The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-03-22
Queer Things In Australia.

We have been witnessing strange
phenomena in this region. The blue
sun which shone upon us when we were
voyaging between Honolulu and Auck-
land seems to correspond with the green
sun seen about the same time by yoya-
| gers on the Indian Ocean. Ever since
then, at near intervals, the extraordinary
rose-colorcd afterglow has followed the
sunsets. The sunsets in Australia are
said to have been always splendid, but
the metereologists here have not
hitherto observed these afterglows any
more than the sea captains have OBJ
served blue and green suns. One night
at st. Kilda, which looks westward
| over the sea, we saw the afterglow as
sumo the exact form of an aurora, with
shooting and pulsating columns of pink
| light. There is little doubt here that
these phenomena are connected with
that tremendous volcanic convulsion in
Java which sank a range of mountains
sixty miles long. A stranger in this
region might easily be persuaded that
the sunsets are normal, so abnormal
seem some of the ordinary phenomena.
The moon is seen so clearly that every
mark on it is often visible to the naked
eye. The presence of a new armament
and new consultations is very impress
sive, and even one not much given to
star-gazing is likely to discover that he
had grown more familiar than he had
supposed with the heavens under which
he was born. The Australian earth,
too, presents strange appearance.
Between Melbourne and Sidney one
travels nearly day amid gum trees,
whose trunks, according TO ones mood,
may appear silvery or blanched in
death. Many of them are indeed dead,
girdled by the farmers. The bush has
desolate look. In the gray morning
large ..native bear was seen clasp
ing telegraph pole as our train passed.
Knowing the passion of bears for
honey l believed it was cub deluded
by the humming noises into the belief
that swarm Of bees was near. My
theory was soon upset by discovering
that the native bear" is no bear at all,
but marsupial (Koala); however, it
loves fruit, and possibly honey. This
animal has only rudimentary tail; its
thumb and second finger are opposed
to the other fingers, and the innermost
toe is opposable like thumb.
This way the Australians have of call
ing things by inappropriate names is
inconvenient. Their 'bear' is no bear,
their "whiting' (ish) is no whiting,
their CHERRY is no cherry, their fly
ing fox" only big bat. 1t used to be
proverbially reported that Australia
is a place where the oysters grow on
trees, the fences are made of mahogany
IL hoi ctr
side" There is no real mahogany in
the country, so far as | can learn, ex-
ccpt it has been imported; the so-called
cherry is kind of cypress, and the only
truth about the oyster is that about some
harbor oysters cover everything close
to the water, including occasionally the
roots and fallen trunks of trees. (Miser-
able little bits of oysters, Of which it
would take dozen to fill tablespoon
More wonderful is the little ''hand-fish,"
which climbs up on the beach sand,
props itself on its fin-hands and looks
at one as pertly as sparrow. ''Tas-
manian devil'' is good deal of hum
bug, too. At Auckland heard him de-
scribed as fierce, untamable, danger
Gus; at Sydney (his bones only are
found in New South Wales) he was
fierce, but not often met with in Tas-
mania; at Melbourne he sank to ian
ugly little beast;' in Tasmania it is dis
covered that the poor little nocturnal
creature is rare and timid. There is
one creature of whose alleged habits l
had heard with some skepticism-
ground parrot of New Zealand. On in
quiry / found the worst reports about
it confirmed. This parrot builds its nest
on the ground, and since the introduce
ton of sheep. has been building it
chiefly of wool. To obtain this it
perches on the sleeps back. For some
time the worst that was feared from this
parrot was such small thefts of the
golden fleece, but for some years now it
has taken to tearing through the sleeps
back and dragging out the liver, which
it devours. 1t has become pest in
New Zealand since this rapid evolution
in English civilization. 1t il a large
parrot, but do not think it pretty; its
breast is the color of iron rust.-M d.
Conway, in Philadelphia Times