264 A LONG RAMBLE IN QUEENSLAND 



such as snakes of poisonous kinds, and other unlovely 

 creatures. 



The number of snakes in Queensland is enormous ; I 

 have recorded fifty-three varieties, and I learn that this 

 great number does not exhaust the list. Every gully and 

 scrub in the unoccupied parts of the colony swarms with 

 them. Four or five species are poisonous, the diamond 

 snake being the most dangerous ; yet I never heard of an 

 accident with these reptiles. The dangerous kinds retire 

 very quickly before the advance of the colonists, though 

 occasionally one hears of the deaths of cattle and horses 

 through the attacks of the diamond-snake, which is the 

 most aggresive. As a rule, all kinds endeavour to escape 

 on the approach of man, they having probably learned 

 caution from the continual persecution on the part of 

 the blacks, to whom a dish of snakes is a much esteemed 

 luxury. 



We all lay out on the open ground on the night of the 

 23rd with picketed horses, and most of us, I think, slept 

 soundly until we were awakened at dawn by the noisy 

 screaming of thousands of cockatoos and parrots which 

 wheeled about in the air above us. One of our party 

 amused himself by shooting at them as they flew past ; 

 but he did not make a heavy bag, for the whole of them 

 quickly flew away on the loss of two or three of their 

 number. 



At this spot we were dependent for water on a well 

 which had been previously dug by some of the stockmen ; 

 but the supply was limited, and we had to wait our turn 

 in watering our horses, while the water slowly percolated 

 into the cavity, which was about twelve feet deep. Pro- 

 bably there would have been a more abundant supply of 

 water if the well had been dug deeper. 



Still continuing to the west, we rode another thirty 

 miles on the 24th, the character of the country undergoing 

 a considerable change. The grass gradually became 

 shorter and thinner, until it ceased to grow altogether, or 

 only in deep depressions of the ground, and a thickly- 

 growing creeper took its place, covering the surface of 



