24 Australian Life 



live the manager and his wife, fifty miles away 

 from the next station and from any white man, 

 except the two or three white stockmen employed 

 on the run. They are assisted in their work by 

 half a score of blacks, two or three of them 

 "gins," who can ride or wield a stock whip as 

 well as their dusky lords. A gin helps the man- 

 ager's wife with the domestic work, and the whole 

 company lives on beef and bread from one year's 

 end to the other. There is no wool-shed here, 

 only a stock-yard of solid timbers, with a brand- 

 ing-yard. The cattle roam unchecked, collecting 

 in mobs by a process of natural selection, and 

 finding their own food and water. The stockmen 

 know where each mob can be found for the peri- 

 odical musterings, when the animals belonging to 

 other runs, known by the brands they bear, are 

 drafted out, and the "clean skins" unbranded 

 stock are made to feel the smart of the branding 

 iron. Young bullocks are culled from the mob 

 and sent away to the eastern coasts or down 

 south, to be fattened for market, and surplus 

 stock is driven off to the boiling-down works, 

 where the beasts are converted into tallow and 

 beef-extract. The life of the cattle-man is one 

 long round of hardship and danger. No man, 

 not even those brought up to the life, can account 

 for the lunatic impulses to which a mob of bul- 

 locks is subject. Among stockmen, the " looni- 

 ness " of the bullocks is proverbial, and in spite of 

 expert horsemanship and the marvellous clever- 



