442 NEW SOUTH WALES. [CHAP. xix. 



rats. Mr. Browne shot one : certainly it is a most extraordinary 

 animal ; a stuffed specimen does not at all give a good idea of the 

 appearance of the head and beak when fresh ; the latter becoming 

 hard and contracted.* 



20th. A long day's ride to Bathurst. Before joining the 

 high road we followed a mere path through the forest ; and 

 the country, with the exception of a few squatters' huts, was 

 very solitary. We experienced this day the sirocco-like wind of 

 Australia, which comes from the parched deserts of the interior. 

 Clouds of dust were travelling in every direction ; and the wind 

 felt as if it had passed over a fire. I afterwards heard that the 

 thermometer out of doors had stood at 1 19, and in a closed room 

 at 96. In the afternoon we came in view of the downs of Ba- 

 thurst. These undulating but nearly smooth plains are very 

 remarkable in this country, from being absolutely destitute of 

 trees. They support only a thin brown pasture. We rode some 

 miles over this country, and then reached the township of Ba- 

 thurst, seated in the middle of what may be called either a very 

 broad valley, or narrow plain. I was told at Sydney not to 

 form too bad an opinion of Australia by judging of the country 

 from the road-side, nor too good a one from Bathurst ; in this 

 latter respect, I did not feel myself in the least danger of being 

 prejudiced. The season, it must be owned, had been one of great 

 drought, and the country did not wear a favourable aspect ; 

 although I understand it was incomparably worse two or three 

 months before. The secret of the rapidly growing prosperity of 

 Bathurst is, that the brown pasture which appears to the 

 stranger's eye so wretched, is excellent for sheep-grazing. The 

 town stands, at the height of 2200 feet above the sea, on the 

 banks of the Macquarie : this is one of the rivers flowing into the 

 vast and scarcely known interior. The line of watershed, which 

 divides the inland streams from those on the coast, has a height 



* I was interested by finding here the hollow conical pitfall of the lion- 

 ant, or some other insect : first a fly fell down the treacherous slope and 

 immediately disappeared ; then came a large but unwary ant ; its struggles 

 ,o scape being very violent, those curious little jets of sand, described by 

 Kirby and Spence (Entomol., vol. i., p. 425) as being flirted by the insect's 

 tail, were promptly directed against the expected victim. But the ant en- 

 joyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws which lay con- 

 cealed at the base of the conical hollow. This Australian pit-fall was oul^ 

 about half the size of that made by the European lion-ant. 



