3\6 TRIP UP THE COUNTRY. 



weather they were blown down, thereby endanger- 

 ing the lives of persons or stock passing. In the 

 thickets near Stroud, great numbers of the Lyre 

 Bird are found. They receive their names from the 

 shape of their tails, which one could hardly suppose 

 so small a bird, having no other beauty, could 

 possess. 



At Mr. White's hospitable cottage, I met two gen- 

 tlemen on their way to the Hunter river, and as 

 fortunately the route I proposed taking, lay in that 

 direction, we started together early the next morn- 

 ing. Crossing the Karuah, our road for some dis- 

 tance lay over a rugged country, along a winding 

 path between very steep hills. Six miles W.S.W. 

 from Stroud, we passed through a range trending 

 N.W. from two to three thousand feet high, 

 the debris from which enrich the flats of the 

 Karuah on its eastern, and the Williams river 

 on its western side. Our guide amused me by 

 pointing to some of the steep parts of the range 

 which he had galloped down, while hunting wild 

 cattle, the most useful and exciting sport known 

 in Australia — useful, inasmuch as it prevents the 

 wild cattle from coming down to the plains and en- 

 ticing away the tame herds ; and exciting, from the 

 rough nature of the country, in which the sport is 

 pursued. The wild cattle invariably keep on high 

 ranges, and from their acuteness of smell, are 

 difficult to get at, and it is only to leeward that 

 one can approach them. The bulls being the leaders 



