# The Boy Travellers in Australasia/Chapter 16

CHAPTER XVI.
THE TEAM.
The road lay through an undulating country in which there was an agreeable diversity of open areas interspersed with gum forest and occasional scrub. The road was good for a track in the bush, but was 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."
PETS AT THE STATION.
"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.
"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 diningroom, 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.
THE TIGER SNAKE.
"'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.
"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.
CAMPING-OUT ON A CATTLE-RUN.
"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.
"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. THE POISONOUS SPIDER (MAGNIFIED).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 THE PROSPEROUS SQUATTER.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.
"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 ​ "I'M WAITING FOR YOU."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.
"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.
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.
THE MILKING-YARD.
"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. 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.
COMING IN FROM PASTURE.
​"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.
AN AUSTRALIAN STOCK-RIDER.
​"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 AN UNSTEADY SEAT.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.
A NEW CHUM'S FIRST RIDE.
​"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.
A STAMPEDE
A FREE SELECTOR AT HOME.
ARRIVAL OF THE WEEKLY MAIL.
"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.'
"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.'
"CUTTING OUT."
"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 downright 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.
"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.
MUSTERING CATTLE.
"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.
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.
"'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.
DIED ALONE IN "THE BUSH."
THE EMU.
"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.
"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."