234 



THE HUNTER''S ARCADIA. 



of the surrounding country, afforded us no end of 

 trouble in obtaining the required amount of this 

 valuable commodity to supply the wants of each 

 bullock. While my attendants were employed in 

 this necessary duty, I wandered a short distance 

 from our camp ; the sun was about setting, and the 

 west was one glorious sheet of scarlet, gradually 

 decreasing in the intensity of its colour till it entirely 

 disappeared in the zenith. Not a flaw of wind stirred 

 a leaf or blade of grass, and, but for the voices of my 

 men, or the occasional low of a fatigued ox, one might 

 have imagined that he had been suddenly dropped 

 into an uninhabited world. There is a freedom in 

 this life that makes it truly charming ; there is a 

 fascination in it, to drink of which causes one further 

 to crave for its repetition. Your fellow-man you 

 love not the less, but this world you love the more 

 for the relief that is afforded you, by finding it 

 possible to be removed from the bustle and ex- 

 citement of dense population. If duns are not 

 numerous, or beggars not importunate, at home, there 

 is much pleasure in hearing the postman's knock ; but 

 who, in civilisation, I should like to know, does 

 not either dread the first, or fear the latter ? But 



