"EN ROUTE" TO BALLARAT. 333 



mounted on a new purchase, which promised to be a horse 

 equal to getting me out of any difficulties I should be likely 

 to meet with in the still heavy and marshy state of the 

 country I was about to pass through, I sped merrily away, 

 with my saddle-bags strapped behind me, and my pistols in 

 their holsters, en route for the far-famed gold mines of Bal- 

 larat. Having passed the village of Flemington and town of 

 Keelor, ten miles distant from Melbourne, through a succes- 

 sion of well-cultivated farms and private domains, and upon 

 a good macadamized road, I emerged at once upon the Keelor 

 plains, which are wide and open downs of immense extent, 

 used only for sheep-pastures, intersected here and there by 

 low hills and intervening valleys of swampy ground ; not 

 a tree is visible for miles, but the horizon was bounded in 

 the direction of the road I was taking by apparently well- 

 wooded mountains. Cantering onwards, guided by the tracks 

 of drays and the footmarks of horses and oxen, I observed on 

 the grassy slopes to my right what appeared to me at a dis- 

 tance to be a large party of prettily-dressed little girls at 

 play ; which, upon a nearer approach, I discovered to be a 

 flock of " native companions," occupied with the most amusing 

 gambols, indeed just such as we are in the habit of seeing 

 children practise. This beautiful bird, of the crane species, 

 and which stands sometimes upwards of four, or five feet 

 high, is easily domesticated, and becomes a very interesting 

 pet (hence its name), but is of little use for the table, like 

 most of the stork and crane family. Colonists, however, 

 do shoot them, and roast them also, in cases of emergency, 

 but they are a shy and difficult bird to get near, except in 

 the breeding season. The pewit, or common green plover, 

 uttered its shrill cry over my head, and covered the more 

 stony part of the plain in immense numbers. Here and 

 there a bustard was either stalking along, or quietly standing 

 in solitary dignity, although nothing (except perhaps a dray), 



