BUSH-DOGS. 193 



tude were I to pass over these faithful companions 

 without a slight notice. 



It is difficult to say what is the most general breed of 

 dog we meet with in the bush : in fact, we rarely see a 

 true-bred one at all. Every bushman probably brings a 

 clog or two into the bush with him, of such breed as he 

 fancies best ; and as there is no restraint and no care 

 bestowed in crossing them, they breed indiscriminately, 

 and it would puzzle a good dog-fancier to distinguish one 

 breed from another. But mongrels as they are, these 

 bush dogs are not to be despised. Although self-taught, 

 nature supplies the place of education ; and their 

 natural instinct seems to be much more highly deve- 

 loped than among the fuller broken and truer bred dogs 

 of the old country. Every bush dog is a sporting dog 

 after his own fashion ; and as there was no tax, and their 

 keep in the forest cost nothing, they must have been the 

 veriest curs that were turned out of our kennels. Our 

 dogs were used for every purpose ; and as they were 

 treated more like companions than servants, they 

 appeared to identify themselves with us in every 

 transaction, and seemed to fancy a day's shooting was 

 got up as much for their pleasure as our own. It is 

 little wonder that they were keen after kangaroo and 

 opossum : we never gave them any meat except what 

 they helped to kill themselves, nor did they seem to 

 expect it. They knew where the offal of the kangaroo 

 we had killed in the day lay in the forest, and regularly 

 every evening went off to feed ; and if there was no 

 o 



