THE LITERATURE OF THE STATION 291 



Many other works embodying the experience of 

 squatters complete or complement the early history of 

 squatting in New South Wales. Captain Lancelott'a 

 two-volumed book again abounds in precious personal 

 details on the formation and development of a station, 

 the collisions with rival would-be squatters, the successes 

 and failures of those who had to buy experience at so 

 dear a rate. Light sketches by several French writers 

 (such as Hubert de Castella's Les Squatters australiens) , 

 or studies by Germans like Semon's Im australischen 

 Busch, show how many sides the large subject possesses 

 and to how many interests it appeals. 



None of the colonies has a richer squatting literature 

 than Queensland. Settled late in the history of Aus- 

 tralia, it has given birth to quite a number of Avriters 

 who have left no feature of its pastoral development 

 without a record. The descriptive literature of annals, 

 history, and reminiscences is hardly more opulent than 

 the constructive literature of poetry and fiction. Some- 

 times they are skilfully blended, as in Alexander C. 

 Grant's Bush Life in Queensland. The arrival of the 

 new chum in Australia, his first sight of a colonial city, 

 his journey up country, his initiation into bush life, his 

 experiences on a station, his visits to other stations, 

 where he makes the acquaintance of admirable families — 

 worthy men and attractive women and girls, station 

 life and work, the tragedies, the humours, and the 

 amusements of the station. All this is interwoven with, 

 or strung upon, a thread of personal romance that runs 

 through the work. A Bushman's Romance, it might 

 be called. Vivid pictures of the incidents and accidents 

 of station life leave an indelible impression on the 

 memory. It shows a complete mastery of the subject 

 that could have arisen only from actual reaHsation. 

 We have no difficulty in understanding that so experi- 

 enced a bushman and so skilled a writer should have 

 become the active head of one of the best-known stock 

 and station agencies in all Australia. 



To Queensland also belongs Nehemiah Bartley's 



