assume no threatening aspect: their safety lies in their speed; and as they eye the suspicious object, their meaning is obvious—they say, as plainly as looks and gestures can say, Now what do you want? If you are a stranger, pass on quietly; but if you are for a gallop, we are quite ready to try of what mettle that horse of yours is made.

It might naturally be supposed that animals thus unencumbered would be able to distance one of their own species with the disadvantage of weight on his back, but the reverse is usually the

case.

In every herd the entire horse is suffered to remain at large throughout the year, and has often great influence upon the movements of the rest, over whom he reigns paramount and supreme; he watches them with a jealous eye, allows no rival to approach with impunity, and is evidently conscious of, and pleased with, his guardianship. Those who have long lorded it over their fellows acquire at times eccentric and fanciful habits: some of them will allow neither any addition to nor separation from their own particular herd, bringing back instantly those who show a wish to straggle away or lag behind, and foiling any attempt of a strange horse to join company, by hunting him backwards and forwards, always keeping on the inside, and interposing between him and the rest, with fierce and menacing gestures, until the intruder is glad to seek quarters elsewhere-in short, "cutting him out " as well as could be done by the most expert cattle hunter.

Occasionally they become vicious, and will not hesitate to attack a horseman, if he ventures too near their herd, laying back their ears, and charging him open mouthed; this, however, is of rare occurrence. A more common, though less natural ⚫ habit, is that of destroying foals: this is a ruinous vice, and most unaccountable: horses that acquire it are removed at once from the pastures; but they cannot always be detected, the native dog, and other causes, being often wrongfully suspected in the first instance. I knew a stockowner in one of the southern districts, who kept a numerous herd of mares, an:ongst which he had lately introduced a promising horse; some months afterards he visited his station, when he made the usual inquiries f his stockkeeper concerning the state of his stud, and was in

formed that, owing to a drought, they were all rather thin, except the new horse, whose condition was excellent, "and," added the man, "it's no wonder, for he eats all the foals ;" and in short it turned out, to the dismay of the proprietor, that although he had not actually eaten, yet he had destroyed all that he could lay hold of, which did not except many.

This extraordinary propensity is usually peculiar to horses which have long been running at large, but this is not always the case, for I remember a remarkable instance of it in an animal that was constantly worked. He was tethered in his owner's paddock, when a man leading a large Clydesdale mare, with her young foal, passed within reach of his rope; the horse, seeing the foal within the length of his tether, immediately seized him, threw him down, and would have killed him in a very short time, had it not been for a lucky thought which struck the groom, who, guessing from the violent efforts made by the mare to break away, that she would best defend her offspring, slipped the halter from her head, when she attacked the enemy with such fury that she beat him off, and saved her foal from the jaws of destruction.

The half-wild herds are necessarily kept separate from the saddle-horses and those that are used for the daily work on the station; these are not allowed to ramble far, but are taught to remain within two or three miles of home, which, in New South Wales, is considered a very moderate distance. They are, however, always apt to mix with the rest, and this inclination which they retain for each other's company is a frequent source of annoyance to the settler. A visit to a sheep-station being necessary on the following morning, he gives orders to his stockkeeper to have the saddle-horses at hand by an early hour. After dressing and breakfasting in a hurry, he finds that his man has been out since daybreak, but has not yet returned, and accordingly is fast losing his temper, when to his great joy he discerns him coming at a brisk walk, and driving the horses before him. Inwardly congratulating himself that there is still sufficient time left to reach the sheep-station by the appointed hour, he arranges along the fence his saddle, bridle, stock whip, &c., so that not a moment may be lost. By this time the saddlehorses are close at hand the lapse of a few minutes will see

them safe in the stockyard, when suddenly a rumbling noise is heard, and from some unexpected quarter a herd of unbroken horses "come quickly thundering on;" these, neither knowing nor caring whether the saddle-horses are wanted or not, at one fell swoop take off the whole of them, nothing loth, in their company, leaving their owner to chew the cud of mortification and to speculate whether they will continue their onward career for two miles or five. As the climax of his distress he remembers that his best stock-horse having been "hobbled" on the previous evening to prevent him from rambling too far, cannot fail to cut his fetlocks severely in his violent efforts to keep pace with the rest, and when he is brought home again will probably be unserviceable for several days.

The value of a good saddle-horse can nowhere be more thoroughly appreciated than in the interior of Australia. In more civilized countries, if anything goes wrong with one's steed, there is no difficulty in finding other modes of conveyance, but the settler is like an Arab, wholly dependent upon his horse; with him he is free as air, without him little better than a fixture. He feels uneasy when his horse is not to be found, even though he should not happen to be in want of him at the time; he looks upon any accident that may befall him as a most serious matter, and would even let you meddle with his purse rather than his stud. A good hack is the first thing he purchases in prosperity, and the last that adversity can wrench from him. In fact the settler's home is in the saddle; and though he never actually goes out for a ride, which would be as great an anomaly as a Lambeth waterman taking, for his private pleasure, a row upon the Thames, yet he does so because it is necessary to his vocation, and forms part of his daily labour. He betakes himself to the saddle in as business-like a way as the merchant to his desk, or the lawyer to his brief.

The worthlessness of an indifferent horse, on the other hand, is felt most severely in the bush: this he only can tell, who, in the midst of a journey through the pathless wilds, where a night in the open air is the sole alternative of not reaching the solitary station, has felt his horse by degrees grow weaker and weaker, "while his drooped head sinks gradually low," until at length the exhausted animal stands still under him, and refuses to advance

"buck-jump

an inch further, so that at last he has to carry his saddle, bridle, and all the etcæteras, on his shoulders, and trudge on alone, for many a weary mile, to the intended halting-place. Australian horses have a vicious habit known as ing," or as it is more familiarly called, “bucking." This trick, in its aggravated form, is peculiar to the colts bred in the colony and in Van Diemen's Land, and is decidedly the most expeditious way that could be devised for emptying a saddle. An expert “buckjumper" usually begins when his rider is in some degree off his guard and has not got him tight in hand; then, watching his opportunity, he flings down his head between his forelegs, sets up or "arches" his back, and concentrating all his muscular force, gives a succession of short, quick plunges, all his legs being at times off the ground together. While thus "bucking," he usually describes a circle, squealing and snorting the whole time in a most excited manner, and frequently continuing his jumps, after throwing his rider, until the girths also give way, and the saddle follows its owner. There are not many horsemen, however good riders under other circumstances, who can "sit a buckjumper;" a practised few, by keeping the horse's head well up, and taking a vice-like grasp of the saddle with their knees, can manage to sit it out, if not taken unawares; but no man can escape a fall if the horse once gets his head down-he then has it all his own way, and the longer the rider keeps on, the greater will be the impetus with which he finally meets the ground. This habit, though common, is by no means universal: many colts that show it when first handled, are entirely cured when put to regular work; but an aged horse, who is a confirmed buckjumper, is never to be depended on, and if he finds a good opportunity of disposing of his rider, is as likely to do so at the end as at the commencement of his day's work.

No satisfactory reason has been given for the prevalence of this habit, though the probability seems to be that it is caused in a great many instances by the hasty, insufficient mode of breaking horses, pursued in most parts of the colony. If a stockowner has some colts fit for handling, he engages a horse-breaker, who contracts to break them all at so much per head, and whose interest it is to finish his work quickly; and so, as the bush phrase goes, he "roughs them off" as speedily as possible, and pursues

the same hasty treatment towards all, without making any allowance for variety of disposition and temper. Many of these men have no other qualifications for their trade than a firm seat in the saddle, and the power, as it is called, of "sitting a buckjumper;" patience and perseverance, which are indispensable to a steady horse-breaker, are qualities not expeditious enough for New South Wales. Accordingly young horses are very severely treated, and sometimes fairly "beaten into shape," whip and spur being used indiscriminately as the only means of correction. The consequence is, that many a colt whose temper might otherwise have been good, comes out of the breaker's hands either full of vice, or brokenspirited and worthless.

The way in which a half-wild colt is first caught resembles the rest of his treatment. The whole herd having been driven into the stock-yard, he is enclosed, together with a few others, in one of the smaller divisions; three or four men then go into them, the most expert of whom, usually the head stock-keeper, advances towards the horses, having in his hand a pole, about ten feet in length, from the end of which hangs the noose of a strong rope, made of platted thongs of hide, which, watching his opportunity as the horses rush past him, he drops gently round the animal's neck. This is the critical moment: the colt, frantic with terror, if not checked immediately, would dash himself against the fence, or be crippled in attempts to jump over; and if stopped too suddenly, is liable to be choked, or otherwise injured by the jerk. On the instant, therefore, that the noose is "placed," the rope is seized by all hands, who stop the animal's career as gradually as possible, by giving him plenty of line when he rears, and so threatens to injure himself by falling back, and resuming a steady pull when he attempts to break away by force; in short, playing him much as an angler does a trout, until at length he is dragged, half throttled, into the middle of the yard, where he stands, the picture of mingled rage and fear, squealing and furiously beating the air with his forelegs, while, as the pressure of the rope increases, his tongue hangs out of his mouth, and his eyes are swollen in their sockets. The next step is to get the halter upon his head; this, if practicable, is done as he stands, in which case the catching-rope is still kept tight, while the halter is gently "insinuated" on by means of a short