10 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



the average accident with cattle is not so serious as 

 that. It is more humorous than serious, and is due 

 to the fact that the rider is not prepared for some 

 sudden wheel on the part of the horse, and comes off, 

 ungracefully but without suffering much damage. 

 Horses that are used for cattle work get to love the 

 game quite as much as their riders, and also get to 

 understand its points quite as well. At Coomooboo- 

 laroo our daily rule was to muster one day, to brand 

 the cattle the next day, and on Sundays to take 

 holidays of a sort. Usually we put in Sunday bath- 

 ing in the lagoon, and collecting Natural History 

 specimens. 



But in those days the collecting was not for me a 

 very serious matter. Australian territory had been 

 covered so thoroughly that there was not much new 

 material to discover, and I cannot recollect making 

 a single Natural History find of any value during my 

 stay at Coomooboolaroo. But that stay was extremely 

 valuable to me in teaching me the ways of horses 

 and the bush lore in which the Australian cattle man 

 is so much of an adept. When I came later to 

 undertake expeditions into the wildest parts of New 

 Guinea, I had reason to be grateful for the grounding 

 in the ways of the Bush which I had got in Australia. 



Life at Coomooboolaroo was indeed very pleasant. 

 Mr. Barnard was the best of good fellows, and his 

 place was a particularly comfortable example of a 

 cattle station. There was a fine garden attached to 



