Thamanampalli Surekha

merchant, shopkeeper, or mechanic, and their protypes in the old country, excepting that they are more frequently dressed in light clothing, and occasionally substitute a palm-leaf or straw hat for the black "chimney-pot." Our remarks, however, are more immediately applicable to the gentlemen-squatters of the colony. And as it happened on our return to Melbourne that it was the season of the year when they pay their annual visits to the city for the purpose of closing accounts with the storekeepers, we had the very best opportunities of seeing them together. In the streets, at the hotels, and on one occasion where nine-tenths of those in town were five feet nine than above six feet. Generally speaking, they are well-proportioned men, seldom showing any appearance of paunch, or inclination to obesity; vigorous and active while walking, with an upright carriage. They look like men who can stand fatigue, and every one seems perfectly at his ease on horseback. Although rough-riders, yet many show a good seat, and you may frequently detect the training of the riding- school among them. Altogether, there are few communities in the mother-country where her sons can muster so much manly beauty as in the fair province of Victoria. Think of that, ye maidens, who pine away in single wretchedness, the ripeness of your youthful charms, from no other cause than the obvious one, that your rightful mates have left their native shores for the more sunny and prosperous antipodes; while they in turn sigh for your presence, when fortune has smiled upon their exertions. Meet the disparity of sexes there by following in their footsteps, despite the ill-natured remarks of your old-maiden sisters. Under the guidance of our fellow-travellers, who knew every hill and valley as familiarly as a cockney knows the streets and buildings in the city of London, we made across the country away from all beaten tracks. Now skirting some open plain, anon riding along broken ridges, and down again by the margin of streams in her pristine beauty there is a charm unspeakable in traversing there solitudes, especially if the mind had been schooled in the study of the physical sciences, for in this region you are surrounded by a Flora and Fauna unsurpassed in novelty and beauty by any other spot in the world, and we have nut to point to the late discoveries of universal wealth to show the interesting field presented to the geologist in its unexplored mountain-chair. Although the experienced bushman is seldom conversant with the scientific details of those studies in natural history, yet few men posses a more practical knowledge of physical geography than they do. It comes intuitive to some men; and it is surprising to see with what facility they will thread their way through what appears to be perfect labyrinth of hills and trees, for miles and mile, arriving at their destination with the greatest accuracy. Although habitations are few and far between in these thinly-peopled regions, still you are now and then reminded of its occupation by civilised men from meeting in you journey hers and flocks of those gregarious animal which form the wealth of a pastoral country. We had not left the well-cropped pastorals of the sheep-farmer above a mile or so behind, when we entered the cattle-run of his neighbours, our companies. Here the grass was more luxuriant than the run we had left. In many places, where the cattle had not been grazing, it was up to saddle-girths. Although it looked dry and brown, we were told that it had lost none of its fattening qualities; and frequently the poorer settlers mowed it down, and obtained a good price for it as bush hay. It is a fact worth recording that all the Australian grasses are peculiarly adopted to the aridity of the climate; not one of which are indigenous in Europe. And although the European grasses succeed in the humid climate of New Zealand, they cannot survive the summer in Australia, nor take root upon its dry soil,. This may be accounted for by the former possessing a pith, like a rush, in the stem, which probably retains the nourishing properties of the plant during the heat of summer; while the latter, being hollow-stemmed, shrivel up with the searching heat. As we descended by a rocky path upon an extensive flat, surrounded by trees, we roused a noble herd of cattle from their feeding. The sight was animating in the extreme, compared with usual monotony of the bush. The startled animals bounded and gambolled about with all the activity and wildness presented by a herd of bisons in the American prairies; while their homely brown and white colours transformed the scene into an English meadow. This was a mixed herd of cattle, or as the squatters call them, a "mob" of two hundred head, which had been bred upon this particular part of the run. And as a sheep-station is composed of a series of out-stations, with separate flocks, so a cattle-station comprises within its bounds several distinct feeding-grounds, where the cattle are bred. From a strong natural instinct, they never travel beyond this boundary of themselves; and if a herd is sold, it is a difficult matter to keep them away from it. Neither do they require that constant attendance which the shepherds have to pay to their flocks; hence there are not so many men required on a cattle-station as upon a sheep-station. Consequently in these gold-digging times,