The Never-Never Land 63 



progress of three bullock waggons, laden with 

 bales ol wool, each drawn by a long team of six- 

 teen or eighteen bullocks. Beside each team 

 walks the bullock driver, armed with a long- 

 handled whip, but he relies less upon this than 

 upon word of mouth for the direction of his stub- 

 born team. The Australian theory, that bullocks 

 cannot be driven without the use of the most vio- 

 lent and sulphurous language at the command of 

 the driver, is cherished, I believe, in other parts 

 of the world as well. The theory may be a fal- 

 lacious one, but the amateur who has once at- 

 tempted to drive a team of bullocks will usually 

 admit that any man who can control them, even 

 by the use of language that would under other 

 circumstances stamp him as a blackguard, is en- 

 titled to something more than mere excuse. 

 He should be considered worthy of admiration 

 at least, for the driving of bullocks is an accom- 

 plishment that few may attain, however gifted 

 of speech they may be. The bullock driver, like 

 the poet, is born and not made. 



But in the Never-Never country, neither bul- 

 lock nor horse teams can compare with the camel 

 for usefulness, and during the decade of dry years, 

 which concluded in 1903, the "Hooshta-man" 

 has largely supplanted both bullocks and teamster 

 in the arid West. The camel-train is both cheaper 

 and more expeditious. According to an Austral- 

 ian pastoral paper, published in 1902, the cost of 

 transport by camel was but little more than half 



