A TRIP TO AUSTRALIA 



of course. I seem to have a recollection that one 

 or two of our party were not quite the horsemen 

 they aspired to be. Suffice it to say that the 

 whalebone riding-horse of Australia is not of the 

 most amenable nature, and it may be that his 

 instinct suggested he was expected to play his part 

 in that great spectacle. 



Of course what usually happens, as no doubt it did 

 in this case, the amateur proceeds to hang on with 

 his spurs and then you know what happens. But 

 with all our rough-and-tumble incidents, on the 

 whole the horses served us well. They indeed gave 

 us fun and frolic, particularly at the sports and 

 military tournament. At the latter we had a great 

 tug-of-war on horseback between the sailors of our 

 old ship the Britannic and the Army. Of course, the 

 sailors won — why, they could hold on to a horse's 

 tail, a leg, or even his ear. Those who have seen 

 this good fun know the sailor's tenacity for hanging 

 on. 



On January 14 the great hospitality that the 

 people of Sydney had shown us by way of good 

 living, theatres and parties, came to an end, and 

 back to the old ship we marched and sailed away 

 for Newcastle, a place of call on the way to Brisbane, 

 where another great " do " was staged. Un- 

 fortunately the heat increased as we neared the 

 equator, and this was our undoing in our effort to 

 do justice to the hospitality of Brisbane. 



All might have been well had the people of 

 Brisbane been acquainted with the tale told by the 

 late Lord Fisher. His Lordship, when serving as a 



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