MORBID APPETITE IN SHEEP. 355 



and this it was that attracted the cattle : they 

 would even attack one another to get at some 

 places, which had been more impregnated 

 with salt than another. This inclination of 

 animals for salt is by no means adduced as any 

 thing novel ; it is not confined to those domes- 

 ticated among the herbaceous, but also among 

 the wild in that class of animals ; for at Blowrin 

 Flat, in the Tumat country, a water hole, 

 nearly dry in some parts, and at others per- 

 fectly so, and similar to those I had before seen 

 frequented by sheep, abounded in the tracks of 

 the kangaroo ; and, on a closer examination, the 

 earth (which glittered in the sun, as if impreg- 

 nated with saline particles) was licked and 

 gnawed, as was done by sheep in other parts of 

 the country ; but it would be difficult to know 

 whether similar results occurred with the breed- 

 ing females of the kangaroos. 



At Lomehraes, (about thirty miles from Goul- 

 burn Plains, on the road to Yas Plains,) the 

 farm of Mr. John Hume, I was also informed 

 that lambs and ewes had been lost, from similar 

 causes to those I have been relating. The water 

 of the river which runs through his farm in the 

 summer season, when the stream is low, is hard, 

 even so much so as to curdle the soap, and pre- 

 vent any washing with it ; but in the winter 



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