12 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



following my father's plans and seek a post in a 

 museum. But in that idea he was wrong. 



The sheep country in Australia is very different 

 from the cattle country. Generally speaking, the more 

 remote parts, or the rougher forest parts, are devoted 

 to cattle, while the plain country and the country 

 near the railways is given up to sheep. At Redclift 

 Station, where I had now become a " jackeroo," 

 that is to say, a youngster learning the business of 

 wool growing, the country was partly plain with 

 Mitchell grass and partly gidyea scrub. The plain 

 was covered with deep black soil, and after the rains 

 would produce grass most luxuriantly. In the dry 

 season it would be quite bare, and would crack up 

 in all directions like the bottom of a dried-up clay 

 pit. If you saw the Black Soil Plains of Australia 

 in a time of dry weather you would not think it 

 possible that any green thing could grow there, but 

 after the first shower of rain herbage comes as if 

 by magic. The grass follows, and if the rain has 

 been heavy the vegetation will grow up very quickly 

 to the height of a man. 



The evils of the great droughts which afflicted 

 Australia in the old days were caused by pastoralists 

 estimating the value of the country for carrying 

 sheep during the times when the grass was most 

 plentiful. When the grass dried off there were too 

 many sheep for the land to supply with food, and 

 the result was very serious loss. Nowadays over- 



