 
 the fleeces are gathered by the man whose duty it is to 
 collect them. They are then taken to the baling house, 
 and, when a sufficient quantity has been obtained, the 
 fleeces are made into bales, in much the same way that 
 cotton is baled on an American plantation." 
 
 Mr. Johnson then led the way to the baling house, or 
 rather the baling room, as it was in the same building 
 where the shearing is carried on. The baling apparatus 
 proved to be a simple affair, nothing more than a press, 
 very much like a cotton or hay press, and handled in the 
 same way. The bales of wool usually weigh about four 
 hundred pounds, and are manipulated with hooks, just as 
 cotton bales are handled. 
 
 Xed asked if it was necessary to have the wool perfectly 
 dry when packing it. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," was the reply ; " and for that reason all 
 work in the wool shed must stop during wet weather. The 
 fleeces, when taken from the sheep, must be absolutely dry, 
 and if the sheep are caught out in a rain, it takes two or 
 three days to dry them thoroughly. It is a serious loss of 
 time when we have occasional rainy days, as we lose not 
 only the rainy day itself, but not less than one or two clear 
 days afterwards in order to have the fleeces in proper con- 
 dition for baling." 
 
 Other observations were made around the wool shed, 
 
264 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 and about the time that they were concluded a flock of 
 sheep came in from its day's pasturage. There were 
 about five hundred sheep in the flock, accompanied by 
 the shepherd and his dog. They were not driven to the 
 wool shed, but to a yard a little distance away from it. 
 The sheep were in good condition and evidently well 
 cared for. 
 
 Harry remarked as much to the owner, who answered 
 that the man in charge of them was a very faithful shep- 
 herd, and he added that he might well be so, as he was 
 constantly under the eye of his employer. 
 
 After looking at the flock and visiting several other 
 buildings of the establishment, the party returned to the 
 house, and in due course of time sat down to dinner. The 
 entertainment was very much like that of the cattle station. 
 The cooking was good, the host was attentive, the meal 
 was enlivened by stories of sheep-farming life, and al- 
 together the occasion was a pleasant one. 
 
 The next morning Mr. Johnson accompanied his guests 
 in a horseback ride over a portion of his grounds. As the 
 sheep run covered an area of about one hundred square 
 miles, it was too much to expect that they would examine 
 the whole of it. They visited two or three of the out- 
 stations, and saw the shepherds caring for their flocks. 
 Each of the out-stations that they visited consisted of a 
 hut for two men, and two yards where the sheep were kept 
 at night. As already mentioned in our account of the visit 
 of the party to a sheep farm in South Africa, each shep- 
 herd started out in the morning with his flock, moving it 
 slowly along so as to reach water about noon, and then 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 265 
 
 slowly feeding it back again, reaching the station about 
 nightfall. 
 
 Nearly every shepherd has a sheep dog, partly for the 
 sake of companionship and partly for assistance. A good 
 sheep dog is a very useful and valuable animal. He aids 
 the shepherd in keeping the flock together whenever any of 
 them show a disposition to straggle, and the sheep speedily 
 learn to know him and regard him as their friend. He 
 never injures them, though he frequently makes a great 
 pretense of doing so. Sometimes he takes a refractory 
 sheep by the ear, or seizes it by the wool on his neck, but 
 the case is exceedingly rare where he perpetrates an actual 
 bite. 
 
 The favorite dog for the shepherd is the collie, but other 
 kinds are employed, and many an ordinary cur has been 
 trained by an intelligent master so that he made an excel- 
 lent sheep dog, though he can never attain the excellence 
 of the genuine collie. The real shepherd dog will accom- 
 plish more than would be possible for a man under the 
 same circumstances. He will drive a flock from place to 
 place, gather them together to be counted, and take them 
 from one field to another much quicker than a man could 
 do it. A story is told of an instance that happened in 
 Scotland, to James Hogg, known in literature as "The 
 Ettrick Shepherd." Seven hundred sheep broke loose 
 one night from his charge, and scampered off in three 
 divisions across the plain. It was too dark to see any- 
 thing for any appreciable distance, and the shepherd sup- 
 posed he would have to wait until morning, and then take 
 his chances of collecting his animals. Shortly afterwards 
 
266 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 he missed his dog. In the morning he went out to look 
 for the sheep, but saw no sign of them until he reached 
 the edge of a ravine and looked over the side. There he 
 saw the dog guarding the entire flock, not one of the seven 
 hundred being missing. How he ever managed to collect 
 them in the dark, his owner could not imagine. A dozen, 
 or even a hundred men, would have failed where he 
 succeeded. 
 
 Near the end of the last century there was a sheep 
 stealer in Scotland, who was finally discovered and 
 hanged for his crimes, who used to cany on his trade by 
 the aid of his dog. He traveled about the countrv under 
 pretense of buying sheep, though he rarely bought any. 
 While looking at a flock, he would pick one of the fattest 
 and give a secret signal to his dog, indicating the animal. 
 That night the dog would come to the flock where the 
 sheep belonged, often traveling several miles to do it; 
 then would pick out the identical animal and drive it 
 to his master. If he happened, at any time, to meet his 
 master on the road while going on one of his stealing expe- 
 ditions, the dog would give no sign of recognition, and treat 
 his master as a perfect stranger. When the man's guilt 
 was discovered, and he was tried and condemned for his 
 crime, the dog was also condemned to be hanged ; but it 
 was afterwards concluded that the dog was simply an in- 
 strument, in the hands of his owner, and not responsible 
 for his actions. He was given to a shepherd, who kept the 
 animal as long as he lived ; and, according to the shep- 
 herd's account, the dog was never afterwards guilty of any 
 crime. 
 
HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS. 267 
 
 During their ride among the out-stations of the sheep 
 run, our young friends learned several things eonnected 
 with the industry of raising wool for the market. 
 
 One faet which they learned was, that for a portion of 
 the year, a great many sheep farmers are in debt to the 
 bankers at the ports where they send their wool. They 
 have a considerable amount of money to pay out during 
 the course of the year before shearing time, and conse- 
 quent!}' they require advances from their bankers. It is 
 not at all difficult to obtain money in advance on a crop of 
 wool, and in this respect a sheep run has an advantage 
 over a cattle run. Even when the sheep farmer is grow- 
 ing rich, and has money laid by, he often prefers to obtain 
 advances on his wool crop rather than use his own money 
 for carrying on business. When the crop comes in, all 
 the indebtedness is paid off, and there is usually a good 
 balance left. This may be set aside and invested, or it 
 may remain at the banker's, to be drawn whenever wanted. 
 
 Sheep farmers keep very little money at their stations 
 in the country districts for fear of attracting bushrangers, 
 or other individuals, whose ideas of the rights of property 
 do not harmonize with those of society in general. In 
 mam' cases laborers are paid off by check, and not in 
 cash, and it is no uncommon sight to see a laboring man, 
 in an Australian town or village, flourishing a check pre- 
 vious to turning it into money, which he proceeds to spend 
 with a liberal hand. 
 
 Another point that they learned was, that then' are cer- 
 tain portions of Australia between the mountains and the 
 coast, particularly in Queensland, that are not adapted to 
 
268 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 sheep, though they make excellent pasturage for cattle. 
 In these localities there is a grass that has a barb on its 
 edges, and when once it becomes attached to the wool of 
 the sheep, it steadily works its way inward until it pierces 
 the skin of the animal, and eventually causes its death. 
 Cattle are not affected by this grass, as it does not pene- 
 trate their skins. They walk in it and feed upon it with 
 impunity, and in any of the regions where this grass is 
 found there is no attempt at rearing sheep, but the land is 
 devoted to cattle raising. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY CROSSING THE BLUE 
 
 MOUNTAINS. 
 
 WHEN their visit to the sheep run was concluded, our 
 friends returned to Melbourne, where they spent 
 two or three days, and then proceeded to Sydney. Two 
 ways were open to them, one by sea, and the other bv 
 land ; they chose the latter, as it would give them an 
 opportunity to see more of the country than if they went 
 by water, The water journey is mostly made by night, 
 and consequently they would be deprived of a sight 
 of the picturesque coast which lies between the two 
 cities. 
 
 The railway out of Melbourne runs through a pic- 
 turesque country, as it ascends the slope of the dividing 
 range of mountains in the neighborhood of the city. 
 There are many country residences of gentlemen con- 
 cerned in business in Melbourne, and the country has a 
 prosperous appearance. Further away on the slope of 
 the range, our friends passed through large wheat fields, 
 sheep and cattle runs, occasional patches of forest, and 
 not infrequently crossed small rivers flowing on their 
 way to the sea. They also crossed a goodly number of 
 dry beds of rivers, which had every appearance of being 
 full and running over in the season of heavy rains. The 
 
 side of the range next the coast receives more rain than 
 
 269 
 
270 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the other side of it, and the reasons therefor have been 
 given in a previous chapter. 
 
 After the train had passed the crest of the range, it rolled 
 along through a broken and undulating country, largely 
 devoted to sheep and cattle raising, and having many 
 stretches of blue gum forest. In some places great num- 
 bers of rabbits were visible, but this was a sicdit to which 
 the eyes of our young friends had become accustomed. 
 As they approached the frontier of the colony of Victoria, 
 Dr. Whitney remarked that they would spend the rest 
 of the day and the night at Albury, so as to have another 
 view of the Murray River, and study the peculiarities of 
 the colonial frontier. 
 
 " I believe," said Harry, " that we have our baggage 
 examined at the frontier, just as it is examined at the fron- 
 tiers of the empires and kingdoms of Europe.'' 
 
 " Yes," replied the doctor, " that is the case : and I sup- 
 pose the examination will be a light one for us, as we are 
 going out of a protection colony into a free trade one. If 
 we were going the other way, the custom house officials 
 would be more particular." 
 
 " How is that? " Ned asked. 
 
 " Why, don't you see? " the doctor answered, " a pro- 
 tection country is on the lookout for goods that may inter- 
 fere with its manufacturing interests ; the free trade one has 
 no such care for its manufacturing industries, but levies 
 its duties on articles of luxury principally. When you 
 come into the United States, your baggage is examined 
 much more carefully than when you go into England. 
 England is a free trade country, while our own is a pro- 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 27 1 
 
 tection one ; at least it has been for the greater part of the 
 time since it began its existence." 
 
 " It is rather a strange circumstance," remarked Ned, 
 " that two colonies of the same country, lying side by side, 
 and one of them an offshoot of the other, should be so 
 radically different in their tariff laws. How do you ac- 
 count for it, sir ? " 
 
 " We are treading on dangerous ground," replied the 
 doctor, " as it is not prudent for a traveler in foreign lands 
 to talk politics ; but as we are quite by ourselves, we may 
 be permitted to discuss the subject a little. Victoria, as 
 you are aware, is an offshoot from the colony of New 
 South Wales, from which it was separated in August, 
 185 1. I don't know anything about the matter, but pre- 
 sume that the origin of the differences in tariffs between 
 the two colonies grew out of the opposition of the new to 
 the old. There has always been a great deal of jealousy 
 between them, and as New South Wales had a free trade 
 policy, it was the most natural thing in the world that the 
 jealous young colony of Victoria should adopt a protection 
 one. In each of the colonies there is a strong party op- 
 posed to its tariff policy ; in Victoria there is a goodly 
 number of free-traders, while in New South Wales there 
 is an equally good number of protectionists. Whatever a 
 man's views are, in regard to free trade or protection, it is 
 generally useless to attempt to change them by argument ; 
 and if he is a skilled debater, he can give you facts and 
 figures to demonstrate, with great clearness, the correct- 
 ness of his views. On that point I can tell you what was 
 to me an amusing story." 
 
272 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " What was that?" 
 
 "Several years ago, when the financial authorities of 
 the two colonies had made their annual reports, the two 
 documents were taken by a free trade writer for an Eng- 
 lish magazine, and out of them, by the use of the figures 
 and facts that they contained, there was constructed an ad- 
 mirable article, demonstrating, with great clearness, the 
 advantages of free trade in New South Wales. Almost 
 simultaneously in an American newspaper appeared a 
 similar article, drawn from the same facts and figures, 
 which demonstrated with equal clearness and with equal 
 conclusiveness the advantages of protection in Victoria. 
 There was not a weak point in either of the articles, and 
 the curious thing was that they were drawn from the same 
 sources. Each writer showed that the colony whose 
 tariff policy he had favored was far more prosperous than 
 the other, and was making progress steadily, while the 
 other was running behind." 
 
 " It's pretty much the same in our own country, is it 
 not? " queried Harry. ." It seems to me that I have read 
 articles in the New York Tribune and the New York 
 Evening Post that were flatly contradictory of each other 
 on the subject of the tariff." 
 
 " Yes ; that is quite likely the case, as both of the papers 
 you name are ready to debate the subject, and it is evident 
 that the writers upon both sides of the question believe 
 what they say. I don't think it worth our while to enter 
 into the abstract question here, and so we'll drop it for 
 something else. You are aware, I presume, that we 
 have to make a change of train at the frontier on ac- 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 273 
 
 count of the different gauges of the railways of the two 
 colonies." 
 
 "Yes, sir, I was aware of that," said Harry ; "one 
 track is six inches wider than the other." 
 
 " Yes ; that is another indication of the hostility between 
 the two colonies. When the railway between Sydney and 
 Melbourne was projected, it was impossible for the op- 
 posing interests to agree upon a uniform track for the 
 whole distance, and consequently each colony did as it 
 chose. The result was, that the Victorian line was of one 
 gauge, and that of New South Wales of another. Neither 
 passenger nor freight cars can run through from one city 
 to the other, but all passengers and freight must be 
 transferred at the frontier." 
 
 " Let me call your attention to another thing while we 
 are on the subject of colonial disagreements," the doctor 
 remarked. " Each of the colonies has its own postal 
 system and each its own postage stamp. In New South 
 Waks. a Victorian stamp would be of no use, any more 
 than would a British postage stamp in the United States 
 Post-office. You can prepay letters from one colony to 
 the other in the stamps of the colony where you happen 
 to be, but if you post a letter in Sydney with a Victorian 
 stamp upon it, I am afraid it would go to the dead letter 
 office, just as if it had borne no stamp at all." 
 
 ••What a pity it is," said Harry, "that the colonies 
 cannot reconcile their differences and come together." 
 
 •■ You are not the first one, by any means, who has 
 thought so," was the reply. " Statesmen haye been for a 
 considerable time discussing the question of a federation 
 
274 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 of all the colonies in the same way that the British 
 American colonies are federated. Federation would have 
 been accomplished long ago, at least it is so claimed by 
 the others, had it not been for New South Wales, which 
 stands aloof from the rest principally on account of the 
 tariff question. All the other colonies are in favor of the 
 protection of home industries, while New South Wales, as 
 before stated, favors a free trade policy. I saw, while in 
 Melbourne, a cartoon representing several young women 
 standing in a circle. All were dressed in white and 
 wreathed with roses, and the various members of the 
 circle were marked with the names of Victoria, Tasmania, 
 Queensland, South Australia, New Zealand, and West 
 Australia. A little in the background, and leaning 
 against the wall with one finger in her mouth as though 
 she were angry, was a young woman dressed in black, 
 and labeled ' New South Wales.' The others were evi- 
 dently trying, but without success, to induce her to join 
 the circle. 
 
 " I presume," he continued, " that federation will come 
 in time, and an Australian gentleman told me the other 
 day that he believed it would be a step towards independ- 
 ence. He thought, as do many other Australians, that the 
 long distance from the mother country and their diversity 
 of interests would tend, as the years go on, to weaken the 
 bonds between Great Britain and her Australian colonies, 
 and that separation would be sure to come. The colonies 
 realize their great danger in case Great Britain should 
 become involved in a foreign war, and especially with a 
 power possessing a powerful navy. The colonies have a 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 275 
 
 military force on the volunteer system, which could no 
 doubt do efficient service in time of war. The British 
 government maintains a certain number of warships in 
 Australian waters, but neither they nor the volunteer 
 troops provided by the colonies would be of much avail 
 against a powerful force sent here by a first-class power." 
 
 There was further conversation upon various topics of 
 which we have no record, and in due course of time 
 the train reached Wodonga, the frontier terminus of the 
 line. It halted a few minutes in the station, and then 
 moved on to Albury, in New South Wales, crossing the 
 Murray River on an iron bridge; Harry remarking, as 
 they did so, that it was the same Murray, though not the 
 same bridge, that they crossed between Adelaide and 
 Melbourne. 
 
 Harry learned, on inquiry, that the railway line from 
 Melbourne reached Wodonga in 1873, but the line from 
 Sydney did not arrive at the northern bank of the Murray 
 until eight years later. There were disagreements be- 
 tween the management of the two concerns, so that for 
 three years the ends of the two railway lines were not 
 brought together. Passengers were transferred by coaches 
 or omnibuses, and baggage and freight by wagons, be- 
 tween Wodonga and Albury, a distance of two miles. 
 At last, however, the quarrels came to an end. A bridge 
 was built, the lines of railway were completed, and since 
 then everything has been harmonious. Passengers from 
 New South Wales cross the river in the train by which 
 they have arrived, and alight in the station at Wodonga. 
 Passengers from Victoria cross the river, and make their 
 
276 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 change of cars on the territory of New South Wales in 
 the Albury station. 
 
 After the custom-house examination was concluded, 
 and it was by no means severe, our friends found a fairly 
 good hotel where they put up for the night. Then they 
 took a carriage and drove around the town, which was evi- 
 dently a prosperous one, and had the usual paraphernalia 
 of public institutions, such as churches, hospitals, jail, town 
 hall, etc. It is said to be the home and the place of busi- 
 ness of a considerable number of smugglers, whose occu- 
 pation is invited by the long frontier line which separates 
 Victoria from New South Wales. A resident of Albury, 
 with whom our friends fell into conversation, admitted 
 that a good deal of smuggling was carried on there, and 
 added that it would take the whole male population of 
 Victoria to guard the frontier efficiently. Of course, 
 smuggling, like the same business everywhere else, re- 
 lates chiefly to goods where high values can be included 
 in small parcels. No one would think it worth his while 
 to smuggle bulky articles of small value, since it would 
 not pay to carry them long distances on men's backs, as 
 most of the smuggled articles are carried. 
 
 Albury stands on the bank of the Murray River, five 
 hundred and thirty-one feet above the sea ; it is about 
 three hundred miles from the source of that stream, and 
 six hundred above its mouth. During the rainy season, 
 when the Murray is at its height, steamers run up to Al- 
 bury, but ordinarily the river is not navigable to that 
 place. As our friends drove along the edge of the stream, 
 below the two bridges which span it, they saw a small 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 277 
 
 steamboat tied up at the bank, and having an appearance 
 of idleness about it. They stopped the carriage for a few 
 moments to inspect the boat, and found that it had been 
 left there by a sudden fall of the river, and was waiting 
 for the next flood to come. 
 
 "It is a very light draft steamboat," said Harry in his 
 notebook ; " and makes me think of those they talk about 
 in the western part of the United States, that can run on a 
 heavy dew, or where a man goes ahead of them with a 
 sprinkling pot. It is a side-wheel boat, the wheels being 
 very large, but not dipping far into the water. The en- 
 gine seems rather small for such a large pair of wheels, 
 but I suppose the boat was not built for speed so much as 
 for general utility. She has a saloon over the engines, 
 with cabins opening out of it, and there are quarters on 
 the main deck for the officers and crew. The rooms in 
 the upper cabin are intended for passengers, and as there 
 are only ten of them on each side, you can readily under- 
 stand that the accommodations are limited. They told me 
 that the steamer was built at one of the towns lower down 
 the river, her engines having been made in Adelaide, and 
 brought overland to the place where the hull was con- 
 structed. They also told me that the first steamer which 
 ever ascended the Murray was named the Albury, and 
 arrived in the year 1855. I infer, from the name of the 
 boat, that it was owned by people living here, but on that 
 point my informant was unable to say anything definite." 
 
 When the party returned to the hotel for dinner, they 
 were regaled with a fish which was new to them. At Mel- 
 bourne they had fish from the sea almost daily, but when 
 
278 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 visiting the cattle and sheep stations they had none at all, 
 for the reason that no fish were to be obtained in those local- 
 ities, and it would be an expensive matter to bring them 
 there from the sea with the strong probability of their being 
 unfit for eating at the time of their arrival. As they were 
 not looking for fish in any inland town, they naturally 
 inquired what it was before them. 
 
 "That is the Murray cod, sir, or cod-perch, as we call 
 it," said the waiter, in reply to Ned's question. "It is a 
 fish caught in the Murray River, and I think you'll like 
 it, gentlemen." 
 
 They did like it, all three of our friends pronouncing it 
 quite toothsome. It is a fish somewhat resembling the 
 American perch, both in appearance and in taste, and 
 probably belongs to the same family. Australia is poorly 
 supplied with fresh water fishes. Many of the lakes con- 
 tain no fish whatever, and the few that are found there are 
 poor eating. There are trout in the mountainous districts, 
 but they are not numerous. Attempts have been made to 
 stock the rivers with European salmon, carp, and other 
 food fishes, but thus far the experiments have not been 
 especially successful. Once in a while a fisherman catches 
 a small salmon in one of the streams, and paragraphs con- 
 cerning his performance are circulated far and wide in 
 the newspapers. The habit of most of the Australian 
 rivers of running dry at certain portions of the year is a 
 serious discouragement to the industry of fish culture. 
 
 At Albury our friends found themselves in one of the 
 mountainous districts of Australia. Mount Kosciusco, the 
 highest peak in Australia, was not far away, though not 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. -79 
 
 visible from the town, but other mountain peaks were in 
 sight of the place. Kosciusco is not a very high moun- 
 tain, as mountains go, as its summit is only 7,308 feet 
 above the level of the sea. It is quite picturesquely 
 situated, forming one of a group of several mountains, 
 and the journey to its summit is by no means an easy 
 matter. 
 
 Athletic young men, with a fondness for adventure, oc- 
 casionally make up parties for an excursion to the top of 
 the mountain, and if the weather is good they come back 
 with their spirits high, their shoes or boots well worn, and 
 their clothing more or less damaged. Traveling facilities 
 are limited, and anybody who climbs Mount Kosciusco 
 must expect to "rough it." The town nearest to the 
 mountain is Tumberumba, and the excursion is made 
 partly on horseback and partly on foot. It is forty miles 
 from Tumberumba to the mountain, and in order to reach 
 that town it is necessary to travel by coach a distance 
 of seventy-four miles, from Calcairn, which is the nearest 
 station on the railway. 
 
 Travelers who have visited Switzerland before going to 
 Australia say that the region around Mount Kosciusco is 
 quite Alpine in character, as it has deep gorges and ra- 
 vines, and the streams plunge for long distances over pre- 
 cipitous rocks. The Murray River takes its rise among 
 these mountains, and a great contrast is offered between 
 the country around its head waters and that through which 
 it flows in the latter part of its course. The country is too 
 rough around these mountains for sheep and cattle sta- 
 tions. There is a considerable amount of tillable land 
 
280 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 among them, which is principally devoted to the growing 
 of oats and wheat. 
 
 At their appointed time, our friends proceeded by train 
 in the direction of Sydney. They found the railway 
 running for much of the way through a mountainous re- 
 gion, some of it very mountainous indeed. The railway 
 engineering on many parts of the route evoked their ad- 
 miration, and certainly it deserves a great deal of praise. 
 There are numerous tunnels on the way, gorges and 
 ravines are traversed by bridges high up in the air, and 
 nowhere in the world can be found better examples of 
 engineering skill in mountain work. A gentleman who 
 was in the carriage with them said they would find 
 equally good work on the western line of railway, the 
 one on which they were traveling being the southern. 
 
 "The range of mountains that winds around the whole 
 coast of Australia," said the gentleman, " has made our 
 railways cost us very dearly. To go any distance at all 
 into the interior, we had to traverse the mountains, and 
 for a long time it was believed that it would be absolutely 
 impossible to get through them. The first railway line in 
 New South Wales was surveyed about 1847, and ground 
 for it was broken in July, 1850. The obstacles which the 
 Blue Mountains presented retarded the work very much, 
 but finally, after they were passed, we got along well 
 enough. You will see for yourself how difficult they 
 were." 
 
 " From what we had already seen," wrote Harry, " we 
 fully agreed with the gentleman in his statement, and 
 were not surprised to learn that the engineers were con- 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 28l 
 
 siderably discouraged when they began their work. After 
 a pause, he described to us some of the interesting points 
 of the western line, as it is called, and said he hoped 
 we would be able to make a journey over that part of the 
 railway system of New South Wales. He assured us 
 that we would never regret it, and that we would see 
 some of the most magnificent sights to be obtained any- 
 where in railway travel. 
 
 "When you have crossed the crest of the Blue Moun- 
 tains," the gentleman continued, "you will see a piece of 
 railway engineering which has never been undertaken, 
 as far as I know of, anywhere else in the world." 
 
 " What is that? " one of the party asked. 
 
 "It is the accomplishment of a feat that has always 
 been disastrous in every other part of the globe, that of 
 two trains passing each other on a single track." 
 
 " It certainly results in disaster as far as I have ever 
 known," Dr. Whitney answered. " I have never heard 
 of two trains trying to pass each other on a single track 
 without both of them coming to grief." 
 
 "Well, you know that Australia is a land of contradic- 
 tions," was the reply; "and why shouldn't we be con- 
 tradictory in this as well as many other things? The 
 way we perform this trick is this : — 
 
 "The railway climbs the mountain by means of zig- 
 zags, running first one way, and then the other, and all 
 the time making an ascending grade. At the end of each 
 zigzag the track is prolonged sufficiently to hold two rail- 
 way trains. When an ascending train sees a descending 
 one coming, the engine driver runs his train to the end of 
 
282 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 this prolonged track and stops. Then the descending one 
 comes down, runs upon the track, is switched off down 
 the mountain, and the way is then clear for the ascending 
 train to proceed. There is no double track anywhere, 
 and yet the trains have passed each other, and safely 
 too." 
 
 "Very simple when 3'ou know what it is," said Harry, 
 and the others echoed his remark. 
 
 When they crossed the Blue Mountains they found the 
 zigzags, readily recognizing them from the description. 
 On seeing the rugged character of the mountains, they 
 were not at all surprised that the engineers were appalled 
 at the difficulties before them. Neither did they wonder 
 that the officers in command of the first convict settlement 
 at Sydney for a long time regarded the Blue Mountains 
 as impassable, and believed that escaped convicts travel- 
 ing in that direction would be stopped by this formidable 
 barrier. The Blue Mountains were not crossed and the 
 country beyond them explored until 18 13, although the 
 settlement at Sydney was founded in 1788. 
 
 Mountain regions are always considered healthy places 
 to live in, and this is especially the case with the region of 
 the Blue Mountains. A fellow-passenger in the train told 
 our friends that it was a favorite saying in the country that 
 nobody ever dies in the Blue Mountains ; he simply dries 
 up and disappears. Another passenger said that once, 
 when a town was founded in the Blue Mountain district, 
 the people wanted to start a graveyard, and took along an 
 elderly man who was in the last stages of consumption. 
 They had agreed to pay his expenses and give him a 
 
FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY. 283 
 
 grand funeral, on the condition that he lived until he 
 reached the site of the town. Not only did he live until 
 he got there, but he continued to live for many years, and 
 finally dried up and blew away. The people felt that they 
 had been defrauded, and if the man had left anything in 
 the way of propertv, they would have brought suit for the 
 recoveiy of damages. 
 
 Harry recorded the above anecdote in his notebook, 
 adding to it the words, "Interesting, but of doubtful 
 authenticity." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SIGHTS OF SYDNEY BOTANY BAY AND PARAMATTA. 
 
 AFTER leaving the Blue Mountains behind them, our 
 friends were whirled onward through a more fertile 
 country than the one they had traversed on the western 
 slope. As they approached Sydney, they found the coun- 
 try dotted with pleasant residences and diversified with 
 fields and forest in a very picturesque way. At the ap- 
 pointed hour the train rolled into the station at Sydney, 
 and landed the strangers in that ancient city ; ancient 
 from an Australian point of view, as it is the oldest settle- 
 ment on the island continent, but exceedingly modern when 
 compared with London, Paris, and other European capitals. 
 
 As our friends drove in the direction of the hotel where 
 they intended to stay, they were struck by the narrowness 
 of the streets, which seemed to them very narrow indeed, 
 after the wide streets of Melbourne. 
 
 Harry wondered how the difference of the streets of the 
 two cities could be accounted for. 
 
 " Oh, I understand," said Ned. " Sydney was laid 
 out by an English surveyor, and Melbourne by an Ameri- 
 can. Being a native of the little island called England, 
 the Britisher felt that he must make the most of the land 
 he had, while the American, coming from his own wide- 
 spreading country, took all the room that he wanted. 
 That's the way of it, I'm sure." 
 
 284 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 285 
 
 " Well, that will do for an explanation," said Harry, 
 " until we get at the real facts in the case." 
 
 "The probabilities are," the doctor remarked, "that as 
 Sydney was originally a convict settlement, the officers 
 that came out in charge of the expedition felt that it 
 should be made as compact as possible for the greater 
 facility of guarding the convicts. In this way the nar- 
 rowness of the streets may be accounted for." 
 
 "They didn't foresee the tramways in the streets, and 
 the steam cars running upon them," said Harry, as a 
 noisy little steam engine drawing two passenger cars 
 passed close to their carriage. 
 
 "No, indeed," responded Xed. " Street cars had not 
 been invented at the time Sydney was founded, and the 
 locomotive was unknown. One would think that steam 
 cars, running through crowded streets like this, would 
 cost a considerable loss of life every year." 
 
 " I have heard that they do so," said Dr. Whitney. 
 "You observe that they have flagmen at some of the 
 crossings, and that the trains do not stop wherever pas- 
 sengers want to get on, but only at certain designated 
 points. There must be great danger to pedestrians, many 
 of whom, in all cities, are careless, and I wonder the 
 authorities do not abolish this steam traffic in the streets, 
 and adopt the cable or the trolly." 
 
 "We'll take good care that they don't run over us while 
 we are in Sydney," remarked Harry, and there the tram- 
 way subject was dropped. 
 
 Our friends followed the same plan here as in the other 
 cities they had visited, of going out for a drive or stroll 
 
286 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 immediately after arranging for their accommodations at 
 the hotel, and removing the dust of travel from their cloth- 
 ing. They thought there was less bustle and activity in 
 the streets of Sydney than in those of Melbourne, and 
 accounted for the difference that Sydney was the older 
 and more dignified place of the two, had a smaller popu- 
 lation, and was not so much given over to speculations in 
 gold mines and other matters. They found it well equipped 
 with public buildings, most of them fully equal to the cor- 
 responding edifices in the rival city. The city hall espe- 
 cially roused their admiration, and they passed several 
 churches which would do honor to any city of Europe. 
 The doctor remarked that the people of Sydney had con- 
 structed their public buildings with a liberal hand, and 
 Harry answered that the liberal hand had been directed 
 by excellent taste. 
 
 " I am impatient to see the famous harbor of Sydney," 
 Ned remarked soon after they started on their drive. 
 " You know it is the one thing we have heard about more 
 than any other." 
 
 "We will have an opportunity of seeing it in two or 
 three ways," the doctor remarked. Then he called to the 
 driver, and told him to stop in front of the city hall. 
 
 After giving a hasty glance at the interior of the build- 
 ing, the partv climbed to the cupola, which is one hundred 
 and fifty feet above the level of the street below. From 
 their point of observation they had a fine view in every 
 direction. The whole city was in sight, and also a good 
 deal of the surrounding country. The magnificent har- 
 bor, too, was at their feet. Fifteen miles to the west- 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 287 
 
 ward, they could see the pretty town of Paramatta, which 
 is a favorite resort for Sydney merry-makers : while to the 
 eastward, the broad line of the Pacific Ocean was spread 
 before their gaze. They remained there for half an hour 
 or so in the cupola, taking in the view in general, and 
 also in many of its details. 
 
 As they were about to descend, Ned remarked that 
 the harbor fully met his expectations, and in some points 
 exceeded them. Afterward he wrote as follows in his 
 notebook : — 
 
 " The harbor may be said to consist of a series of coves 
 or bays, uniting together in a single body of water, which 
 opens to the sea between two promontories, called The 
 Heads. Whether viewed from an elevation like that of 
 the tower of the city hall, or from points along its shores, 
 or from the deck of a vessel passing over it, Sydney har- 
 bor presents a most admirable view." 
 
 After leaving the city hall, our friends drove to Cir- 
 cular Quay, whose character in one respect is described 
 by its name, as it is of semicircular shape, and encloses 
 the most important of the divisions of Sydney harbor. 
 Harry and Ned were unable to say whether the amount 
 of shipping at Sydney was greater than that at Mel- 
 bourne or not, but in one thing thev were agreed, that 
 neither city had a right to be jealous of the other on the 
 score of marine business. There were ships of all nations 
 at Melbourne, and there were also ships of all nations at 
 Sydney. Sydney has the advantage of being the ter- 
 minus of most of the great steamship lines, and conse- 
 quently their vessels are in port at Sydney for a longer 
 
288 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 time than at Melbourne. There were great steamers of 
 the Orient line, of the Peninsular and Oriental (familiarly 
 known as the "P. & O."), the French line, or Mes- 
 sageries Maritimes, the North German Lloyd, and other 
 lines of lesser note. There was a steamer there, from 
 San Francisco, and there were several vessels belonging 
 to the Australian Steam Navigation Company. 
 
 As our friends were looking at the forest of masts and 
 funnels, Harry was the first to break the silence. 
 
 "You could start from here," he remarked, "for 
 almost any other part of the world. You could set out 
 for Greenland's icy mountains or India's coral strand with 
 very little ease." 
 
 " I don't know about Greenland's icy mountains," said 
 Ned, "as I don't believe there is any line running to 
 them from Sydney, but the P. & O. boat and several 
 other boats will take you to India's coral strand ; of that 
 I am sure." 
 
 Circular Quay was formerly called Sydney Cove, and 
 it was at the head of this little cove that the first settle- 
 ment was made. It is the principal one of the coves or 
 harbors where ships can lie, though Darling Cove is 
 nearly as important as the one just mentioned. The sheet 
 of water into which these coves open is called Port Jack- 
 son, and extends inland some twenty miles from The 
 Heads. Islands of various sizes are scattered through 
 Port Jackson, some of them occupied, and some remaining 
 in a state of nature. Our friends planned, while strolling 
 about Circular Quay, to make an excursion up the harbor 
 as soon as they could do so conveniently, and then, as it 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 289 
 
 was getting pretty late in the afternoon, they returned to 
 their hotel. 
 
 On their arrival at the house they met a gentleman to 
 whom they had a letter of introduction. He had heard of 
 their arrival, and came to hunt them up without waiting 
 for the delivery of their letter. This circumstance led 
 Harry to write as follows in his journal : — 
 
 "Wherever we go we are received with the most open- 
 handed hospitality. Persons who are entire strangers to 
 us are always civil, ready to answer an)- question we ask, 
 and every one of them seems quite willing to go out of his 
 way to serve us. We have made the acquaintance of men 
 in railway trains and around the hotels, or elsewhere, who 
 have ended up a brief conversation by inviting us to visit 
 their country places, their sheep or cattle stations, if they 
 have any, or their business establishments in the city, and 
 this, too, without knowing anything about us other than 
 that we are strangers in Australia. Those to whom we 
 have letters throw their houses open to us, and in every 
 instance urge us to a longer stay whenever we intimate 
 that we must depart. Those to whom we are introduced 
 by these people are equally courteous and equally ready 
 to show us any hospitality. The whole country seems 
 open to us, and if we could and would accept half the in- 
 vitations that have been given to us, we should remain in 
 Australia for years, perhaps for a decade or two. 
 
 ' k Many Australians, some of them born here of English 
 parents, together with natives of England who have lived 
 here many years, complain that when they go back to the 
 old countrv they are received very coldly • It is no wonder 
 
290 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 they feel that English customs are very frigid, when they 
 contrast them with the general kindness and liberal hos- 
 pitality that universally prevails throughout this island 
 continent. Men who have received strangers as freely as 
 is the custom here, must have a sensation of having ice 
 water poured down their backs when they go to London 
 or New York, and are greeted with the formality cus- 
 tomary to those two cities. 
 
 " I have been told that it is not infrequently the case 
 that an old Australian who goes to England with the in- 
 tention of spending not less than a year there, is back in 
 the antipodes in less than six months. The cold formality 
 is not at all to his liking, and, as one man expressed it, he 
 feels as though a southerly burster had dropped on him all 
 at once ; and yet his English friends are no doubt glad to 
 see him, and have no thought whatever of giving the least 
 offense. 
 
 "They are onlv adhering to the customs of centuries, 
 and unless the}' themselves have been in Australia, which 
 is very rarely the case, they cannot understand why the 
 stranger should feel that he is being unkindly treated. I 
 am told that thirty years ago there was the same contrast 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United 
 States, but since railways have traversed the American 
 continent, and communication is made easier, the forms 
 of hospitalitv of the peoples of the two sections have be- 
 come pretty much the same. 
 
 " Of one thing you may be sure : we shall never forget 
 the courtesies that we have received, and when we leave 
 the shores of Australia we shall treasure long in our mem- 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 
 
 29I 
 
 ories the warm hospitality which we have encountered 
 since the day we first set foot upon Australian soil." 
 
 That evening the party visited one of the clubs where 
 all three were "put up" for the time of their stay in 
 Sydney, their host intimating to Dr. Whitney that, as his 
 nephews were under age, they would not be expected to 
 visit the club, except in his company. Before they had 
 been in town twenty-four hours, our friends had received 
 the offer of the hospitality of no fewer than four clubs, 
 together with several invitations to dinner. The three 
 agreed that Sydney was certainly a very hospitable place, 
 and that a stranger suffering from indigestion, or in poor 
 health, generally would find it too much for him. 
 
 The next day our friends were taken on a drive 
 through some of the parks, of which Sydney has a liberal 
 supply. Most of the parks are of considerable extent, 
 one of them, called the Domain, occupying one hundred 
 acres of ground on the shore of one of the coves. Other 
 parks are projected, and it was evident to Harry and Ned 
 that the authorities of Sydney were thorough believers in 
 having plenty of breathing space for the people. 
 
 The drive included the Botanical Gardens, which proved 
 to be full of interest. Nearly every plant and tree of the 
 whole of Australia is represented in the Botanical Gar- 
 dens, and there are many trees and plants there from 
 other parts of the world. Everything planted in these 
 gardens seems to thrive, the products of high latitudes 
 growing side by side to those of very low ones. 
 
 The Botanical Gardens are not of recent origin, some 
 of the trees they contain Inning been planted there 
 
2Q2 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 seventy or eighty years ago. Among these trees are 
 Norfolk pines, which have attained a height of one hun- 
 dred feet, and a diameter of five feet at the base. Dr. 
 Whitney had visited the pine forests of California, and 
 said that the specimens in the Botanical Gardens at Syd- 
 ney reminded him of the magnificent trees of the Golden 
 
 State. 
 
 At one place during their visit to the gardens Ned ob- 
 served the smell of musk, and looked around to ascertain 
 whence it came. The gentleman who accompanied him 
 noted his curiosity and said : — 
 
 " I think you are looking for the musk tree. Here it 
 
 is." 
 
 And there it was, sure enough. The tree is a product 
 of Australia, and has the peculiarity of constantly giving 
 out the odor of musk, which is perceptible at quite a dis- 
 tance. Ned asked if any perfume was manufactured 
 from the tree or its leaves, and was answered in the 
 negative. 
 
 All the parks of the city appeared to be tastefully laid 
 out and well kept. Ned recalled the numerous parks 
 that they saw at Melbourne, and remarked that neither 
 city had occasion to be jealous of the other in the matter 
 of pleasant resorts for the people. 
 
 Our young friends asked if any of the prisons or other 
 buildings that were erected at the time of the settlement 
 of Sydney were still in existence. 
 
 "There is hardly a trace of any of them," was the 
 reply. "As the city has grown, the old buildings have 
 been destroyed, to make place for new ones of a more sub- 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 293 
 
 stantial character. One of the churches occupies the site 
 of the original cemetery which was established soon after 
 the foundation of the city, and a business house covers 
 the ground where the principal prison stood. There is no 
 desire on the part of any of us to preserve the buildings 
 of the original settlement, as they recall unpleasant mem- 
 ories. 
 
 " We want to forget as much as we can," he continued, 
 " all that is disagreeable in the history of Sydney, just as 
 an individual usually wants to forget anything unpleasant 
 about his own origin or history. The subject comes up 
 occasionally, and we have no squeamishness about dis- 
 cussing it, and the history of the colony is well known to 
 every intelligent inhabitant of the place. Transportation 
 to this colony ceased about fifty years ago, and conse- 
 quently there are few men now living in New South 
 Wales who came here as involuntary emigrants. The 
 old disputes between Emancipists and Free Settlers were 
 ended long ago, and the questions that greatly agitated 
 the population of the first half of the century have now 
 become matters of history." 
 
 As the gentleman paused, Harry thanked him for his 
 information, and then asked if Port Jackson and Botany 
 Bay were the same thing. 
 
 "They are quite distinct from each other," was the 
 reply. "Botany Bay is situated a little to the south of 
 Port Jackson and opens into the Pacific Ocean. It is a 
 singular circumstance that Captain Cook missed the en- 
 trance of Port Jackson, which he does not seem to have 
 discovered at all. It is only live miles across the land 
 
294 
 
 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 from one body of water to the other, and it is evident that 
 he did not venture very far inland, or he would have found 
 Port Jackson an infinitely better harbor than Botany Bay. 
 
 "It was in Botany Bay," continued the gentleman, 
 " that the first expedition to form a settlement in Australia 
 cast anchor. Captain Phillip, who commanded the ex- 
 pedition, and some of his officers examined the land 
 around Botany Bay, and found it quite unfit for a settle- 
 ment. While making their examinations they discovered 
 Port Jackson, and immediately perceived its superior ad- 
 vantages. The ships were at once moved around to this 
 harbor, and then the convicts and the soldiers who guarded 
 them were brought on land for the first time. But the 
 name of Botany Bay clung to the settlement for a long 
 while, and became a name of terror to the criminal classes 
 of England." 
 
 " It is a very pretty name when divested of its associa- 
 tion," remarked Harry. " I wonder how Captain Cook 
 happened to hit upon it." 
 
 "He gave it that name," was the reply, "on account 
 of the great number of flowers and flowering plants which 
 he found all around the bay. Quite likely he would have 
 given the same name to Port Jackson if he had discovered 
 it, as there were just as many flowers here as at the other 
 place." 
 
 On another day our friends took a drive to Botany Bay, 
 which is only five miles from Sydney. They found quite 
 a pretty place, and were not surprised to learn that it is a 
 favorite resort of the fesidents of Sydney. Their attention 
 was called to the monument which marks the spot where 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 295 
 
 Captain Cook landed in 1770, and took possession of 
 Australia in the name of the British government. 
 
 Another trip that they made was to Paramatta, going- 
 there by rail and returning by water. Of this excursion 
 Harry wrote as follows: — 
 
 "The journey is a short one, as Paramatta is only fif- 
 teen miles from Sydney. It is on what they call the Para- 
 matta River, which isn't really a river, but simply an arm 
 of the bay, and is a favorite place for rowing races. Next 
 to Sydney, it is the oldest town in the colony. Governor 
 Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, laid it 
 out in 1788, his object being to utilize the labors of the 
 convicts in farming. The first grain fields were estab- 
 lished here, being cultivated by convict labor, and the 
 governor had a space of ground cleared, and a house 
 erected for his country residence. 
 
 " The experiment of cultivating grain was so success- 
 ful during the first year, that it was continued on a larger 
 scale during the second and subsequent years. Free 
 settlers took up ground at Paramatta, which was then 
 called Rosehill, the name which the governor gave to 
 the little elevation where his house was built. Settlers 
 who came out to Sydney of their own accord received 
 allotments of land, and were supplied with a sufficient 
 number of convicts to do their work. 
 
 " These were known as assigned servants, and the prac- 
 tise of having assigned servants spread everywhere and 
 became very popular, as the parties to whom the con- 
 victs were assigned got their labor for practically nothing. 
 Sometimes the wives of convicts came out as passengers 
 
296 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 in the same ships with their husbands, or followed them 
 later. When they arrived and set up housekeeping, they 
 would apply for servants to be assigned to them, and 
 would name their husbands as the men they preferred. 
 The plan was found to work very well in nearly all cases, 
 and the government encouraged the practise. Sometimes, 
 though, it happened that the husbands were inclined to 
 abuse and beat their wives, but this did not happen often, 
 as the wives had the power, like other employers of as- 
 signed servants, of sending their husbands to be flogged. 
 
 " Whenever, in the early days, the sentence of a con- 
 vict expired, he was given a farm at Paramatta, or in its 
 neighborhood, and in this way quite a farming community 
 grew up. The agricultural features of Paramatta have 
 continued down to the present time, and all about it there 
 are pretty farms and gardens, which make the place look 
 very much like an English town of the same size. It is 
 regularly laid out, the principal street extending about a 
 mile back from the landing place, with a width of two 
 hundred feet. Many business men of Sydney have their 
 residences here, and there is a goodly number of public 
 buildings, including hospitals, asylums, churches, and the 
 like. 
 
 "Our attention was called to several manufactories, but 
 we were less interested in them than we were in the 
 orange groves and orchards, which are numerous and ex- 
 tensive. They showed us some orange trees which they 
 claim are the largest in the world, but whether that is the 
 case or not, I am unable to say. They showed us one 
 tree from which ten thousand oranges had been taken in 
 
SIGHTS OF SYDNEY. 297 
 
 a single year, and after we had looked at the orange 
 groves, we were shown through several flower gardens, 
 which seemed to be literally masses of flowers. When 
 we returned to Sydney by the boat, we observed that the 
 banks of the river were lined with flower gardens, and 
 were not surprised to learn that almost the entire flower 
 market of Sydney is supplied from Paramatta. 
 
 "We were unfortunate in not bein<j here in the season 
 of fruits, as they told us that the Paramatta oranges are 
 among the finest in the world, and the same could be 
 said of the other fruits grown in the place. I think we 
 have said before that the climate of Australia is very 
 favorable to the cultivation of fruits, those of the tropics 
 as well as those of the temperate zones showing a uni- 
 versal tendency to thrive in the genial atmosphere." 
 
 Dr. Whitney and his young companions spent two or 
 three days at some of the country residences in the neigh- 
 borhood of Sydney, and were charmed with the warmth 
 of the hospitality and the beauty of the places that they 
 visited. It was impossible for them to accept a tenth part 
 of the invitations they received, as their time was limited, 
 and they were anxious to press on to the northward. So 
 one day they bade farewell to their friends and took the 
 train for Newcastle, the principal point of the coal-mining 
 industry of the colony. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE SUGAR PLANTATION IN 
 
 QUEENSLAND THE END. 
 
 " r T" , HE region between Sydney and Newcastle," wrote 
 1 Ned in his journal, "is a diversified one. Here 
 and there are forests interspersed with open country. 
 Some of the ground is level, and some of it very much 
 broken and mountainous. Most of it is fertile, and we 
 passed through many fields of wheat and other grain. 
 Some of it is devoted to cattle raising and some to the 
 production of wool, though it is not generally regarded as 
 a good country for raising sheep. In places the moun- 
 tains come quite close to the sea-coast, and there we found 
 the railway winding over a very tortuous course, where 
 the rocks that rose on either hand, and the tunnels through 
 which we were occasionally whirled, convinced us that the 
 building of the railway must have cost a great deal of 
 money. At several places coal mining was in progress, 
 and it was evident that Newcastle didn't have an entire 
 monopoly of the coal-producing business. 
 
 " Newcastle is quite as much devoted to the coal busi- 
 ness as the English city from which it was named. More 
 than two million tons of coal are shipped from this port 
 every year, and the engineers who have carefully examined 
 
 the coal seams say that there is enough coal under New- 
 
 293 
 
COAL MIXES AT NEWCASTLE. 299 
 
 castle to keep up the supply at the present rate for more 
 than live hundred years. 
 
 " We were first taken to the harbor where the shipments 
 are made. There we found admirable facilities for load- 
 ing vessels with the products of the mines. The}' claim 
 that they can handle twenty-five thousand tons of coal 
 daily, and that a good-sized coal steamer can leave port 
 with her cargo six hours after entering. I'm not an expert 
 in such matters, and therefore don't know, but from what 
 I saw it seems to me that there is no difficulty about it. 
 
 "The harbor of Newcastle was not a very good one 
 originally, but they have made it so by extending into the 
 sea a breakwater, which shelters it from the gales that 
 formerlv swept it. It is not a large harbor, but an ex- 
 cellent one for its purpose. 
 
 ••We visited some of the coal sheds and coal breakers, 
 and went into one of the mines. They would gladly 
 have taken us through all the mines in the place, but as 
 one mine is very much like another, we declined to make 
 the rounds of all of them. The one that we entered was 
 about four hundred feet underground. We were lowered 
 in a cage to the bottom of the mine, and then walked 
 through a tunnel to where the men were at work, dodging 
 on our way several loaded cars that were going towards 
 the shaft, as well as empty ones coming from it. The 
 cars were pushed along by men, each of them carrying 
 a little lantern on the front of his hat; in fact, every man 
 whom we saw working underground had one of these 
 lights for his guidance. The tunnel itself was lit up with 
 electric lights, extending from the shaft to the front of 
 
300 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 the working ; and in addition to these, each of us carried 
 a lantern, which was of material assistance in showing us 
 where to place our feet. We had a few stumbles on the 
 way, but nobody experienced a fall. 
 
 "When we reached the front of the working, the sight 
 was a curious one. A dozen men — I think there must 
 have been that number at least — were attacking the coal 
 seam, most of them lying on their sides and digging 
 away with picks at the lower part of it. Some of them 
 had worked their way in two or three feet, and were 
 almost out of sight, and I shuddered to think of the possi- 
 bility that the mass above might fall upon and crush them. 
 I asked our guide if this did not happen sometimes. 
 
 "'Unfortunately, yes,' he replied. 'It does happen 
 now and then, and the men on whom the coal falls are 
 more or less severely injured, and perhaps killed. We 
 have to watch the miners constantly, to see that they do not 
 run too great a risk. If we let them have their own way, 
 accidents would be much more frequent than they are.' 
 
 " ' Why do they burrow under the coal in that way?' I 
 asked. ' Couldn't they get it out in some manner less 
 dangerous than that?' 
 
 " ' That is the way to which they have been accustomed,' 
 the guide answered, ' and it is difficult to get them to 
 change. Most of these people come from the coal- 
 mining districts of England, and they are very conserva- 
 tive. Machines have been invented for doing this kind 
 of work, and thev are in use in some of the mines, but 
 the men are opposed to them, and in some instances they 
 have disabled or destroyed the machines.' 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 3OI 
 
 " Then he went on to explain that the miner makes an 
 opening below the mass of coal in the manner that we 
 saw, and then drills a hole some distance above it, in 
 which to explode a charge of powder. This brings down 
 all the coal below the locality of the explosion. Some- 
 times it is broken up into lumps that a man can handle, and 
 sometimes it comes down in a single block, which requires 
 another blast to break it up, and then the cars are brought 
 up as near as possible. The coal is loaded into them, 
 and pushed away to the shaft. Each man is paid accord- 
 ing to the amount of coal he gets out, and some of them 
 receive large wages. There are about five thousand peo- 
 ple employed in the coal mines here, and the probabilities 
 are that the business will be extended, and the coal prod- 
 uct of Newcastle increased within a year or two from 
 the present time." 
 
 From Newcastle our friends continued their journey 
 northward to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. They 
 traveled all the way by rail, changing trains at Stan- 
 thorpe, on the frontier. During the delay subsequent 
 upon the change of trains, Harry made the following 
 memorandum in his notebook : — 
 
 " It seems to me that it is a great misfortune for Aus- 
 tralia that each colony insists upon having its own par- 
 ticular gauge of track, thus preventing the running of 
 through trains without change of cars. Some day the 
 people will find out their mistake, and I believe some of 
 them realize it already. Dr. Whitney says that there 
 was at one time in the United States several different 
 gauges of track from four feet, eight inches and one half 
 
3<D2 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 up to six feet, and that the railway managers generally- 
 agreed upon four feet, eight inches as the standard gauge. 
 Since that agreement all other tracks have been changed 
 to make the tracks uniform. Now any railway car can 
 be run all over the United States, with the exceptions of 
 a few special lines where the gauge is three feet, six 
 inches. 
 
 "Three feet, six inches is the gauge of the railways 
 of Queensland. That of New South Wales is four feet, 
 eight and one half inches, while that of Victoria is five 
 feet, three inches. In South Australia some of the lines 
 are of five feet, three inches gauge, and others have the 
 same gauge as the Queensland railways. The narrow 
 gauge is especially adapted to mountain regions, and also 
 to thinly populated districts. On lines where the business 
 is light and the distances are not long, this gauge answers 
 all requirements, but on many lines, especially those hav- 
 ing considerable business, it is not at all advantageous." 
 
 During their railway ride our friends observed the 
 strange combination of aboriginal and English names, 
 and called Dr. Whitney's attention to it. " Here are 
 Coolongolook and Coonabarabran," said Harry, "and 
 next come Clarkeville and Smithville. Here are Cootra- 
 mundra and Illawarra and Murrumbidgee close by Orange 
 and Richmond. Here are Curabubula and Waggawagga, 
 with Warwrick and Union Camp. I could go on indefi- 
 nitely with those names, and it seems to me that the ab- 
 original ones are about as numerous as those of British 
 origin. They are picturesque and perhaps interesting, 
 but they are very difficult to pronounce." 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 303 
 
 " Isn't it possible that you will find the same state of 
 things at home?" queried Dr. Whitney. 
 
 " Quite possible; I have never thought of that. Let 
 me see." 
 
 " Why, certainly," said Ned. " Go to Maine and New 
 Hampshire and run over some of the Indian names of 
 lakes, rivers, mountains, and towns in those States. Think 
 of Kennebec and Penobscot, Winnipesaukee, Pemige- 
 wasset, Passaconaway, and a good many others that I could 
 name. I think it is an excellent policy to preserve these 
 old names and not let them die out. Piscataqua is a much 
 prettier name for a river than Johnston or Stiggins, and 
 Monadnock sounds better as the name of a mountain than 
 Pike's Peak or Terry's Cliff. The more the native names 
 are preserved, the better I like it." 
 
 " I agree with you," replied Harry; " but I wish they 
 would make the orthography of those native names a little 
 easier. That's the only fault I have to find with them." 
 
 The region through which our friends traveled was 
 devoted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, as the numer- 
 ous flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and fields of grain that 
 they saw gave evidence. They were told that it was also 
 rich in minerals, — the few surveys that had been made 
 resulting in discoveries of gold, tin, silver, antimony, and 
 other metals. Some of the passengers whom they met on 
 the train were under the impression that Dr. Whitney was 
 looking for a place in which to invest money, and they 
 were very anxious that he should stop and investigate their 
 promising properties. Several line specimens of gold- 
 bearing quartz rock were exhibited, and the fortunate 
 
304 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 owners of these specimens said that the ground was cov- 
 ered with them in the locality where they were obtained. 
 Dr. Whitney politely declined to delay his journey, and 
 assured his zealous acquaintances that he was not looking 
 for any new investments. 
 
 When our friends were out of earshot of the would-be 
 speculators, Dr. Whitney said that their statement re- 
 minded him of an incident which once occurred at a town 
 in California, where a quartz mill was in successful opera- 
 tion. Harry and Ned pressed the doctor to give them the 
 story, whereupon he related as follows : — 
 
 " There were many speculative individuals around that 
 town who were constantly endeavoring to discover deposits 
 of ore. One day one of these speculators was standing on 
 a street corner, when a solemn-faced Indian came along, 
 stopped in front of the man, and, after looking around in 
 all directions to make sure that nobody was observing him, 
 he produced from under his blanket a piece of gold-bear- 
 ing quartz. Without saying a word, he held the bit of 
 rock before the eyes of the speculator. 
 
 " The speculator grasped the specimen with great eager- 
 ness. Sure enough it was gold-bearing rock, and no mis- 
 take. It was generally believed in the town that the 
 Indians knew of valuable deposits, but were very unwill- 
 ing to divulge their location to the white men." 
 
 " ' Where did you get this? ' the speculator asked. 
 
 "The Indian made a sweep of his arm that embraced 
 two thirds of the horizon, but said not a word. 
 
 " ' Is there any more where this came from?' queried 
 the speculator. 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 305 
 
 "'Yes; heaps, heaps more,' and the red man made 
 a circle with his arm that might mean anything from a 
 mole hill to a mountain. 
 
 "'Will you show me where you got this?' said the 
 speculator. 
 
 " The Indian said nothing except to pronounce the 
 words ' five dollar.' 
 
 "Unlike many of his associates, the speculator hap- 
 pened to have some money about him. He thrust his 
 hand into his pocket, drew out a five-dollar gold piece, 
 and placed it in the extended palm of the red man. 
 
 "The latter examined the coin very carefully, even to 
 the extent of biting it between his teeth. Then he placed 
 it in some mysterious receptacle under his blanket and 
 said : — 
 
 " 'You with me come. You with me go share.' 
 
 "The Indian led his new partner a long walk, going 
 out of the town on the side opposite the quartz mill, mak- 
 ing a circuit of a mile or two among hills, and finally 
 fetching up at the dump pile of the mill. The dump pile, 
 it is proper to explain, is the pile of ore as it is brought 
 from the mine to be crushed. Having reached the foot of 
 the pile, the Indian paused and said : — 
 
 " ' Me get him here. Heaps more here, too.' 
 
 "A more disgusted individual than that speculator was 
 at that moment could rarely be found in the town. He had 
 been completely outwitted, in fact, sold, and by a savage 
 who couldn't read or write." 
 
 From Stanthorpe on the frontier of Queensland the 
 country was much the same as that through which our 
 
306 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 friends had traveled from Newcastle, except that its char- 
 acter was more tropical the further they went northward. 
 They reached Brisbane in the evening, and were out im- 
 mediately after breakfast on the following morning to view 
 the sights of the place, which were fewer than those of 
 Sydney and Melbourne, as the city is not as large as either 
 of the others mentioned. The entire population of Brisbane 
 and its suburbs does not exceed one hundred thousand. It 
 is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, who was Governor of 
 the colony at the time the city was founded. In some 
 respects it may be called an inland city, as it lies on a river 
 twenty-five miles from the entrance of that stream into 
 Moreton Bay, which opens into the Pacific Ocean. It is 
 on a peninsula enclosed by a bend in the river, so that it 
 has an excellent water front. 
 
 Harry made note of the fact that Brisbane resembles 
 Sydney in the narrowness of its streets, but he added that 
 the surveyors had some excuse for restricting the amount 
 of land reserved for the streets, inasmuch as the space be- 
 tween the rivers was limited. The youths were reminded 
 of New York City when they noted that the streets of 
 Brisbane ran from the river on one side to the river on the 
 other, just as do the numbered streets on Manhattan Island. 
 They had a further reminder when an island in the river 
 was pointed out to them as the site of a prison during the 
 convict period, just as Blackwell's Island of New York 
 City is the location of a prison to-day. 
 
 Queen Street is to Brisbane as George Street is to Syd- 
 ney or Collins Street to Melbourne. The principal shops 
 and several of the public buildings are located along Queen 
 
COAL, MINKS AT NEWCASTLE. 307 
 
 Street, and our friends observed that wide verandas ex- 
 tended across the sidewalks from one end of the street to 
 the other. These verandas enable pedestrians to walk in 
 the shade at all times, a very wise provision to avoid sun- 
 stroke. It must be remembered that Brisbane is consider- 
 ably nearer the Equator than either Melbourne or Sydney, 
 and consequently has a warmer climate. Dr. Whitney 
 said that he was reminded of New Orleans by the temper- 
 ature, and on inquiry he ascertained that Brisbane is fully 
 as warm as the great city near the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 There is a fine bridge of iron which crosses the river 
 between North and South Brisbane. It is more than one 
 thousand feet long, and has a draw in the center to permit 
 the passage of ships. Ned and Harry strolled across this 
 bridge when they reached the end of Queen Street, and on 
 arriving at its farther end they turned around and retraced 
 their steps. When back again in the principal part of the 
 city, they continued to the end of the peninsula, where they 
 had expected to find huge warehouses and places of busi- 
 ness fronting the river. Instead of these edifices they found 
 the Botanical Gardens and other parks occupying the point 
 of land where the river makes its bend. It was an agree- 
 able surprise to them, and they remained in and about the 
 gardens for an hour or more. 
 
 Whenever they came to any of the public buildings 
 during their stroll, they ascertained the name of each 
 edifice from some bv-stander or shop-keeper. They 
 observed that all the buildings were handsome and of 
 good construction, with the exception of the court house, 
 which had a very low and mean appearance. The curi- 
 
308 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 osity of the youths was roused by this circumstance, and 
 Harry spoke to a good-natured cab driver to ascertain how 
 it happened. 
 
 " That's easy to tell, when you know," the driver an- 
 swered. 
 
 " Well," said Harry, "if you know, won't you kindly 
 tell us?" 
 
 " Certainly, sir," the driver responded. " You see 
 this is the way of it. That court house there used to be 
 the female prison in the old times, and for years it was 
 crowded with women that the government had sent out 
 here to punish 'em. They were lifers, most of 'em, and 
 I suppose they are pretty near all dead now. If an}- of 
 'em is alive, they're pretty old. Them that was kept in 
 prison had to do hard work, making clothes and that 
 sort of thing, but a good many of 'em went out as assigned 
 servants to do housework, and they had to work in the 
 fields, too ; but those days is gone now, and all the pris- 
 ons we have in Brisbrane in these times is for them that 
 commits crimes right here on the spot." 
 
 " Do you mind that round building up there with the 
 mast on it," said the cab driver, pointing to a structure 
 that looked like a windmill with the arms of the mill re- 
 moved. 
 
 " Yes, I see it," said Harry ; " what about it? " 
 
 "We call it the Observatory,"' was the reply, "and 
 that's what it is. That mast there is for signaling ships 
 when they come into the harbor. In the old times there 
 was a windmill there, where they used to grind grain into 
 flour and meal for the convicts to eat, and I guess other 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 309 
 
 folks ate it, too. When the wind blew the arm went 
 round and round, the machinery worked, and the stones 
 revolved and ground out the meal. Sometimes they didn't 
 have no wind, because it didn't blow, but they had a tread- 
 mill there, and then they used to bring up a string of con- 
 victs, and put them on the treadmill to run the machinery 
 and keep up the grinding of the grain. I suppose you 
 know what a treadmill is? " 
 
 " I have heard about a treadmill," said Harry, " but I 
 never saw one." Ned nodded, and said that he was in 
 the same predicament. 
 
 "Well," said the driver, "I have seen one in the old 
 country ; I never saw the one here, because it was gone 
 before I came to Brisbane. What I saw was a wheel in 
 the shape of a long cylinder with twenty-four steps around 
 the circumference of it; in fact, it didn't look much un- 
 like the paddle-wheel of a steamboat, where the men stood 
 to turn it. Each one of 'em was boarded off from his 
 neighbor so that they couldn't talk to each other. There 
 was a hand rail for them to hang on to. The weight of 
 the prisoners' bodies on the steps caused the wheel to 
 turn, and they sent it around about twice a minute. A 
 man on a treadmill has got to work, he can't get out of 
 it. If he tries to avoid stepping, he's got to hang his 
 weight on the hand rail with his arms, and after he has 
 tried that for a minute or so he's glad to go back to step- 
 ping again." 
 
 " I should think," said Ned, " that it would be difficult 
 to adapt it to the weight of different individuals, and also 
 to their height. While it might not be too much for a 
 
310 THE L.AND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 strong man, it might be for a weak one ; and if the posi- 
 tion of steps and rail were adapted to a tall man, they 
 wouldn't be for a short one." 
 
 " I believe that's just the trouble they found with it in 
 the old country," was the reply; "and it's mostly been 
 given up there. They've got a machine in the place of it 
 which they call ' the Crank,' which can be adapted to 
 anybody. It's a wheel with paddles to it, and turns inside 
 a box. They put gravel in the box, graduated to the 
 strength of the man who is to turn it, and the prisoner's 
 hard labor consists in turning the crank." 
 
 "It doesn't serve any useful purpose, as the treadmill 
 does, I presume?" said Harry. 
 
 " No ; there is no useful purpose about it. A man has 
 to turn that crank because he's been sentenced to hard 
 labor, and there's nothing else they can put him to, that's 
 all. And they don't by any means use the treadmill all 
 the time for turning machinery and grinding grain, or 
 doiug some other work. Most of the treadmills I ever 
 knew anything about in the old country were just tread- 
 mills, and that was all." 
 
 Our friends were invited to visit a sugar plantation in 
 Northern Queensland. They accepted the invitation, 
 and one morning embarked on a steamer which took 
 them in the direction which they wished to go. The 
 steamer called at several places on the coast, including 
 Roehampton, Bowen, Mackay, Keppel Bay, and Somer- 
 set ; the last-named place was their destination, and it was 
 here that they landed. 
 
 "We utilized the time of stoppage at each port by going 
 
COAL MIXES AT NEWCASTLE. 311 
 
 on shore," said Harry in his journal. "Except for the 
 exercise of the trip, we might about as well have staved 
 on board, as there was very little to be seen at any of the 
 places. The coast towns of Queensland are pretty much 
 all alike. They have from one to two thousand inhabi- 
 tants each, and though they're pretentiously laid out, they 
 consist of little more than a single street. On the streets, 
 other than the principal one, there are scattered houses, 
 where the owners of land have endeavored to increase the 
 value of their property by putting up buildings, but gener- 
 ally with poor success. For pavement the natural earth 
 is obliged to answer, as most of these towns are too poor 
 to afford anything better. The streets are very dusty in 
 dry weather, and very muddy after a rain. At one of the 
 places where we landed there had been a heavy shower 
 the night before, and the main street was a great lane of 
 mud. Ned said the street was a mile long, eighty feet 
 wide, and two feet deep ; at least, that was his judgment 
 concerning it. 
 
 "One thing that impressed us in these towns was that 
 hardly a man in any of them had a coat on. Everybody 
 was in his shirt sleeves, and if he had a coat with him, 
 he carried it on his arm. For the novelty of the thing, 
 we took dinner at a hotel in Mackay, more with a view of 
 seeing the people that went there, than with an expectation 
 of a good meal. There w r ere squatters from the back 
 country, planters, clerks, merchants, lawyers, and doctors, 
 all with their coats off, and we were told that this habit 
 of going without coats is universal. One man who had 
 lived there a good while said, ' You may go to a grand 
 
312 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 dinner party, and find the ladies dressed in the height of 
 fashion, and the gentlemen in their shirt sleeves.' I don't 
 wonder that they have adopted this plan, as the climate is 
 very warm. The region is decidedly tropical, the air is 
 damp and oppressive, and in the daytime especially the heat 
 is almost insupportable. I wonder, though, that they don't 
 adopt the white linen jacket for dinner purposes, just as 
 the Europeans living in China and Japan have done. 
 
 " Somerset, where we landed, is principally a pearl- 
 fishing station, and the pearl fishers who live there are a 
 very rough-looking lot. The business is very profitable, 
 those engaged in it estimating that the pearls pay all the 
 expenses of their enterprise and a little more, while the 
 nacre, or mother-of-pearl, the smooth lining of the shells, 
 is a clear profit. The exportation of shells from Queens- 
 land is worth, annually, about half a million dollars. The 
 pearl shells sell ordinarilv for about one thousand dollars 
 a ton. They are gathered by black divers under the 
 superintendence of white men. 
 
 " These white men own the sloops and schooners de- 
 voted to the pearl fishery, and they go out with these craft, 
 taking along a lot of black men as divers. The diving is 
 done in the same way as in pearl fisheries all over the 
 world, so that there is no necessity of describing it. The 
 shells are like large oyster shells ; in fact, they are oyster 
 shells and nothing else. They are about twenty inches 
 long, and from twelve to fifteen inches from one side to 
 the other; so, you see, it doesn't take many oysters to 
 make a load for a diver. The divers are paid according 
 to the number of shells they gather, and not by fixed 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 313 
 
 wages. A man familiar with the business said, that if 
 you paid the men regular wages, you would be lucky 
 if you got one dive out of them daily. 
 
 " I tried to ascertain the value of some of the pearls 
 obtained here," continued Harry, "but my information 
 was not very definite. They told me that several pearls 
 worth rive thousand dollars each had been taken, but they 
 were not very common, the value ordinarily running from 
 a few dollars up to one hundred or two hundred dollars 
 each. My informant said that the best pearls were found on 
 the coast of West Australia, but that the fishery in that lo- 
 cality was more dangerous than on the coast of Queensland. 
 He said that the sea in that locality was subject to hurri- 
 canes, and sometimes an entire fleet of pearl-fishing boats 
 would be overwhelmed and sunk, hardly a man escaping. 
 "These disasters," he said, " do not deter those who sur- 
 vive from taking the risk over again, and there are always 
 plenty of black men who go out as divers there whenever 
 a boat is ready to start." 
 
 To go to the sugar plantation to which our friends were 
 invited, the}- had to make a journey inland, in a wagon 
 over a rough road about forty miles long. The planta- 
 tion was located on both sides of a small river, and em- 
 ployed, at the time of their visit, about one hundred and 
 fifty men. One of the owners was there, and exerted 
 himself to his fullest ability to make the strangers com- 
 fortable and have them see all that was to be seen. They 
 visited the crushing mills and the boiling rooms, and 
 learned a great deal about the process of manufacturing 
 sugar from the sugar cane. 
 
314 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 " We may say briefly," said Ned, " that the cane-stalks 
 are crushed between rollers, and the juice is caught in 
 vats, whence it flows in troughs or pipes to the evaporating 
 house. Here it is boiled till it is reduced to syrup, and 
 then it is boiled again, until it is ready for granulation. 
 Then it is placed in perforated cylinders which revolve 
 with tremendous rapidity. By means of centrifugal force 
 all the moisture is expelled and the dry sugar remains 
 behind." 
 
 Our friends visited the fields where the luxuriant cane- 
 stalks w T ere growing, but they were quite as much inter- 
 ested in the men they saw at work there as in the fields 
 themselves. Harry remarked that the men seemed to be 
 different from any of the Australian blacks they had yet 
 seen in their travels. 
 
 "These are not Australian blacks at all," said their 
 guide ; " they are foreigners." 
 
 " Foreigners ! Of what kind ? " 
 
 "They are South Sea Islanders principally from the 
 Solomon Islands ; some of them are from the New Heb- 
 rides and some from the Kingsmill group." 
 
 "You import them to work on the plantations, I sup- 
 pose?" 
 
 " Yes ; that's the way of it. You see this country is too 
 hot for white men to work in the field, just as your sugar- 
 growing States in America are too hot for him to work in. 
 The blacks are the only people that can stand it, and as 
 for the Australian blacks, they're no good. There are not 
 enough of them anyway, and even if there were, we couldn't 
 rely upon them. An Australian black will never stay in 
 
COAL MIXES AT NEWCASTLE. 315 
 
 one place for any length of time, as you have doubtless 
 learned already. lie is liable to quit at any moment, and 
 that sort of thing we can't stand on a sugar plantation. We 
 must have men to work steadily, and the only way we can 
 get them is by hiring them under contract from some of the 
 Pacific Islands." 
 
 " I think I have read about that somewhere," remarked 
 Harry. "You send small ships out among the islands to 
 pick up the men, and the business is called ' black-birding,' 
 is it not?" 
 
 " Yes, that is the name of it, or rather used to be," was 
 the reply. " Black-birding," along in the seventies, was 
 an outrageous piece of business no better than slave-stealing 
 on the coast of Africa. In fact, it was slave-stealing and 
 nothing else. A schooner would appear off an island, 
 drop anchor and wait for the natives to come out in their 
 canoes, which they were sure to do. Then forty or fifty of 
 them would be enticed on board, and perhaps invited one 
 by one into the cabin, whence a door had been cut through 
 into the hold. They were shoved along one by one until 
 a sufficient number had been obtained and imprisoned be- 
 low, and then the schooner set sail and left the island. 
 
 "Sometimes one of the officers was dressed up like a 
 clergyman, with a white necktie, broad-brimmed hat, and 
 blue spectacles, and wrapped in a long black cloak. He 
 carried a large book under his arm, and was a very good 
 counterfeit of a missionary. He was rowed to the shore, 
 where he would inform the natives that their old friend, 
 Rev. Dr. Williams, was on board the vessel and would 
 like to see them, and he would very much like some fresh 
 
316 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 fruit. He explained the doctor's failure to come on shore 
 by saying that he had fallen on deck and broken his leg 
 the day before, and was then confined to his cabin. 
 
 "The natives would hasten to gather a large supply of 
 fruit and take it on board the schooner. Their fruit was 
 piled on deck, and one by one they were taken below, 
 ostensibly to see their disabled friend, but really to shove 
 them forward into the hold in the manner I have described. 
 When a sufficient number had been entrapped the schooner 
 sailed away, and there was little probability that the de- 
 ceived natives would ever see their island again. 
 
 " That was the method formerly in vogue for supplying 
 labor to the sugar plantations in Queensland. The matter 
 became so notorious that the government investigated it and 
 put a stop to ' black-birding.' At present the business of 
 obtaining men from the Pacific Islands is fairly well con- 
 ducted. On every ship that goes out for that purpose there 
 is a government officer whose duty it is to see that no de- 
 ception or trickery is practised, and that the contracts with 
 the natives are fully understood on both sides before they 
 are signed. 
 
 "We hire these people for three years, and when that 
 period has expired we are obliged to return them to their 
 homes. Formerly, they had the option of renewing their 
 contracts here without going awa} r , and a good many 
 planters were careful to see that the men were heavily in 
 debt at the expiration of their term of service, so that they 
 would be obliged to engage again in order to get them- 
 selves out of debt, which they never did. Now the gov- 
 ernment regulation forbids the renewal of a contract here, 
 
COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE. 3 1 7 
 
 and in order to have the agreement a valid one, it must be 
 made in the island whence the man was brought. Of 
 course this is a hardship where a man really does not 
 want to go home, but, on the whole, it is for the best." 
 
 Harry asked how they managed to get along with the 
 natives of the different islands, and if they proved to be 
 good laborers. 
 
 "As to that," was the reply, "there is a great deal of 
 difference among them. The most of them are indus- 
 trious and do fairly well, but nearly all need a little 
 urging. We don't flog them, as flogging is forbidden by 
 law, but the overseers generally carry long, supple sticks 
 which they know how to handle. They have to be care- 
 ful, though, in using these sticks, as some of the Kanakas, 
 as we call the South Sea Islanders, are revengeful, and 
 they're very handy with knives. 
 
 "The men from the Solomon Islands are the worst to 
 deal with, as they have ugly dispositions : they are in- 
 clined to resent what they believe to be an insult, and they 
 are a strong, wiry race. They are quarrelsome among 
 themselves, and probably their tendency to quarrel is in- 
 creased by the fact that many of them are cannibals. 
 Sometimes we miss one of these fellows, and though we 
 hunt everywhere, it is impossible to find him. There are 
 vague rumors that he has been eaten by his friends. The 
 whole business is carefully concealed from us, and it is 
 very rarely the case that we are able to get at the facts. 
 It generally turns out, when we ascertain anything about 
 it, that the man was killed in a fight, and was then cooked 
 and eaten, to prevent his being wasted." 
 
318 THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. 
 
 Harry remarked that the Solomon Islanders, as he saw 
 them on the plantation, were not a prepossessing lot of 
 people, and he would not care to be among them even for 
 a single day. 
 
 The natives of the Kingsmill group were much more 
 attractive in their appearance, but even they were nothing 
 to be fond of. On the whole, neither of the youths took 
 a liking to the laborers on the sugar plantation, and as 
 the place was said to be infested with snakes, they were 
 quite willing to cut their visit short and return to the coast. 
 
 THE END. 
 
IV. A. Wilde & Co., Publishers. 
 
 
 
 ABOVE THE RANGE. A Story for Girls. By 
 ^± Theodora R. Jenness. 315 pp. Illustrated. Cloth. i2mo. 
 $1.25. 
 
 An Indian story for girls. A mission school for the daughters of the Dakota tribes 
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 nERARH, THE LITTLE VIOLINISTE. By Mrs. C. 
 ^J V. Jamison. 298 pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 A most charming and delightful story of a little girl who had inherited a most re- 
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 RCUTT GIRLS; or, One Term at the Academy. By 
 Charlotte M. Vaile. 316 pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 Mrs. Vaile gives us a storv here which will become famous as a description of phase 
 of New England educational' history which has now become a thing of the past — with 
 an exception here and there. The Academy, once the pride and boast of our fathers, 
 has given way to the High School, and girls and bovs of to-day know nothing of the 
 experiences which " The Orcutt Girls " enjoyed in their " One Term at the Academy. 
 
 ]\/[AL VERN. A Neighborhood Story. By Ellen Douo 
 
 IrJ- las Deland. 341pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 A most attractive and interesting story by a writer who has won a vast audience of 
 young people by her stories. Malvern is a small suburban town in New Jersey. The 
 neighborhood furnishes a queer assortment of boys and girls. How they felt and acted, 
 what they did, and how they did it, forms an interesting narrative. 
 
 AD Y BETTY'S TWINS. By E. M. Waterworth. 
 
 With 12 illustrations. 116 pp. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 A quaint little story of a girl — a little girl — who had a propensity for getting into 
 trouble, because she had not learned the lesson of obedience. She masters u 
 ever as the story tells, and in doing so she and her brother have a number of expeni 
 
 L 
 
 r'HE MOONSTONE RING. By Jennie Chaitell. 
 With 6 full-page illustrations. 116 pp. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 \n old ring plavs an important part in this charming little story. It brings I 
 a spoiled child, the' granddaughter of a rich and indulgent old lady, and a happy little 
 family of three, who, though poor, are contented with their lot. I his acquaintance 
 proves to be of mutual advantage. 
 
 rHE MARJORIE BOOKS. 6 vols. Edited by Lucy 
 Wheelock. About 200 illustrations. Price of set, $1.50. 
 
 A new set of books for the little ones, better, if possible, thati even Dot's Library, 
 which has been so popular. Full of pictures, short stories, and bus of poetry. 
 
 Boston: W. A. Wilde &> Co., 2j Brom 'field Street. 
 
W. A. Wilde &> Co., Publishers. 
 
 WAR OF THE REVOLUTION SERIES. 
 
 By Everett T. Tomlinson. 
 
 HREE COLONIAL BOYS. A Story of the Times 
 o/ , y6. 368 pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 r 
 
 It is a story of three boys who were drawn into the events of the times; is patriotic, 
 exciting, clean, and healthful, and instructs without appearing to. The heroes are 
 manly boys, and no objectionable language or character is introduced. The lessons of 
 courage and patriotism especially will be appreciated in this day. — Bosto?i Transcript. 
 
 rHREE YOUNG CONTINENTALS. A Story of the 
 American Revolution. 364 pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 The second volume of the Jl'ar 0/ the Revolution Series gives a vivid and accurate 
 picture of, and the part which our "Three Colonial Boys" took in, the events which led 
 up to the " Battle of Long Island," which was thought at the time to be a crushing defeat 
 for the Continental Army, but which in fact was the means of arousing the Colonies to 
 more determined effort. 
 
 * V* OTHER I 'OL UMES IN PRE PA RA TION. 
 
 I 
 
 TRAVEL ADVENTURE SERIES. 
 
 By Col. Thos. W. Knox. 
 
 N WLLD A ERICA. Adventures of Too Boys in the 
 
 Sahara Desert. 325 pp. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 This story is a fascinating and instructive one, and we cheerfully commend the book 
 to parents and teachers who have the responsibility of choosing the reading for young 
 readers. — Tlie Religious Telescope, Dayton. 
 
 r HE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. Adventures of 
 Two Boys in the Great Island Continent. 31S pp. Illustrated. 
 Cloth, $1.50. 
 The late Col. Thos. W. Knox was a famous traveler and writer of boys' books of 
 travel and adventure. His last book (finished only ten days before his sudden death) 
 describes a portion of the world in which he took a \ast interest, and of which little is 
 known in this country. Australia, the great island continent, the land of the kangaroo, 
 and a country of contradictions, is most interestingly described. 
 
 ***OTHER VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES ANNOUNCED LA TER. 
 
 r\ UARTERDECK £>> EOK'SLE. By Molly Elliot 
 q^/ Seawell, author of " Decatur and Somers," etc. 272 pp. 
 ^^- Illustrated. $1.25. 
 
 Miss Seawell is exceptionally gifted in the line of instructing and amusing young 
 people at the ante time, and many a boy pricks up his ears at the sound of her name, in 
 the hope of another of her lively, and at the same time instructive and high-spirited 
 volumes. This one will sustain her reputation well, and will be read with eager 
 interest. — Congrcgationalist, Boston. 
 
 Boston : W. A. Wilde &> Co., 23 Brom field Street.