203 N-ATUHAL IIISTOEY SKETCHES. 



noises that issue from the reeds and scrubs at night. 

 Surely, I have thought, there must be some reptiles in 

 these wilds unknown to us, and perhaps, after all, the 

 bunyip may be no fable. 



Besides the snakes, we had many other little annoy- 

 ances during the summer months in the bush, which it 

 was not always easy to avoid. Centipedes, six inches long, 

 are to be found in every old log, and under stones. 

 Small scorpions abound on every stony rise ; and taran- 

 tulas, or large spiders (as the bushmen call them, trian- 

 tulopes), as big as penny pieces, with a dozen great hairy 

 legs, come crawling down the sides of the tent in wet 

 weather ; and the bushman should always well examine 

 his blankets before he turns in. The cruellest practical 

 joke I ever heard of was played in a bush-tent, when 

 one of the party laid a dead black-snake in the bed of his 

 mate. The man upon whom the trick was played did 

 not die from the fright, but his intellects received such 

 a shock, that in all probability he would remain a lunatic 

 for the rest of his life. The swamps are full of leeches, 

 and very pleasant it is if one finds its way into your shoe 

 when up to your knees in a swamp, crawling on to a mob 

 of black-duck. The forests literally swarmed with great 

 blue and yellow blowflies, which shoot out living maggots, 

 and " Catch-'em-alive-oh" would drive a roaring trade 

 among the clouds of little black flies that infest the 

 bush during the summer. Ants of every variety and 

 size, from the little sugar-ant up to the great red soldier- 

 ant, ply their busy trade in the summer all over the 



