BY THE HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 157 



sheep country, and entered into negotiations for the purchase of 

 various properties without result. At last I bought the Rodd's 

 Bay run, unstocked and unimproved, from Mr. Walsh, of 

 Degilbo, and sold my interest in the New England stations. 



During the years I lived in the Port Curtis district I made 

 myself acquainted with a great deal of the surrounding country, 

 and, notwithstanding many drawbacks, I never regretted my 

 determination to settle near the coast. The work connected 

 with the formation of a new station is more or less expen- 

 sive and troublesome, but it helps to enlarge the interest 

 in life and breaks a monotony that sometimes becomes too 

 dull. I soon learnt, however, that close proximity to the 

 sea— the beach formed one boundary of my run — affords 

 no protection against drought. On many occasions in more 

 than ordinarily dry summers I have watched the heavy clouds 

 rolling across the sky without letting any of their moisture fall 

 until they hung over the ever restless sea. There the rain would 

 come down in torrents, and on the land the dust would rise with 

 every breeze. Still, we managed to pull along without any 

 excessive loss ; the surface of the soil had so far hardened that 

 the water, when it rained, more readily flowed into the water- 

 courses and filled up the creeks, upon which we relied for a 

 constant supply. About 1867 an experience which was as bad 

 as a drought overtook us. All the pastoralists were, of course, 

 aware that pleuro-pneumonia was drawing ever nearer. I had 

 sent for the newest publication on diseases in cattle, and when 

 it arrived I turned anxiously to the treatment of this fell 

 disease. Unfortunately, Professor Simonds had made his report 

 upon the treatment of pleuro-pneumonia by inoculation, and 

 here I found his words quot* d in condemnation of the practice. 

 Such an authority could not be treated with disrespect and I left 

 it to Providence to see us through our trouble. We had been 

 experiencing an exceptionally dry spell and were drawing water 

 for domestic purposes from a hole about a mile from the station, 

 when one day Page Kennedy made his appearance with a large 

 mob of store cattle which he had brought from the Lower 

 Burnett. He camped that night by the station and next morning 

 his cattle trampled up the mud in our only clean waterhole ; 

 it mattered little though for rain set in and washed every water- 

 course from end to end. It also flooded the Boyne River, and 

 Kennedy and his cattle were blocked for several days. Very 

 soon afterwards the cattle on the runs began to sicken ; the fat 



