# The Boy Travellers in Australasia/Chapter 18

CHAPTER XVIII.
SEVERAL days were passed agreeably in the pastoral and agricultural region of the Darling Downs, and our friends were overwhelmed with invitations from the hospitable squatters who inhabit that region, Fred said AN AUSTRALIAN PEST.the invitations would have enabled them to spend a year there, and even then he was confident their welcome would not be worn out. Wherever they went they were comfortably lodged and well cared for, and they were unanimous in declaring that the world contained many worse places than the Darling Downs, even among those that were classed as highly attractive.
Frank considered the flies and other creeping and winged things a great drawback to existence in that region. "They have mosquitoes and sand-flies in certain localities," said he, "while others are entirely free from them; but as for the common fly, he is everywhere and is a first-class nuisance. On the coast the flies are said to be troublesome only for a few months in the year, but in the interior they are perennial, and sometimes almost make life a burden. They are worse at some periods than at others, but bad enough ​at all times. In the worst 'fly-time' nobody ventures to ride about without wearing a veil; and men have taxed their ingenuity to keep the pests out of their houses, but practically without success.
"Fleas are also abundant, though not as much so as flies; neither are they seen as much in public. They abound most in sandy places, and the sundowners transport them from one station to another free of charge. A more welcome insect is the common honey-bee; it has long been acclimatized in Australia, and owing to the great number of honey-bearing flowers, it has become very abundant. Bee-farming is an important industry in New South Wales, and is carried on to quite an extent in the other colonies.
THE SAND-FLEA (NATURAL SIZE AND MAGNIFIED).
One day while the youths were strolling in the bush not far from the station, they were startled by the sound of immoderate laughter that seemed to come from among the limbs of a low tree. The sound was repeated after a short interval, and, curious to know the cause, they ​went in its direction. As they neared the tree, two or three birds flew from it and settled in another tree a short distance away. They did not seem at all alarmed at the presence of Frank and Fred, and the latter remarked that the creatures were evidently allowed to go about unharmed. On their return to the station they told what they had seen and heard, and asked what were the birds that had so surprised them.
THE AUSTRALIAN BOWER-BIRD.
"I wonder you have not heard the bird before this," he continued, "as he abounds near the cities and towns as well as in the bush." Then the boys remembered that they had heard the same sound on several occasions, but always supposed it was somebody laughing, and did not consider it any business of theirs to investigate.
"There's another curious bird in Australia," said their informant, "which we call the satin, or bower, bird. He builds a bower, or walk, and decorates it with any gaudy feathers or other things he can find, and also with shells, bleached bones, and similar small objects. So well is his propensity known that when we drop a pipe-bowl or a penknife in the bush, we search for it in the bowers or runs of these birds, and very often find it there. As the bower-bird feeds entirely on seeds and fruits, it is evident that he secures these small things for the sake of ornament."
Fred suggested that perhaps the bower-bird had been infected with the bric-a-brac craze which pervades society in other countries. The ambition to gather a cabinet of curiosities was a fashionable one, and why shouldn't a bird have it as well as any one else.
Frank asked if it was possible to see a lyre-bird in that region, and was disappointed when told that it was rarely seen outside of the fern country of South-eastern Australia. Their authority on birds told them that this winged emblem of Australia was about the size of a pheasant, and had a tail three feet long; the outer feathers of the tail are beautifully marked, and form the lyre from which the bird takes its name. The male bird forms a mound of earth on which he promenades, displaying his beautiful tail to its utmost advantage, in the same way that the peacock exhibits his feathered ornaments. The female is as plain as an ordinary hen, and presents a very mean appearance by the side of her lord.
The youths were further informed that the lyre-bird is an excellent mocking-bird, and could imitate with exactness the notes of all the other feathered denizens of the forest. "He can also," said their authority, "reproduce nearly every sound made by man. Settlers in the region inhabited by these birds are often deceived by them, and many amusing stories are told. Sometimes a man working on his clearing hears somebody chopping wood a short distance away, and a dog barking at his ​heels. He goes in search of the intruder, and finds after a long walk that the 'pheasant' has been making game of him. A man using a cross-cut saw hears somebody doing the same thing, and after searching unsuccessfully for him, discovers that it is the pheasant's performance."
Wallace's standard-wing birds-of-paradise, male and female.
"The great southern continent has many varieties of the parrot ​family; it possesses the king parrot, the bird-of-paradise, the blue mountain-parrot, the cockatoo—blue, white, and crested—lories, paroquets, and love-birds. It has the wild turkey, which we have already mentioned, and a bird closely allied to it, called by the singular name of 'native companion.' Wild-ducks are found all over the country, the 'mountain duck' being the finest; then in their order come the black duck, wood-duck, and the Australian teal, followed by five or six other varieties less known and less liked by sportsmen."
"Don't forget the black swan among the water-birds," said Fred, as Frank paused after reading the foregoing paragraph.
"I was not forgetting him," replied Frank; "what would be our picture of Australia without the black swan? He is found in all the lakes and swamps of the southern coast; in the Gippsland lakes thousands of black swans may HEAD OF THE VALLEY QUAIL.sometimes be seen in a single flock, and the sound of their feet and wings striking the water as they rise for a flight may be heard for miles when the air is still. The black swan is not strictly a game-bird; his flesh is rather rank, but this taste can be removed in cooking, and then he isn't at all bad to eat.
"Going from large birds to small," continued the youth, "I learn that snipe are abundant in many localities, but they do not seem to be appreciated as in England and America. The Argus snipe is the prettiest of the family, and also the most difficult to find; he is beautifully marked on the back and wings, and is a valuable addition to an ornithological collection.
"There are at least a dozen varieties of quail in Australia, and as articles of food they are abundant and cheap. With very little effort a settler in most parts of the country could have quail on toast every day in the year; at least the quail would be easily forthcoming though the toast might not. Cold roast quail and damper are not to be despised for lunch after a long ride in the bush."
​While Frank was busy with the study of the birds of Australia, Fred contemplated with great care the map of the country. He observed that all the mountain ranges were near the coast, so that the course of the larger rivers was towards the interior. "There is not," said he in his note-book, "a single large river flowing into the ocean from all this great continent, with the exception of the Murray. Every other stream is short and insignificant; and even the Murray and its tributaries do not form a first-class river.
A QUAIL FAMILY.
"Steamboats have ascended the Darling to Walgett, 2345 miles from the sea, but they can only do so at certain, or rather uncertain, times, and therefore no dependence can be placed on the navigation of the Murray and its tributaries. The Darling depends on flood-waters; sometimes they will fill the stream to its junction with the Murray, and thence to the sea, and again they fail before going half way. The river can never be navigated throughout the year, and in some years boats are not able to run at all.
​"So my scheme of going down by water to the ocean is not practicable, and we return to the coast the way we came."
And return they did, taking the railway to Brisbane, and thence going by coach and rail to Gympie, the centre of the Queensland gold-mining region, or rather one of its centres, as the colony possesses several auriferous fields. There is a standing offer of a reward of £1000, or $5000, to any one who discovers paying gold-deposits in a new locality upon which there shall be upwards of two hundred men at work six months after the fields are opened. Consequently a great many prospectors are constantly at work, through the double hope of the reward and of making a fortune out of the discovery.
OUT PROSPECTING.
But we are forgetting Frank and Fred in our contemplation of these dry statistics. Here is what Frank wrote concerning their visit to Gympie:
"We came here partly by rail and partly by coach, the railway from Brisbane to Gympie not being completed, though perhaps it will be by ​the time this is in print, if it should ever have such good-fortune. It is one hundred and sixteen miles from Brisbane to Gympie, and sixty-one from here to Maryborough. The town is prettily situated on the side of a range of hills on the river Mary; it has handsome public buildings, and bears every evidence of prosperity. It has a School of Arts, a public library, and other institutions not always to be found in mining towns, and altogether deserves the good name that it bears. It has a population of nearly eight thousand in the municipality alone, and there are four thousand more in the immediate neighborhood.
QUARTZ-MILL IN THE GOLD-MINES.
"We were much interested in hearing about the adventures of Mr. ​Nash, the discoverer of the gold-diggings here. He had been an unsuccessful prospector for twenty years, had gone through all kinds of privations, narrowly escaped death at the hands of the blacks on many occasions, and was almost killed by the earth caving in on him while working a prospect hole. He always went by himself, and worked alone. When he found gold here he managed to work away for three months without interruption; then he was discovered by a stockman, who took a claim next to his and spread the news abroad. Nash became a rich man at last, but his health was ruined, and he had little real enjoyment of his wealth.
AUSTRALIAN GOLD-HUNTERS.
"The town consists practically of a single street which straggles up and down for more than a mile, with here and there an attempt to run ​a lateral street in the direction of a mine or a crushing-mill. Most of the houses are of wood, and scattered over the hills are the huts of the miners, in order that they may be near the places where they are employed. This does not prevent their coming into the town in the evening, and occasionally making it a very lively place. In the early days there were the usual disorderly scenes of the centre of a 'gold rush;' and one of the old inhabitants told us that a few months after the discovery became known, it seemed as though half the bad characters in Australia had congregated there.
A GOLD-MINER'S HOME.
A CHINESE DISCUSSION.
Here they took steamer for Sydney, touching at Brisbane, Newcastle, and several other ports of lesser consequence. During their voyage they became acquainted with a resident of one of the northern ​ports, who had much to say about the advantages of his part of the colony, and greatly regretted that they had not been able to visit it.
"It's a pity," said he, "that you missed the Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the most remarkable geographical and geological phenomena to be found anywhere on the globe. It stretches along the whole eastern coast from opposite Port Bowen, in latitude 23°, to Torres Strait, at the extreme north of Queensland, and is one thousand two hundred miles long. Its greatest width, which is near its southern end, is about seventy miles, and it is from five to one hundred miles from the shore of the continent. All along its whole length there are sunken reefs, which make navigation in its vicinity very dangerous. Many a ship has been lost on this reef, and scores or hundreds of persons have found a watery grave by its side."
Fred asked if a ship inside the reef was obliged to go its entire length before finding an opening to the ocean.
"Not at all," was the reply. "There are many openings to the ocean through the reef, some of them very narrow and others several miles in width; and the reef contains specimens of all kinds of coral formation—atolls, fringing reefs, and others. The portion of the reef above water, and the numerous coral islands near it, are thought to have an aggregate surface of thirty thousand miles."
"What is supposed to have caused the formation of this reef?" Frank inquired.
"The outer margin of the Great Barrier Reef probably indicates the former coast-line of this part of Australia," was the reply. "This was fringed with coral reefs; but as the land sank, the coral animals continued to build upward to the level of the sea, and thus a great ridge was formed which was broken and heaped up by the waves of the Pacific. Fresh water prevents the formation of coral, and the openings in the Great Barrier Reef are thus formed by the fresh-water streams. The largest is opposite the mouth of the Burdekin River, which drains a considerable area of country.
"The reef is a good place for sport, just as are the reefs of the Feejee, Samoan, and Society Islands, which you tell me you have visited. Vessels go there in search of beche-de-mer, for which they have a good market in China. The fishery for this curious article of food is practically just the same as in the island groups of the Pacific, and therefore I need not describe it to you.
WRECKED ON THE REEF.
Their new acquaintance had a great deal to say about the northern part of Queensland, whose praises he was never weary of sounding. He declared that within a very few years Queensland would consist of two colonies instead of one, as the north was inclined to cut loose from the south and set up a government of its own. He thought it did not receive its fair share of the public money, and having paid its ​proportion of the taxes, it had a right to grumble when the south received all the appropriations for railways and other costly improvements.
On his arrival in Sydney Doctor Bronson called at once on the gentleman who had invited the party to see the interior of New South Wales. Arrangements were made for immediate departure, and at nine o'clock on the following morning they were off for the upper country.
So far as their experiences of cattle and sheep stations were concerned, they were practically a repetition of what they had gone through in Queensland. A new feature of the trip was a kangaroo hunt to which they were invited, and of which Fred gives the following account:
THE MANATEE, OR DUGONG.
"The largest of the marsupials is the kangaroo, and the next in size is the wallaby. There are eight species of large kangaroo, inhabiting different parts of the country, the prince of them all being the red kangaroo of South Australia. Then come seventeen species of small kangaroos (Halmaturus), weighing from ten to fifteen pounds; and then ​three species of silky-haired kangaroos (Onychogalea), inhabiting the interior of the continent. They weigh eight or ten pounds, and are about the size of a common rabbit; then come five species of hare-kangaroos, five of jerboa-kangaroos, and then the rat-kangaroos, the bandicoots, opossums, 'rabbit-rats,' and numerous other small animals. We'll go back to the large kangaroos, where we began.
EVENING AT HOME ON THE NORTH COAST.
"In former times, when the only human inhabitants of Australia were the savage blacks, the kangaroo was kept from increasing too rapidly, through the combined efforts of the dingoes and the natives. The dingo is the Australian wild dog, and closely allied to the wolf and jackal, of which he is certainly the first-cousin. He is carnivorous, and fond of sheep, and was therefore poisoned and otherwise killed off by the settlers, to prevent his depredations upon the flocks. A bounty was placed on his scalp, and he has been greatly reduced in numbers. The natives have likewise died off since the settlement of the country; and with their natural enemies removed, the kangaroos, which live wholly on grass, have increased till they have become a nuisance. A kangaroo ​eats as much as a sheep, and when a drove is undisturbed its numbers multiply with a rapidity that dismays the squatter on whose land it has made its home.
DINGOES, OR AUSTRALIAN WILD DOGS.
"Our host gave us the foregoing information while we were riding to the place where we were to enjoy the sensation of hunting the kangaroo. He furthermore told us that it was no uncommon thing for them to kill several hundred kangaroos in a single drive, but it could not be called sport. He said a drive wasn't a hunt, and I asked him to explain the difference, which he did.
"The necessity of killing off the kangaroos to prevent their utter destruction of all the grass in the country was forced upon the settlers by the rapid increase of the animals. The Government passed a law giving a bounty for the scalps of kangaroos; and none too soon, as in some parts of the country the droves fairly blackened the plains for many miles, and literally starved the sheep out of the country. The bounty on the scalps, added to the value of the meat and skins, partly paid for the trouble, which required a muster of all the squatters and their employés for a considerable distance around.
"A drive, or battue, is managed in this way: A yard with a high ​fence is built in one of the scrubs on the plains, and from this yard two fences run out on the plain for a long distance, widening like the sides of the letter V. All the men, boys, and blacks in the neighborhood are AUSTRALIAN WILD HORSES.mounted on horseback, and scour the country for many miles around; they move in the direction of the jaws of the V, and when the herd is once inside it, the animals are doomed. They go straight towards the scrub which conceals the yard, and do not discover where they are till they are inside the enclosure. Then the rails are put up, the blacks enter with clubs, and the slaughter begins. A kangaroo can jump clean over a horse, and therefore the fence must be not less than seven feet high to prevent his escape when frightened.
"We were not bent on any such performance, which is nothing but slaughter, though made necessary by the conditions of the country. I may add here that in some parts of the colony it is often necessary to make a drive of wild horses exactly as they drive the kangaroo. It is no uncommon matter for a squatter to make a drive of four or five hundred wild horses, which are killed for their hides, but more especially to prevent their eating the grass, destroying the fences, and enticing tame horses out of the paddocks. We have seen several droves of wild horses, and they look very pretty as they gallop over the plain. We wished we had some of them under the saddle, but were told that the value of the animal rarely pays for the trouble and cost of breaking him. Occasionally horses with brands on them are found in the wild herds; they are impounded and advertised; at least such is the theory, but quite as often they are killed with the rest to save trouble.
"A black boy mounted on a swift horse came riding back to us, and said the kangaroos were in a part of the plain that was concealed from us by a patch of scrub. We moved in their direction, keeping the scrub ​between us and them, so as to get as close as possible before they discovered us.
"Our manœuvre worked very well. There were ten or twelve of the animals feeding quietly, and we were within a few hundred yards of them before they were aware of it. At the first alarm they rose on their hind-legs and took a look all around, and a second later they were away. How they did jump! They seemed to go thirty or forty feet at a time, but our host says it was little if any more than fifteen feet. Even that is a tremendous jump; if you don't think so, just try it.
A KANGAROO BATTUE, OR DRIVE.
"We let loose the dogs, which up to this time had been kept behind us, and they went away without any urging. The dogs are kept for this purpose, just as fox-hounds are kept in England and France, or deer-hounds in Scotland. The dogs soon overtook and pulled down a young kangaroo; this caused some delay, but not much, and they were speedily put on the track of an 'old man' kangaroo, as a full-grown male is called.
"The 'old man' led the dogs a lively chase. He made directly for water, several miles away, which is always the custom of the kangaroo; ​ RED KANGAROO.if he cannot reach water he takes his stand with his back against a tree, and in that position he is a dangerous creature to approach. We followed the dogs as closely as we could, but did not come up to them until the kangaroo was at bay in a pool where the water just left his fore-legs clear as he stood upright.
"The dogs were all experienced in kangaroo-hunting, and knew enough to keep out of reach of his legs. Had they come within grasping distance he would have held them under water till they were drowned, or else have ripped them open with a blow from his powerful hind-leg, which has a claw in the middle capable of inflicting a fatal wound upon man or dog.
"The dogs swam around him, or stood on the shore of the pool, when we came up. The pool was a small one, and the creature realized SHORT EARED KANGAROO.that it was his safest retreat, and he was evidently determined to die game. A shot from a rifle in the hands of one of the men finished him, and he was quickly dragged to the shore. Fortunately, not a dog was killed or injured; rarely does a hunt terminate without some one or more of the dogs receiving a scratch, and nearly every kangaroo-dog in the country has a scar or two to show as evidence of his experience and prowess.
"After this exploit we dismounted, and took our lunch. ​Then we made a circuitous journey homeward, and roused up another 'old man,' which we despatched as he stood fighting with his back to a tree, but not till he had wounded one of the dogs. Another full-grown kangaroo was killed by one of the stockmen the same day, in another part of the run, and the three skins will be properly cured and sent to Doctor Bronson and ourselves as souvenirs of the day's experience.
"We supped on steaks from a young kangaroo; the meat of the old and full-grown animals is too rank to be enjoyable, and is usually fed to the dogs. We had soup made from kangaroo tail, and it was delicious; kangaroo soup has become an article of export, and some epicures are said to prefer it to ox-tail, or even to turtle soup, though I very much doubt the latter statement.
"Our host says the natives in former times were very skilful in killing the kangaroo with the boomerang; when a native armed with this weapon was within reach of a kangaroo, the aim rarely missed. Another way of killing the creature was by stalking. The blackfellow dressed himself with twigs and brush to look like a small tree. In this disguise, and carrying his spear between two toes of his foot, he advanced slowly, taking care to keep to leeward, so that the animal could not get the scent. Slowly he closed up, remaining motionless when the kangaroo looked up, and moving again when it began to graze. Once within spearing distance, he speedily settled the question of dinner or no dinner from the flesh of that identical beast."
Frank asked what became of the skins of the kangaroos when they were slaughtered by wholesale, as already described.
"They are pegged out on the ground and dried," said their host, "and then are shipped to market. Many of them go to America, where they are made into leather for boots and shoes and other purposes. The leather is very tenacious, and almost impervious to water, and the demand for it is said to be increasing. Previous to 1869 very few of the skins were tanned, as the merits of the leather had not become known. The first that were sent to America were sold at a loss, and then in a few years, when their qualities were known, the American tanners could not get enough of them. One firm in Newark, New Jersey, is said to receive six thousand skins every week, and even with that number cannot meet the demand for kangaroo leather."
During the evening, stories of kangaroo hunts were naturally in order, and a goodly number were told; but as all were of the same general character it is hardly necessary to give them. Frank made note of the fact that there is one kind of kangaroo which climbs trees and ​jumps, like a squirrel, from limb to limb. He is called the tree-kangaroo, and has curved claws on his fore-paws to enable him to cling to the branches. He is not a bad pet to have about a park, but his numbers should be judiciously kept down, or he may become a nuisance, like the larger kangaroos that live on the ground.
KANGAROOS IN CAPTIVITY.