132 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS. 



clean break. This mishap appeared to us to be 

 serious, but our driver showed no great concern. 

 Luckily, a piece of fencing wire was found by the 

 roadside, and with it and a wedge of Mallee wood 

 the broken spring was roughly spliced. The inter- 

 rupted journey was resumed, but progress was slow. 

 The vehicle had a list to port, and those who occupied 

 seats on that side endured a double share of bumps. 

 We were all anxious for a spell afoot, and leaped to 

 the ground with alacrity when the horses stopped 

 near a cottage on a pleasant rise. This was the home 

 of a solitary man, a scholar, who had come from Eng- 

 land to dwell in the wilderness. He seemed glad to 

 meet men with whom he could converse on subjects 

 not even remotely connected with crops and the 

 weather. Invited to dinner, we entered the cottage, 

 to see books and pictures that suggested a highly 

 cultured mind in their owner. A man's bookshelf is 

 generally an index to his character. Our new friend 

 prepared an excellent meal, and we did it justice. 

 Promising to pay a longer visit on our return to camp, 

 we said good-bye to our host, still smiling at one of 

 his good stories, which was told, not over walnuts and 

 wine, but pannikins of billy tea. 



The driver had a hazy notion of distance. Asked 

 how far it was to some hill or farm, he would answer, 

 "About a quarter of a mile." When we were two 

 miles from Lake Wangary, someone said, "How far, 

 driver?" and "About a quarter of a mile" was the 

 instant response. Perhaps this was the man's little 

 joke, for his dry laugh mingled with our own merri- 

 ment. At Wangary we halted for the night, engag- 

 ing rooms at the comfortable hotel facing the 

 coach road. Next morning we drove to Horse 

 Peninsula, calling en route at a farm house to deliver 

 a letter of introduction. The farmer proved a good 

 friend. As a beginning, he presented a member of 

 the party with a fine fossil, portion of the jaw bone, 



