G *S STATION. 345 



and their bite is supposed to be fatal. A short time pre- 

 vious to my arrival a pack of hounds was kept by a cousin 

 of mine, a large settler, who hunted the country between 

 Ballan and Bacchus Marsh. Wild dogs, emu, and now 

 and then a kangaroo, afforded some excellent sport ; but 

 the present great scarcity, and almost extinction of these 

 animals where they formerly abounded, had induced him to 

 give up what was almost a useless expense. 



My first excursion was to a spot called Creswick's Creek, 

 beautifully situated amidst a range of wooded mountains,- 

 about fourteen miles from Ballarat, and already celebrated 

 for its gold-diggings. Several thousand diggers were assembled 

 there, and, generally speaking, doing well ; but I had wit- 

 nessed quite enough, not only of the means employed, but of 

 the toil, labour, danger, and exposure included in the pur- 

 suit of the precious metal at Ballarat, and my present trip 

 was for the purpose of joining some officers stationed there 

 on a shooting party at a station in the neighbourhood, where 

 we expected to find snipe and quail in some abundance. 



The country through which we travelled to the station of 



Mr. G was remarkably beautiful. After passing the 



steep and woody ranges amongst which the diggings are 

 situated, the landscape assumes the appearance of one immense 

 park, with all its dells, glades, clumps, avenues, &c., in fact, 

 everything except a lake or river to complete the view, and 

 in that it is sadly deficient. We arrived at the pretty 



cottage and station of Mr. G , which was admirably 



situated on the crest of a hill, overlooking a brawling tor- 

 rent that washed its base, and surrounded by a garden of 

 European fruit-trees, with strawberry-beels sloping down to 



the stream. Mr. G was a curious specimen of a squatter, 



and an instance of the odd effect that this solitary mode of 

 life often has upon a man's mind and habits. At the 

 period of our arrival he drank ilo thing but water from the 



