THE SQUATTER AND THE SETTLER. 



219 



One of the most singular cases on record is that of the girl Clara 

 Crosbie, who was lost for twenty days in the depth of winter in the Victorian 

 uplands, where frosts will set in and where snow will fall, and who lived 

 without food during that time. Clara was a town-bred girl, twelve years of 

 age. Her mother took a situation in the year 1885 as housekeeper to a 

 Lilydale farmer, some twenty-five miles away from Melbourne towards the 

 mountains. Clara was left at a neighbour's house after she had been a few 

 days in the district, but before she was fetched she wanted to go to her 

 mother, and so she slipped out, got off the track easily enough, and was soon 

 hopelessly involved in the reedy fens with which this part of the country is 

 intersected. 



A Squatter's Station. 



