The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-03-20
Queer Things In AustraIia.

We have been witnessing strange
phenomena in this region. The blue
sun which shoHe upon US when Ue were
voyaging between Honolulu and Auck-
land seems to correspond with the green
sun seen about the same time by voya-
gers on the Indian Ocean. Ever since
then, at near intervals. the extraordinary
rese-colored 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 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
eve. The presence of a new armament
and new consultations is very impress
siye, 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,
toe, presents q strange, appearance.
Between Melbourne and Sidney one
travels nearly a 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
| a desolate look. In the gray morning
a large ssnative bear was seen clasp
ing telegraph pole as our train passed.
Knowing the passion of bears Tor
honey believed it was cub deluded
by the humming noises into the belief
| that a swarm of bees was near. My
theory was soon upset by discovering
that the ssnative bear" is no bear at all,
but marsupial (Koala); however, il
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" (fsh) is no whiting,
their CHERRY is no cherry, their fly
ing fox'' only big bat. 1t used to be
proverbially reported that "Australis
is a place where the oysters grow or
trees, the fences are made of mahogany
and cherries grow with their stones out
side.n There is no real mahogany il
the country, so far as I can learn, ex
cept it has been imported; the so-callee
cherry is kind of cypress. and the only
truth about the oyster is that about some
harbor oysters cover everything clos'
to the water, including occasionally thu
roots and fallen trunks of trees. (Miser
able little bits of oysters, of which i
wouldtake dozen to fill tablespoon.
More wonderfulis the little 'hand-fsh,
which climbs up on the beach sand
props itself on its fin-hands and look
at one as pertly as a sparrow. "Tas
manian devil'' is a good deal of hum
bug, too. At Auckland heard him de
scribed as fierce. untamable, danger
Gus; at Sydney (his bones only ar
found in New South Wales) he wa
fierce, but not often met with in Tas
mania; at Melbourne he sank to ''al
. ugly little BEAST" in Tasmania it is dis
covered that the poor little nocturna
creature is rare and timid. There
: one creature of whose alleged habits
had heard with some skepticism-th
ground parrot of New Zealand. On in
guiry 1 found the worst reports abou
| it confirmed. This parrot builds its mes
on the ground, and since the introdue
ton of sheep, has been building
chiefly of wool. To obtain this
!, perches on the sleeps back. For som
: time the worst that was feared from thi
' parrot was such small thefts of th
,, golden fleece, but for some years now
|. has taken to tearing through the sheep
! back and dragging out the liver, whic
!, it devours. It has become a pest
= New Zealand since this rapid evolutio
= in English civilization. 1t is a larg
par .ot, but do not think it pretty; i
breast is the color of iron rust.-M. 1
Conway, in Philadelphia Times