BY THE HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 88 



out, SO that there was never more than one absent from the 

 sheep at night. I found the rascals one evening when the driver 

 was camping out, and yoking them up disposed of them com- 

 fortably for the night by chaining them to one tree in front of 

 the leaders, and to another behind the polers. I was bullock- 

 driver next day and then learnt something of the sticky nature 

 of the red soil. The clay fairly blocked up the spaces between 

 the spokes when I came to the ridgy country, until the eight 

 bullocks could not drag the dray. Seven or eight times in 

 a mile I had to clear the spokes with a spade, and when 

 I got to camp that afternoon I felt I had done my 

 duty. This was the class of country over which our wool drays 

 had to travel to port and return with rations ; no wonder some 

 persons tried to introduce an easier method. 



At Clerkness, on the Bundarra River, there lived an enter- 

 prising gentleman named Clerk. He could not rest content with 

 the bullock dray system and busied his mind in the effort to 

 provide something better, and he made a name for himself which 

 will long be remembered by his friends and neighbours. He 

 went to England, and there, no doubt, took counsel with engi- 

 neers of repute whose assistance he needed. The result was a 

 steam engine, which could not only be used for grinding grain, 

 cutting timber, &c., but it was also designed to do the work of a 

 traction engine, and its great recommendation was that as it 

 moved along a road, by a skilful mechanical contrivance it laid 

 down a succession of iron shoes in front of the wheels. These 

 revolved with the wheels, which thus passed over an endless iron 

 way and were saved from sinking into the all too yielding bush 

 roads. At least that was the intention of the inventor. 

 The " Megaethon " was the name given to this new and 

 promising contrivance. If I remember rightly, it was 



tested at Sydney with some success. But most of 

 us know the difference between the well formed 

 blue-metalled roads of a city and the soft clay tracks of the 

 bush. In due time the Megaethon commenced its journey. The 

 mechanical contrivances by which its movements were directed 

 and controlled were good enough, but under the weight of the 

 engine the iron shoes sunk iuto the clay, and after many efforts 

 to get it along the owner had reluctantly to admit that his great 

 invention was not equal to the work for which it was designed. 

 It was intended that this should displace the dray and working 

 bullocks ; but, ah ! the irony of fate ! After months of deten- 



