RIDING THROUGH THE BUSH.--AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALITY.--ARRIVAL AT THE
STATION.--THE BUILDINGS AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS.--A SNAKE IN FRED'S
BED.--SNAKES IN AUSTRALIA.--UNDERWOOD'S REMEDY FOR SNAKE-BITES, AND WHAT
CAME OF IT.--CENTIPEDES AND SCORPIONS.--A VENOMOUS SPIDER.--NOCTURNAL
NOISES AT A CATTLE-STATION.--HORSES AND THEIR TRAITS.--BUCK-JUMPING AND
ROUGH-RIDING.--HOW A "NEW CHUM" CATCHES A HORSE.--ENDURANCE OF
HORSES.--AMONG THE HERDS OF CATTLE.--RIDE TO A CATTLE-CAMP.--DAILY LIFE
OF THE STOCKMEN.--CASTE IN AUSTRALIA.--SQUATTERS AND FREE
SELECTORS.--HORRIBLE ACCIDENTS IN THE BUSH.--A MAN EATEN ALIVE BY
ANTS.--BURNED TO DEATH UNDER A FALLEN TREE.--CHASING AN EMU.--ROUSING A
FLOCK OF WILD TURKEYS.
On their arrival at Roma, Doctor Bronson and his young companions spent
the night, or what remained of it, in a hotel that was anything but
comfortable by comparison with the spacious caravanseries of the city,
but fully as good as they had expected to find in an interior town.
After an early breakfast they were taken in a light but strong wagon,
drawn by two powerful horses, to the station of their host.
[Illustration: THE TEAM.]
The road lay through an undulating country in which there was an
agreeable diversity of open areas interspersed with gum forest and cut
up with numerous gullies, ruts, and holes, which gave a liberal amount
of exercise to the occupants of the vehicle. Mr. Watson said it was an
excellent road in the dry season, but anything but agreeable after heavy
rains had converted it into a long stretch of mud. "One of my neighbors
used to say," he continued, "that the road between our houses was ten
miles long, twenty feet wide, and two feet deep; and he was not far from
the mark."
We will let Frank tell the story of what they saw and heard at the
station; and we may add that where he found his memory at fault while
writing his account of the sheep and cattle raising business, he
refreshed it by glancing at several books on the subject, and
particularly at "Advance Australia!" by the Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton.
"We stopped several times on our way from Roma," said Frank in his
narrative, "as our host seemed to know everybody in the country, and
wished us to meet as many of his acquaintances as we could. Every one
was hospitable, and it was not easy to get away; partly for this reason
and partly in consequence of the distance, it was almost sundown when we
reached the station, which was quite a village of houses. The principal
house, where the owner and his family lived, was in an enclosure perhaps
two hundred feet square. There were several trees in the enclosure, and
a perfect wilderness of vines and creepers of many kinds. The vine most
abundant was the scarlet geranium, which is supposed to keep away
snakes; but if half the stories we heard are true, its virtue is not
absolute in this respect.
[Illustration: PETS AT THE STATION.]
"The house was a two-story building of wood, about fifty feet by thirty,
and stood upon posts, or piles, seven feet high, each post having a
geranium vine growing around it. There was a wide veranda all around the
house; the space on the ground was occupied with dining-room, pantry,
store-room, office, and bath-room, and was easily accessible on all
sides. There was a huge fireplace in the dining-room, and also one in
the large sitting-room directly above it. On the same floor with the
sitting-room there were four good bedrooms. One of these was given to
Doctor Bronson; the others being occupied by the family, Fred and I were
shown to a small house just outside the yard, where were two very good
rooms, plainly but comfortably furnished. After arranging our toilets we
returned to the big house, and were ready for dinner, which was shortly
announced.
"We dined substantially on roast mutton, preceded by a soup of kangaroo
tail, and followed by a plum-pudding which had been put up in London and
sent to Australia in a tin can. We spent an hour or two in the
sitting-room listening to tales of Australian bush life, and then
started for bed; and thereby hangs a tale.
"Fred's room was separated from mine by a thin partition. When Mr.
Watson left us Fred remarked that he was quite ready for a good sleep,
as he was very tired. As he spoke he turned down the bed-clothes, and
then shouted for me to come quick.
"'Here's a big snake in my bed!' said he. 'Come and help me kill him.'
"Mr. Watson heard the remark, and hastened back before I could get to
where the snake was.
"'Don't harm that snake,' said he; 'it's a pet, and belongs to my
brother. It's nothing but a carpet snake.'
"With that Fred cooled down, but said he didn't want any such pet in his
bed, even if it was nothing but a carpet snake. The serpent, which was
fully ten feet long, raised his head lazily, and then put it down again,
as if he was quite satisfied with the situation and did not wish to be
disturbed.
"Mr. Watson explained that the snake had no business there, and without
more ado he picked the creature up by the neck and dragged it off to a
barrel which he said was its proper place. After he had gone Fred and I
put a board over the top of the barrel to make sure that the reptile did
not give us a call during the night. Poverty is said to make one
acquainted with strange bedfellows, but poverty can't surpass Australian
bush life where a man finds a snake in his bed altogether too often for
comfort.
"While we are on this subject," Frank continued, "we will have a word
about the snakes of Australia. The carpet snake, to which we were so
unceremoniously introduced, is the largest of the family, and is really
harmless, so far as its bite is concerned, though it has powers of
constriction that are not to be despised. It lives upon small game which
it can easily swallow, and occasionally ventures upon a young wallaby or
kangaroo. It may be kept as a pet, as you have seen; but as it can't
sing, doesn't learn tricks, never undertakes to talk, and does nothing
for the amusement or entertainment of its owner, I don't understand why
anybody should want to pet it. But there's no accounting for tastes. It
catches a few rats and other vermin, and occasionally creates havoc in
the chicken-yard.
[Illustration: THE TIGER SNAKE.]
"There are five deadly serpents in Australia--the black snake, the brown
snake, the tiger snake, the diamond snake, and the death-adder. The
black and brown are most common, and the brown snake frequently reaches
a length of nine feet. The most vicious and dangerous is the tiger
snake, which seems to be allied to the _cobra-de-capello_ of India, as,
when irritated, it flattens and extends its neck to twice its ordinary
size. It secretes its maximum amount of poison in the summer, and its
bite is speedily fatal. The bite of any of the snakes here enumerated
will cause death in a few hours unless the proper antidotes are applied.
"The death-adder is unlike the other snakes in one respect; it never
attempts to get out of any one's way, but lies quite still until it is
touched, when it instantly strikes at its victim. The best-known
remedies for snake-bites are hypodermic injections of ammonia, cutting
out the wound, and swallowing large quantities of brandy or other
spirits.
[Illustration: CAMPING-OUT ON A CATTLE-RUN.]
"Mr. Watson says there was once a man named Underwood, who discovered a
perfectly efficacious antidote to the bite of a poisonous snake. He gave
several performances in which he allowed himself to be bitten by snakes
that were undoubtedly healthy and in full possession of their venomous
powers. Dogs and rabbits that were bitten by the same snakes after they
had tried their fangs on Underwood died very soon afterwards; and it
must be remembered that the second bite of a snake is always less
poisonous than the first. After being bitten by the snakes, Underwood
applied a remedy which was known only to himself, and soon recovered
from the effects of the bite.
"The manner of his death is a very convincing proof of the perfection of
his remedy. One day, while under the influence of liquor, he allowed
himself to be bitten by a snake; in consequence of his intoxication he
was unable to find his antidote, and so he died of the bite. His secret
perished with him; he had demanded £10,000 ($50,000) for it, which the
Government refused to pay, as they thought the price exorbitant.
"Every new chum--freshly arrived men in the colonies are known as 'new
chums'--has a nervous apprehension about snakes when he first sets foot
in the bush, and has quite likely provided himself with a pair of long
boots as a protection against venomous reptiles. Within a week or so
this feeling wears off, and after a while a man thinks no more about
snakes than in England or the United States. Most of the deaths from
snake-bites occur among the laborers in the fields, and altogether they
are by no means uncommon. In some localities one might go about for
years without seeing a snake, while in others the deadly reptiles are so
numerous that caution must be exercised. The worst regions are said to
be the cane-fields of the Mackay district and the reed-beds on the
Murray River.
[Illustration: THE POISONOUS SPIDER (MAGNIFIED).]
"There are centipedes and scorpions in Australia whose bite is
poisonous, and there is a black spider about the size of a large pea,
with a brilliant crimson mark on its back. It lives in old timber, and
frequently takes up its abode in a house, where it does not wait to be
disturbed before attacking one. Its bite is very painful; death not
infrequently follows it, but more probably the victim becomes hopelessly
insane or paralyzed. Mr. Finch-Hatton tells how he was bitten by one of
these spiders, and within ten seconds he had cut out the flesh and
rubbed the wound with ammonia, which he always kept about him. But his
leg got very bad; the pain for days was intense, and afterwards the
whole leg swelled and became soft, like dough. The wound turned into a
running sore, which did not heal for months.
"We thought we were going to sleep well at the station, but soon found
our mistake. We were not far from a pen where a dozen weanling calves
were shut to separate them from their mothers. The calves kept up a
steady bleating, and their mothers in the paddock close by plaintively
answered them. About the same distance off on the other side was the
chicken-house, and we had the benefit of the voices of the chanticleers.
Cocks in Australia begin to crow at midnight and stop at sunrise. They
must have had a clock to look at, as the first of them crowed exactly at
twelve, and the others followed without a minute's delay. Then a flock
of ducks added their clamor; and the fun was liveliest when a dingo, or
wild dog, set up a howl in the bush. This started all the canines on the
place, and as Mr. Watson and his brother were the owners of four
bull-dogs, six fox-terriers, three cattle-dogs, four kangaroo-dogs, and
two wolf-hounds, I leave you to imagine the sounds that greeted our
ears.
[Illustration: THE PROSPEROUS SQUATTER.]
"One gets used to this sort of thing, like everything else, and on the
second night on the place we slept without much interruption; but on
that first morning we were glad when daylight came, so that we could get
up; and when we saw the beauty of the breaking day we were very glad we
had risen so early. There was a peculiar freshness about the air, and
the scent of the gum-trees was clearly perceptible. Over the low ground
there lay a thin mist, which the rising sun dispelled, and then as the
sunlight came breaking over the landscape it bathed the whole scene in
an atmosphere of gold. Ducks flapped their wings over the surface of a
pond a few hundred yards away; crows sailed around in the air or perched
on trees not far from the dwelling-house, and two or three other birds
added their notes to the chorus. Chickens, pigeons, and other domestic
birds gathered in front of the storehouse, waiting for their morning
meal; cows were lowing and horses neighing in the yards, and everything
betokened activity.
"We went in the direction of the yards, and as we did so a black boy
came dashing up behind a drove of thirty or forty horses which he had
brought in from the great paddock. They were intended for the day's
riding, and one of the men about the place told us that it is the custom
on an Australian station to bring up the horses every morning in this
way, and turn them out again after the selections for the day have been
made.
[Illustration: "I'M WAITING FOR YOU."]
"The stock-keepers were on hand to pick out their horses, and we watched
the work with a good deal of interest. Australian horses have a bad
reputation, and as we saw the men going into the yard we felt sure there
would be a lively time; but, contrary to our expectations, the animals
quietly submitted, and were saddled and bridled without the least
resistance. The horses are cunning creatures and know their masters, so
that when an old hand approaches them they thoroughly understand the
folly of resistance, as it is sure to bring punishment.
[Illustration: PERFORMANCE OF A BUCKER.]
"It was very different the next morning when a new chum went in to catch
a horse. With the aid of a black boy he cornered it off in the yard, and
then, with the bridle over his arm, approached it slowly and with
soothing words, which might as well have been addressed to a grisly
bear. Australian horses are cruelly treated all their lives, and
consequently they nearly all have vicious tempers, on which kindness is
wholly thrown away. The horse immediately understood the man to be a
stranger in the country, and proceeded to act accordingly. The
expression of his eye and the droop of his quarters were not to be
misunderstood; and just as the man put out his hand with the bridle, the
horse gave a snort and a rush, knocking down his would-be captor, and
then galloped round and round the yard with his tail in the air.
"Again the man got the horse in a corner, and just as he was about
getting the bridle into place the brute put his head over the fence,
where it could not possibly be reached, and at the same time spitefully
threw his heels in the air in a way that made the new chum look out for
his safety. Three or four other attempts were made, to the great delight
of the old hands, who always sit on the fence and watch the performance
until they grow weary of laughing; then they come to the relief of the
novice, and saddle and bridle the horse for him at once.
[Illustration: THE MILKING YARD.]
"After the horse had been saddled the new chum tried to mount him. He
got safely into the saddle, but hardly was he seated before the beast
begun to 'buck,' as we call it in America, or 'buck jump,' as it is
designated here. The horse brought his head and all his feet together,
arched his back till it resembled a section of the dome of a church, and
then jumped up, down, sidewise, forward, backward, and in every other
direction in very rapid succession. The man was a good rider, and
managed to stick until the horse lay down and tried to roll over him,
when he slid out of the saddle and gave up.
[Illustration: COMING IN FROM PASTURE.]
"Then one of the old hands tried the horse, which repeated the
performance, but not so successfully, as the rider suddenly pulled the
animal's head up and prevented his falling to the ground. Practised
riders sometimes show their skill by putting a silver coin the size of a
half-dollar between each thigh and the saddle, and retaining it there in
spite of all the plunging and bucking of the animal.[11] One of the men
gravely told us he had seen a man thrown twenty feet into the air by a
bucking horse, and then come down astride the saddle in exactly the
right position. Another said he had seen a horse swell himself suddenly,
so as to burst the girths of the saddle; the saddle and the man on it
then went fully ten feet into the air, and came down on the horse all
right and in order. We had intended to tell them about the remarkable
riding of Buffalo Bill and his cow-boys, but after these two stories we
had nothing to say.
[11] In an article on "Ranch Life in the Far West," in _The Century
Magazine_ for February, 1888, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt says: "The
flash-riders, or horse-breakers, always called 'broncho-busters,' can
perform really marvellous feats, riding with ease the most vicious and
unbroken beasts, that no ordinary cow-boy would dare to tackle. Although
sitting seemingly so loose in the saddle, such a rider cannot be jarred
out of it by the wildest plunger, it being a favorite feat to sit out
the antics of a bucking horse, with a silver half-dollar under each knee
or in the stirrups under each foot."
"Australian horses are credited with remarkable endurance. A ride of a
hundred miles between sunrise and sundown is not a wonderful
performance. There is a story of a man who rode a pony a hundred miles
in a day, and then carried it a hundred yards; but it is proper to add
that the pony died from his rough usage. One horse carried his rider, a
Mr. Lord, two hundred and sixty-three miles in three days, and suffered
no ill effects from doing so. The distances made were eighty-eight miles
the first day, eighty-three the second, and ninety-two on the third. Mr.
Lord weighed one hundred and ninety-nine pounds, so that the horse had
no feather-weight to carry.
[Illustration: AN AUSTRALIAN STOCK-RIDER.]
"We were called away to breakfast before the men had finished their work
with the horses, as some were to be reserved for the use of the
strangers. Mr. Watson had given orders that the best horses were to be
turned over to us; not the best from the stockman's point of view, but
those of the kindest disposition and least addicted to tricks. A horse
without any bad tricks is not easy to find on an Australian station; if
what we were told about their breaking is true, it is no wonder.
[Illustration: UNSTEADY SEAT.]
"There are men who go about breaking horses for eight or ten dollars a
head. They are regular cow-boys, who cannot be thrown out of a saddle by
any motions the horse may make short of lying down and rolling over
them. A lot of young horses which have never been in a yard twice in
their lives are driven up into an enclosure; a horse is selected,
separated from the herd, and driven into a small yard by himself. He is
lassoed or secured in some way, and a saddle and bridle are put on him.
While the animal is held by his assistants, the horse-breaker mounts,
and then sticks his spurs into the poor beast and sets him to bucking
till he is tired out and gives in; then the horse is left for a few
hours with the saddle on. After two or three days of this kind of
treatment he is turned over to his owner as 'broken.'
"The Australian saddle is very much like the Mexican, or like that used
in the Western States of North America and on the frontier. It has a
high pommel and cantle, weighs not far from twenty pounds, and is used
with a saddle-cloth beneath it, the same as the Whitman and other
well-known saddles of American make. Some riders prefer English saddles,
but they are useless for bucking horses. A gentleman who has had a great
deal of experience in Australia says he has seen men ride very bad
buck-jumpers barebacked, and has often _heard_ of men who could ride
them in an English saddle, but he never saw it done, and does not
believe such a thing possible.
"For breakfast we had broiled steak, with fried eggs and bacon, plenty
of good bread, some pickles and jam, washed down with strong tea. Coffee
is not often used in the Australian bush, the greater convenience of tea
having made it much more popular. Living in the bush is not luxurious,
and on many stations the unvarying round of tea, damper, and beef or
mutton soon becomes monotonous. These are the staples of food;
vegetables of any kind are rarely seen; and as for pickles, jam, and the
like, they are luxuries which only the prosperous can afford. 'Damper'
is dough baked in hot ashes or on a hot stone; when you are hungry and
the damper is fresh, it is by no means unpalatable; but cold damper
requires an excellent appetite to get it down.
[Illustration: A NEW CHUM'S FIRST RIDE.]
"Soon after breakfast the horses were brought up, and we started, under
the guidance of Mr. Watson, for a ride among the cattle. The run, as a
cattle or sheep range is called (the word corresponding in usage to the
American 'ranch'), was about twenty miles square, and was said to be an
excellent one, as the grass was good and there was plenty of water.
Cattle and sheep runs are frequently much larger than this; I heard of
some that covered areas of more than six hundred square miles, and were
capable of carrying thirty thousand head of cattle; but such runs are
becoming more and more rare every year.
"The large runs have two or three, and sometimes more, stations, or
residences, with yards and buildings; one of them is the 'head station,'
where the owner or manager lives, and from which orders are sent out.
Each station has from one to three or four stockmen, with as many black
assistants; this force is sufficient for managing the cattle; and each
station has its herd of horses, which are driven up every morning, as
already described. The horses are in a paddock, or fenced pasture, but
the cattle roam at large and are generally about half wild. Some of the
runs have boundary fences; but this is by no means the rule, and the
consequence is that cattle of different owners are constantly mixed up
and require separating.
[Illustration: A STAMPEDE.]
"All over the runs there are cattle-camps at intervals of a few miles;
these are level places, free from stones, and with plenty of water, and
it is part of the stockman's work to accustom the cattle to run to these
camps whenever they hear the crack of his whip. Driving into camp is
called tailing, or mustering, and we were bound on a mustering
expedition to a camp five or six miles away. The object of the muster
was to draft some bullocks to sell to a cattle-dealer who arrived at
the station about the time we did.
[Illustration: A FREE SELECTOR AT HOME.]
"Two of the stockmen had been sent off very early in the morning to work
the other side of the camp; we jogged on at an easy pace through
alternating forest and open ground, where sometimes we could not see
half a mile in any direction, and again coming out to ridges where we
had an extensive view. We had gone about three miles when suddenly we
came upon a mob of some fifty or sixty cattle that went off in the right
direction as soon us they heard the cracking of the whips. Mr. Watson
said they would go straight to the camp, and Fred and I might follow
them, which we did. Sure enough, they took us right where we wished to
go; and when we reached the camp we saw fully five hundred cattle
gathered there in charge of the two stockmen from the other side.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE WEEKLY MAIL.]
"The rest of the party had turned off to the right as soon as our mob of
cattle started, and didn't come up to us until we had been fully half an
hour on the ground. They were preceded by three or four mobs of cattle
that came dashing in with tails in the air, and acting as though they
enjoyed the sport.
"The camp was a picturesque sight. The stockmen and the black boys were
riding constantly around the herd, to keep the animals from straying or
breaking away; the cattle were moving restlessly about, the cows lowing
for their missing calves, the bullocks indulging in an occasional fight,
in which none of them was hurt, and the whole herd separating
occasionally into little groups composed of those that had been
accustomed to run together on the pastures. The camp was partially
covered with a very thin forest of iron-bark trees, and the white, red,
and roan colors of the animals made a very pretty contrast against the
black tinge of the wood and the green of the grass.
"We dismounted, and sat down on a log, while the stockmen and the
cattle-dealer proceeded to draft out the animals that were wanted. I may
as well explain some of the terms used here, as they will doubtless seem
strange in America.
"A 'mob' is a bunch or group of cattle that have assembled for grazing
purposes. A herd consists of several or many mobs.
"'Tailing' is the assembling of one or a few mobs at the stock-yards or
cattle-camps; tailing is sometimes called mustering, but the latter term
applies more particularly to the annual or semi-annual assemblage of all
the cattle belonging to a run for the purpose of counting, branding, and
other operations to which cattle are devoted. The muster is exactly
analogous to the American 'round-up.'
[Illustration: "CUTTING OUT."]
"Unruly cattle in Australia are termed 'rowdy;' 'drafting' is the
process of selecting animals from the herds, and when they are rowdy, as
they generally are, the performance is by no means free from danger. Not
infrequently drafting is called 'cutting out.'
"The word 'squatter' in Australia has a meaning almost the reverse of
its American one. In America a squatter is the occupant of a small area
of land on which he has 'squatted,' or settled, with a view to
acquiring title under the homestead laws, or perhaps to being bought off
by somebody else. In Australia the squatter is the holder of a run which
he obtains by lease from the Government for a term of years, paying an
annual rental of ten shillings per square mile, with a privilege of
renewal, and also with the right of pre-emption or actual purchase.
"What we call a squatter in America is here a 'free selector;' he has
the privilege of selecting land not already occupied for agricultural
purposes, and between the squatters and the free selectors there is a
feeling of great hostility. The laws of the colony have been subject to
a great deal of change in the last twenty years; the squatters feel that
they have been unfairly treated, and we heard many stories of down-right
hardship.
"Into this question of the rights of land-owners in Australia we will
not enter, as the discussion would be an interminable one. More
interesting to the boys at home will be the performance of drafting
cattle from the herd.
[Illustration: MUSTERING CATTLE.]
"A small mob of cattle was separated from the herd and driven away a
little distance to serve as the nucleus of the draft-mob. Then the
cattle-dealer and two of the stockmen rode into the herd and selected
the animals they wanted; each man was mounted on a good 'camp-horse,'
one used to cutting out cattle, and it was interesting to see the
intelligence of the horses in their work. The men selected the bullocks
they wanted, and then edged them out in the direction of the draft-mob;
most of the bullocks were rowdy, and gave the men a lively chase before
they submitted to be separated from their fellows.
"The horse followed the bullock wherever he went, as though the latter
was leading him. Over rocks, fallen trees, and among upright ones went
the bullocks, with men and horses after them, and it was a wonder that
none of the men had their necks broken in the chase. Accidents do
happen, however, and sometimes they are fatal; one occurred at this very
place a few months ago, a stockman being killed by his horse falling and
then rolling over him. He was a graduate of Cambridge College, in
England, the son of a gentleman of good position but small fortune, and
had come to Australia to make his way in the world.
"In speaking of this incident Mr. Watson said that a considerable
proportion of the stockmen in Australia were men of education and of
good families, who had come to the new country because it afforded
better means of advancement than they could hope for at home. It is no
disgrace in Australia for a man to work with his hands for an honest
living, any more than it is in the new States and Territories of the
United States. I heard a story of an ex-officer of a crack regiment of
dragoons who cut wood near Brisbane, loaded it on a wagon with his own
hands, unloaded it at the house of a Government official, and received
his pay for it just as any other wood-dealer might have received it. In
the evening of the same day he dined at a formal dinner at the very
house where he had delivered the wood, and in consequence of his former
rank in the army he escorted the hostess to the table.
"The Premier of one of the colonies--the Premier is equivalent to our
Secretary of State--worked on the public roads when he first came to
Australia, and nobody thinks the worse of him for it; the Minister of
Public Instruction in another colony drove a coal-cart in Sydney, and
there are dozens of men of prominence who have been shepherds,
cattle-drivers, carpenters, bricklayers, and the like. Australia seems
to have taken a leaf out of the history of the United States, and been
greatly benefited by so doing. It appears to be the antipodes of England
in many social customs, just as it is in geographical position and many
of its natural features.
"While we were seated on the log, watching the drafting operations, Fred
asked Mr. Watson about the daily life of the stockmen on a cattle-run.
[Illustration: BRANDING A CALF.]
"Mr. Watson answered that it was active enough, and no man who engaged
in the business need have a bad digestion. The stockman gets his
breakfast early in the morning, and immediately after breakfast the
horses are brought up. Then he starts out over that part of the run
which is assigned to him; he jogs along about five miles an hour,
accustoming the cattle to the sight of men, keeping his own mobs inside
the boundaries and driving back those of his neighbors, hunting up stray
calves, and bringing them home and branding them, and occasionally
driving the cattle to the camps, so that they will know what is expected
of them when they hear the cracking of the whip.
"Sometimes the man is accompanied by a black boy, but quite as
frequently he goes alone. 'Really it ought to be the rule for a stockman
never to go out alone,' said Mr. Watson, 'as there are so many dangers
connected with bush-riding, and on my run I insist upon it.
[Illustration: DIED ALONE IN "THE BUSH."]
"'Many accidents have happened, and the history of the colonies is full
of melancholy stories about men who fell and were crippled away from
home, and died in consequence. Many a man has disappeared, and no trace
of him has ever been found; in other cases bleaching skeletons have been
discovered years later, and the few who have not forgotten the missing
men will connect these skeletons with their fate.
"'There was a horrible case,' said Mr. Watson, 'that is fresh in the
memory of many men. A man was riding alone in the bush, when his horse
threw him and injured his spine in such a way that he could not move.
Close to where he fell was an enormous ants' nest, and when the man was
found, three days after the accident, he was still alive and conscious,
but unable to speak, his body having been half devoured by the ants. He
died a few hours after, and it is awful to think of what his sufferings
must have been.
"'A parallel to this terrible story is found in the fate of a woodman
who was felling trees in the forest several miles from any one else. A
burning tree fell on him and pinned him to the ground, but without doing
him any serious injury. He was unable to extricate himself, and for the
day and a half it took for the fire to smoulder slowly to him he was
fully aware of his impending fate. He scratched an account of the
occurrence on a tin dish that lay within his reach; when he was found
his body was so charred and blackened that it would not have been
recognized as the remains of a man had it not been for the tin dish that
told the horrible story. The tree which fell on him was of a kind that
has the peculiarity of smouldering slowly and leaving nothing but a
track of white ashes on the ground.'
"Each of us had brought his dinner, tied at the back of his saddle; and
after looking on a while at the drafting, we went to a spring near by
and heartily enjoyed our meal. It consisted simply of beef and bread,
and was eaten from the fingers in a very primitive way. Soon after
dinner we rode back to the station, leaving the stockmen and their
assistants to bring up the drafted animals, while the rest were let
loose again.
[Illustration: THE EMU.]
"On our return we saw a young emu, the famous bird that is sometimes
called the Australian ostrich. Fred and I started after him, but we
might as well have tried to run down a railway-train; he left us out of
sight in less than ten minutes, although we were on fairly good horses.
Mr. Watson said the speed and endurance of these birds was really
wonderful; he had often tried to run them down, but had only succeeded
in a single instance, and that by a sudden spurt when the bird was
frightened. Hunters on fleet horses sometimes run down these birds, and
they can also be overtaken by swift-footed dogs.
"He said the funny thing was that the emu struggles along as though just
ready to drop dead with exhaustion, keeping not far from ten yards in
front of the horse, and regulating his speed according to that of his
pursuer. Doctor Bronson said he was like the jack-rabbit of our Western
plains, that will keep about the same distance in front of a dog, no
matter how fast the latter may run.
"The bones of the emu contain an oil which is used by the natives for
curing sprained sinews and swollen joints. It has remarkable qualities,
as it is said to sweat through the side of a glass bottle; the natives
believe that if applied to the joints of a person who has not reached
maturity, it will soften the bones and render them brittle.
"Soon after losing sight of the emu we roused up a flock of wild
turkeys; one of the stockmen carried a gun, and by circling in the
direction of the birds he got near enough to bring down two of them.
They are very shy of persons on foot, but can be approached on horseback
with comparative ease."