LONGSHORE MEMORIES 199 
earthquake a bellowing, pounding and tearing up of 
turf, with loud snortings. For a moment I was spell- 
bound ; then a strong arm hurled me on one side, 
whilst a voice roared out ' Git back ! ' That I did, and 
quickly too. Domestic animals, when left to their own 
devices in large extents of pasture, use instinctively 
the same methods for the protection of their young 
or their own welfare that they would in a wild 
state. 
Sometimes, where the grazier's grounds were very 
large, as many as three, or even four, ' lookers ' would 
be employed to watch over them. Their office was 
no sinecure, for by turns these men acted as farm 
bailiffs, keepers, stock-tenders, fishers, boatmen, and 
wildfowlers, as the varying seasons demanded. Broad- 
shouldered, deep-chested men they were as a rule, of 
dark complexion and determined mien ; a weakly 
' looker ' would have been worse than useless. I said 
they acted as keepers ; it was not because game 
needed looking after ; that kept to the rising ground 
miles away. But in dry seasons rare covers of par- 
tridges would come whirring down into the marshes 
for emmets, as the ants were always called, and the 
grasshoppers that swarmed in every direction. They 
did not stay till the shooting season, though ; after 
they had enjoyed a plentiful course of emmets and 
