204 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



placed them inside hurdles at head-quarters at night. But, as land was taken 

 up, the squatter obtained a particular run for a term of years. He sub- 

 divided it by fences into paddocks, and so reduced his number of herds and 

 conducted his operations more scientifically. 



When a new run is taken up, it is pretty sure, in the first instance, to 

 be stocked with cattle. Cattle-raising requires no heavy outlay of capital, 

 because, beyond horses for the men, yards to work the stock, and perhaps 

 one or two paddocks to enclose young heifers and separate them from the 

 general herd, no buildings have to be erected. Then the produce of a cattle 

 station — the fat stock— can be cheaply driven to market. Travelling with 

 stock through the bush costs no more than the wages of the men employed, 

 and, if carefully driven, the bullocks do not deteriorate. Last but not least 

 among the advantages possessed by the cattle squatter is the fact that he 

 can make shift with comparatively few water-holes. Cattle can feed their way 

 to water much more readily than sheep. 



At first cattle are not happy on a new country, and will make frequent 

 efforts to break away. Often have the stockmen left a herd quietly grazing 

 at night, and found not a hoof in the morning, whereupon comes a fine gallop 

 after the runaways, who always head straight for home. Nevertheless skilful 

 herding of the cattle on the run, and extra vigilance for a few months, suffice 

 to accustom the animals to their new home. Once ' broken in to the run,' 

 as it is called, the cattle remain on it, and can indeed hardly be driven away. 

 They select their camps — generally tracts of open country, with trees growing 

 in groups, and near water — and the choice is often directed by the stockmen 

 when first they are brought on to the country. On these camps the cattle 

 assemble in the heat of the day, lying lazily in the shade, and moving off to 

 feed at night and in the afternoon and morning. They are easily trained to 

 assemble on the camp whenever hunted up, and the crack of a stock-whip 

 anywhere on a cattle-run, with a well-broken herd, will set all the animals 

 within hearing moving off to the camp. Mustering is attended to at frequent 

 intervals on a well-worked cattle station. The stockmen ride round, hunting 

 up all stray groups, and direct them to the central camp, where they assemble 

 in a great compact herd. When thus gathered together, the animals required 

 for any special purpose — fat bullocks for market, or cows and calves for 

 branding — are ridden out of the mass by the stockmen on their well-trained 

 horses, and collected in a separate herd. 



There is no more interesting sight than this ' cutting out,' as it is called. 

 The stockman rides into the mass of animals, which opens out uneasily as 

 he enters. A touch of the stock-whip on the selected beast indicates him to 

 the intelligent horse, whose rider practically leaves to him the rest of the 

 work. The selected beast tries to escape by wedging himself into masses 

 of his companions ; but the horse, who apparently enters thoroughly into the 

 fun of the thing, turns and twists with surprising rapidity, and, before the 



