Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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14 THE BEANKSOME SLOGAN. for dairying, and many graziers, my father among the number, lease part of their land to dairy farmers. The dairy farms consist of a few hundred acres. One or two hundred cows are milked night and morn- ing, and the cream is taken to a butter factory, or cheese-making is carried on on the premises. There is much hard work, but profits are sure where there is seldom fear of drought. In the north-west and Wimmera districts, agriculture predominates, and when a good year comes the yields of wheat are enormous and the farmers prosper. This district, however, is subject to droughts, which last sometimes for years, and thousands are ruined. The crops won ' t grow, horses die, there is no water, and families almost starve. Although Victoria is comparatively cleared of bush, yet in the north-eastern portion and in Gippsland there is an over-abundance of timber. There are forests of enormous gum trees and lesser trees, and fern gullies are plentiful. The climate in this continent is so varied that nearly every plant will grow but the native vegetation is peculiar to Australia. The trees most prevalent belong either to the non- deciduous families — Eucalyptus, which includes all gum trees, and Acacia, which includes all wattle trees. Wattle trees have lovely golden blossom in the form of little round fluffy balls massed together, and these emit a strong, agreeable perfume. We have no snow in Australia, except in the very highest parts (Australian Alps, Mt. Kosciusko, 7,000 feet). Though there may be an occasional light fall elsewhere, it never lies. Many Australians have never seen a real snowstorm such as you rejoice in. Consequently we grow flowers all the year round, and even the tiniest cottages revel in their beautiful gardens blazing with the colors of roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, narcissus and many others attractive in their season. The early settlers in Australia had no fierce animals to contend with, their chief enemy being the black fellow. ' ' The largest animal is the kangaroo, found only in Australia and some islands of the Pacific. Then there is the opossum, one species of which hangs by its tail to the branches of trees; the native bear, which is harmless; and the dingo, or wild dog. Another peculiar animal is the duck-billed platy- pus, which is web-footed, has a bill like a duck, and is amphibious. Its young are hatched from eggs, but it is also a mammal. We have an abundance and variety of bird life. Parrots, paroquets and cockatoos, all brilliantly plumaged, are numerous. The bell-bird is famed for its call, which resembles the sound of a bell. The lyre bird owes its name to the fact that its sixteen tail feathers are arranged in the form of a lyre. Among songsters the magpie is a type. His song is musical and cheerful, and when one hears a goroke chorus a sunny day may be expected. The kookaburra, or laughing jackass,

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THE BEAOT :SOME SLOGA T. 13 Australia is chiefly a pastoral country at present, and land is judged by its carrying capacity for sheep and cattle on the natural grasses all the year round. There is rich land worth £100 per acre, and poor land held under pastoral lease from the Crown at 5 shillings or 10 shillings per 1,000 acres per annum, and which will carry a sheep to 10 acres. In country of the latter class, stations of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 acres are quite usual. Our country is often called The Land of the Golden Fleece, ' and rightly, because the greater part of the revenue springs from wool and gold. From some stations out back ' perhaps a hundred miles from a town, wool has to be carted a long distance to the railway. This takes place once a year, and it is by the return waggons that the year ' s rations are brought in. The waggons are pulled by teams of bullocks, powerful but slow, and the drivers are famed for the strange language they use in addressing their teams. The Aborigines or black, fellows ' ' still remaining in Australia are mostly in the north-west, called the Kimberley district, the northern territory and the north of Queensland. These hot and unhealthy sections are almost uninhabited by white men, who fear the malaria and ague; but the rainfall is good, and the country capable of great development. There has been much in our papers about Our Empty North and the fear of invasion by Chinese or Japs. The Eiverina, in New South Wales, and many other parts of Aus- tralia are level stretches of country, usually without a sign of trees, but sometimes interspersed with a belt of timber every few miles, or a sandhill with a few pines. From this you may conclude that the soil is poor and the grass scarce for sheep-raising, except in a rainy season. Many men have been ruined gambling with the seasons. Victoria is the smallest of the five States, but perhaps the richest. A warm and genial climate characterizes the colony, called by the early explorers Australia Felix, ' ' on account of its beauty and fertility. Gold, however, was the creator of Victoria. In 1850 valuable gold- fields were discovered, and the usual rush followed. In time the alluvial gold gave out, and people ' s thoughts turned to other ways of gaining wealth. Towns and industries sprang up, and people spread over the whole State. The land was found to be suitable for pastoral purposes, and sheep and cattle were brought over from Tasmania and successfully bred. The larger stations have gradually been cut up and sold for purposes of closer settlement, till now very few of more than 10,000 acres remain. My home is in West Victoria, where the land is very rich, and, besides yielding large quantities of potatoes and onions, is suitable

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THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN. 15 caricatures the laugh of man. He lives on snakes, and as our snakes are nearly all very poisonous, we feel friendly towards him. The mopoke and curlew both have dismal cries. The former says mopoke, or more pork ' over and over monotonously. The curlew has a very shrill, penetrating cry. Among the larger birds is the emu, a brown gray bird, smaller than the ostrich, the ibis, the wild turkey and the black swan. This last may be seen in many swamps, and is very stately and graceful. Among the Grampian mountains, some forty miles from here, there is undisturbed bush. A profusion of wild flowers, heaths white, pink and purple, cover the ground. A tiny creek from the hills mur- murs sleepily along between banks embowered in ferns; gum trees whisper, the wattles softly sigh in answer, the glossy leaves shimmer; a bird calls, perchance a beady-eyed lizard stares in silent wonder at the intruder, standing alone among the sounds and silences and the indescribable loneliness of the Australian bush. He is very close to the heart of Mother Nature, old and wise, whose laws and plans vain, foolish Man seeks so often to undo. Australia.- G. M. Cross. CHARACTER IN HORSES Late one spring afternoon I was riding home from school on my velvet-footed Cricket, when, as we rounded a bluff, his ears pricked up and his step quickened. A broad ravine was before us, and on the far side a dozen horses were grazing. Cricket was so interested that the flock of prairie chickens, usually startled at this point, failed to frighten him. That danger over, I, too turned my attention to the horses. If our horses were amongst those, I thought, that black one with his head up would be Coalie — Coalie, the most sociable and kindly of horses, would be first to notice a stranger. On we came, Cricket in a hurry, I rather nervous. As we drew near, all the horses looked up and moved inquisitively towards us ; all save one. Again I said mentally, If our horses were here, you, you unsociable creature, would be my Dick. ' Almost as the thought formed in my mind, the haughty little head raised slowly, gave one long, cool stare at Cricket, then continued cropping the grass. There ' s only one Dick in the world, and at close range one couldn t mistake him. I looked again at the black horse and laughed aloud. Coalie and Dick, straying around with a neighbor ' s horses, had forced them- selves upon my notice, each by his most pronounced characteristic Not one of the others had I noticed. Jean M. Eoss.