2i8 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



greatly complimented tlie officer on his equestrian 

 skill.' 



The wild and semi-wild horses of Australia have 

 already been mentioned. Their riders, the stock- 

 keepers, are good horsemen, though perhaps not up 

 to the tricks just described. They are fine rough- 

 riders, however ; and they had need be, for chasing the 

 wild horses in Australia is a most excitino- and dan- 

 gerous pastime, as the following account proves. A 

 wild black stallion that had coaxed away several 

 mares from a sheep-run was to be captured, and this 

 was the way in which it was done : 



^ Our search commenced in a heavily-timbered 

 flat, which gradually sloped down to a running 

 stream, swollen by recent rains, beyond which, in a 

 succession of rocky ridges, rose a range of mountains, 

 with stony inaccessible peaks, where the winter snow 

 long rests, the sides by turns bare and dark with 

 forests and matted brush, divided by deep ravines, 

 carved out by floods. It was at a spring in this flat 

 that Long Peter, while cutting out some wild honey 

 with a black, had caught sight of the wild horse. 



' It had been arranged that Charley, whose nag 

 was a fast but not a lasting one, should take up the 

 running as soon as he came in sight of our prey and 

 keep as close to the best horse — the black stallion, if 

 possible — as he could- John was to follow, keeping 

 Charley just in sight and pushing to the left or right, 

 as occasion might require. Robert and Philip were 



