quadrupeds. Those who are not cannibals from choice will eat even their own children in times of scarcity.

4. They are very skilful in hunting down their prey. A native on approaching a tree-trunk will lightly tap it, as the wood-pecker does, to know whether there are any hollows beneath the bark which may conceal grubs. If he finds a hollow he inserts a long thin hooked stick and dexterously withdraws, perhaps, a fat grub an inch long and as thick as a finger, which he eats with great relish.

5. Or, his keen eyes detect slight scratches on the bark; he cuts a notch in the trunk large enough for him to insert his great toe, and with this little support begins to climb the tree, cutting more notches as he goes. Then he taps the branches till he has discovered a hollow one, and guessing that the object of his search will be hidden away at the furthest end, he cuts a hole in the branch near that end and draws out an opossum-a marsupial something like the squirrel in its habits.

6. The colonists call the blacks aboriginals, people who have been there from the first, while they give the name of natives to those whites who where born there. The sight of an aboriginal and his lubra (wife) walking through the streets of an Australian city is very comical. They are clad in old blankets or such cast off clothing as they have begged or picked up. The lubra walks in front, toiling and bending under the load of odds and ends which they have collected. The black fellow marches close behind with head erect and spear in hand; he continually taps his lubra's head with his spear to direct her course to the right or left. Women are treated among them as property and are brutally used.

7. The weapons of the aboriginals are the spear, throwing-stick for casting arrows, tomahawk with head of stone, club, and boomerang. This latter is a curiously cut

piece of hard wood which is thrown like a quoit. Its curved edges and thin blade cause it to whirl through the air and strike with great force, often returning to the hand which cast it.

s. Till the aboriginals had learned to fear and respect the whites, they were a constant source of trouble. Accustomed to hunt and kill whatever animals the bush afforded, they imagined they had a perfect right to the colonists' sheep or horses. It was feared that the wild natives of the interior would cut the wires of the central telegraph, either from malice or ignorance.

9. But during the construction of the line, the operators gave several of the curious black-fellows electric shocks, which astonished them beyond measure. They learned to associate the shock with the wires, and the terror caused by the reports of the white-fellow's devil spread like wild-fire among the savages. The line has never been interfered with; they have attacked the operators at the stations, sometimes with fatal consequences, but they fight shy of the wires.

10. It seems impossible to win these dwellers in the bush to a settled life. Children brought up with whites escape to the bush as soon as they can.

LESSON 67.-THE SETTLERS.

1. We have now to consider what the whites have done to make this unpromising country productive. The first free emigrants quickly discovered that their new home was specially suitable for sheep farming. Sheep are nowhere so healthy as on warm dry hills or table-lands. The unlimited amount of pasture, the aromatic plants, the salt nature of the soil and of much of the herbage,

are other advantages. The best varieties of English and Spanish (merino) sheep were introduced, and now Australia enjoys as great a reputation for wool as England had centuries ago. With a population of two-and-half millions, there are at least 50 million sheep.

2. As the same process of settlement is going on now, we will describe it. First of all comes the squatter or sheep farmer, who, after such discoverers as Sturt, is the pioneer of Australian civilization. Going out into the bush or unoccupied waste, he builds a dwelling, and pastures his flocks on the thousands of acres around him. His "run" is so extensive that the shepherds are all mounted on horseback.

3. Mutton is plentiful enough; if he is near a town or a factory for preserving meat, he may sell some of it at a penny or twopence a pound; away in the interior he may find it necessary in times of drought to kill and boil down his sheep for the sake of their tallow. Wool, skins, and tallow are his riches.

4. After the squatter comes his great enemy the freeselecter, who is a farmer seeking suitable land for cultivation. The free-selecters choose farms out of the squatter's run, paying the government £1 per acre for the land. Thus the squatters are driven further and further into the bush. The farmers keep stock-sheep, cattle, horses, and pigs-and cultivate such crops as are suitable to the climate.

5. Wheat is the principal crop in the south; even parts of what were considered barren scrub are found to produce good harvests of wheat, barley, and oats. Further north, maize is mostly grown, the climate being too warm for the other sorts of corn; in Queensland oats are cut green as fodder for the cattle.

6. In this northern province the cotton-plant, tobacco

plant, and sugar-cane are extensively cultivated, and farmers are turning their attention to other sub-tropical plants, such as rice, arrow-root, pepper, and spices. It is even proposed to sow castor-oil plants in wastes which will produce nothing else, and to make plantations of cinchona trees for the supply of quinine.

7. Though there is not a single native fruit which Europeans would care to eat, no country is now better provided with that excellent kind of food.

8. Apples, pears, currants, filberts, and all English fruits are grown in the south. But in addition to these, oranges, grapes, peaches, apricots, and figs grow in the open air. All these fruits are, during the season, the daily food of the poorest in South Australia. A dozen pounds of grapes can be bought in the market of Adelaide for sixpence, and a dozen peaches for threepence or fourpence. In the northern part of the colony tropical fruits can be grown to any extent.

LESSON 68. THE GOLD DIGGINGS.

1. With the increase of agricultural industries, towns began to rise, and manufactures to grow. Tanning, sugar-boiling, wine-making, meat and fruit preserving, give employment to many. Ship-building, the merchant navy, and the fisheries, occupy a fair proportion of the colonists.

2. But that which gave the greatest impetus to the Australian colonies was the discovery of gold. Not that gold constitutes the greatest wealth of that or of any other country. The value of the wool exported thence annually is £11,000,000, while the gold is only worth £4,000,000. The gold diggings were of the greatest

service in attracting emigrants, a large majority of whom found it advantageous to turn to other employments than the hazardous one which had tempted them thither.

3. A Victorian says: "The gold country is usually undulating, with ranges of low hills, covered with ironbark and stringy-bark trees. The soil is usually poor, of a gravelly or light loamy nature, and thinly grassed; while athwart the scanty vegetation white quartz reefs crop up, with here and there a tiny spark of the red gold glittering out from its firm white bed."

4. Men who make it their business to search for gold districts are called prospecters. They go in parties of three or four, and when they are successful they are bound to make known their discovery to the government. They are rewarded by receiving each three or four miners' claims, which they generally sell, and sometimes also by a grant of money.

5. Upon news of a discovery there is a rush to the new diggings, and a canvas town springs up in a few weeks. The miners are men of all trades and ranks of life— alike only in this, their eagerness for gold. Each miner pays ten shillings for a license which allows him to dig over a small area called his claim.

6. The diggings are of two kinds—alluvial and quartz. The alluvial workings are near the surface, and the gold is found in nuggets among soft white clay, in holes or "pockets" among the rocks. The larger nuggets are picked out, and the smaller nuggets washed out in a cradle. These surface diggings in soft soil require no expensive machinery, and they are called poor man's diggings.

7. Quartz is as hard as granite. Gold runs among it in veins, and the process of mining consists in digging out the quartz, stamping it to powder in a mill, washing and