8 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



times ten or eleven hours in the saddle during a 

 day. 



I had probably quite as much adventure in those 

 cattle days as in any future days among the savages 

 of Papua and the Solomons. I fell completely under 

 the spell of the fascination of life among the cattle, 

 and if Mr. Barnard had allowed I would probably 

 have stayed on his station for good. We would ride 

 up to the top of the run and pick a " cattle camp," 

 that is to say a place where the cattle were in the 

 habit of camping during the hot hours of the day. 

 The beasts wou'd always choose some open space 

 surrounded by scrub, and with good shade. Having 

 packed on a cattle camp we would leave stationed 

 there one or two of our number, and then split up 

 our forces and go up into the ranges and drive the 

 wild cattle down to the selected camp. If a large 

 number were driven thus into a camp and were well 

 nr'xed up they would stay there quietly at least not 

 attempting to rush away, for some hours. Cattle 

 make strong friendships among themselves, and when 

 they are running wild in the ranges they pick on 

 certain mates. Whilst they are with these mates 

 they are quite unmanageable, but get a number of 

 cattle well mixed up together so that individual 

 beasts have lost their mates, and they can be kept 

 without stampeding for some hours. 



When we had a large mob of cattle in a camp the 

 next task would be to get out those we wanted for 



