396 The Wreck. 



nothing more than a succession of muddy water-holes ; and 

 the poor beasts, half-maddened with heat and thirst, would 

 heedlessly venture on the treacherous bottom, which, yielding 

 to every step, at last sucked them in, and held them as securely 

 as a vice. Retreat was impossible, and the poor creatures, ex- 

 hausted by vain struggling, would fall on their sides, never to rise 

 again, and surfer the most horrible of all imaginable deaths ; linger- 

 ing often for days, tantalized by the sight of the water which, 

 although within a few feet of their noses, it was impossible for 

 them to reach j the rays of the sun shooting down upon the brain, 

 as though concentrated in the focus of a burning glass $ myriads of 

 huge blowflies depositing living maggots in their eyes, ears, and 

 noses, and, before death came as a welcome relief, their bodies 

 becoming one living mass of corruption. Talk of the horrors of a 

 living grave ! I cannot imagine any death half so dreadful as this ; 

 and yet the stockman who had missed a bullock off the run would 

 carelessly ride by, and, if it was not one of "our brand," would 

 leave the wretched animal to linger on, without either trying to 

 extricate it or killing it out of its misery. 



In the year % 1853, there stood in the belt of gum-trees that 

 skirted this coast, and about half a mile from the sea, a large tent, 

 which was well known to every Melbourne duck-shooter as the 

 "grass-cutters' tent," and many a beaten sportsman has gladly 

 hailed the thin blue smoke of this camp-fire, curling among the 

 old gum-trees, for then he well knew his toils for that day were 

 over, and he was sure to find food and shelter for the night a rude 

 shelter, it is true, but a welcome one. 



Let me introduce the reader to this tent and how vividly does 

 my mind recal the scene ! The sun has sunk fiery red behind Mount 

 Elisa, the deep gloom of night (which sets in here as soon as ever 

 the sun dips below the western horizon) hangs over the forest like 

 a dreary pall, and the bright blaze of the log fire in front of the tent 

 shines like a meteor in the waste of darkness, rendering every object 

 for a hundred yards around as visible as by day. Five or six figures 

 are grouped around the fire, chatting, smoking, or resting after their 



