THE DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE 13 



stocking, as it was called, is not so common, and on 

 many stations the very luxuriant vegetation of the 

 summer is stored up in pits called silos as a safeguard 

 against dry times. I do not think that in these times 

 there could ever be very serious loss from drought 

 in Australia, at any rate not such loss as used to be 

 met with in the old days, when on one station that 

 I knew a quarter of a million of sheep perished of 

 thirst and starvation. 



Work at Redcliff was not by any manner of means 

 easy. My duties as a " jackeroo " were various. 

 I had to help to muster sheep, to repair fences, to do 

 odd jobs of blacksmithing and to be a general utility 

 man. The number of things which the Bush worker 

 of Australia must turn his hand to is something 

 wonderful. It is not at all unusual to find a Bush 

 worker who is a fairly good carpenter, something of 

 a wheelwright and a blacksmith, with a thorough 

 knowledge of horses and cattle. And all these 

 virtues are rewarded by a wage which is not very much 

 higher than that of an English artisan. 



At Redcliff I had an opportunity of studying the 

 cunning to which a horse can attain. We were 

 much overworked. Often my mate and I would be 

 roused long before daylight to get in the horses in 

 order to start work. I would have to go out into the 

 night paddock to find the night horse in the dark. 

 He had as much objection to such early rising as 

 I had, and since I could not see him he would, by 



