X INTRODUCTION. 



me for any settled life. I had no luck in the diggings. 

 The town was out of the question, and to keep the wolf 

 from the door there were but two alternatives, to seek 

 work on a station, or face the bush on my own account. 

 I chose the latter, and never regretted that choice. I 

 luckily fell in with a mate in the same circumstances as 

 myself. The gun had often brought both of us " to 

 grief" in the Old "World, so we agreed that for once it 

 should help us out in the New. Our tastes were similar. 

 The sphere of life in which we had both moved at home 

 had been the same, and therefore all those little disa- 

 greements and collisions which are the inevitable conse- 

 quences when men of different education, training, and 

 tastes, are shut up together in the close companionship 

 of a bush tent, were avoided. For nearly four years did 

 we " rough it " under the same canvas, with scarcely a 

 single dispute, and very rarely even " a growl." We 

 had, it is true, at times, hardships to contend with, but 

 we never met troubles halfway. We took the rough 

 with the smooth, and whether game was plentiful or 

 scarce, generally had a fair share of it. Many a happy 

 day did we pass together in the forest. Many a good 

 bag of game have we brought home ; and often, although 

 thousands of miles now separate us, do my thoughts fly 

 back to the old bush tent and the old comrades left 

 behind me ; and the chequered scenes of a wild forest 

 life crowd upon my mind like the " visions of yester- 

 day." 



With the exception, perhaps, of New Zealand, where 



