354 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



stony and vegetable impediments, I arrived by his direction 

 at a lateral fissure in the rocks, some distance lower down 

 from which, by a steep and rugged ascent, the upper and 

 open country could be gained. A cave or hollow in the 

 rock, about half-way through, was the temporary residence 

 of my new acquaintance, who, for reasons of his own, pre- 

 ferred this shady concealment to the leafy bowers of the 

 forest; and here the tin kettle was already simmering on 

 the embers, into which he threw a handful of tea on my 

 approach. A large piece of damper was undergoing a second 

 process of toasting, and every preparation made for a bush 

 repast, of which my eels were to furnish the chief quota. 

 The occupant was a middle-sized, but well-built, active man, 

 apparently about thirty years of age, dressed in the ordinary 

 costume of a digger ; a blue woollen shirt, that served as smock- 

 frock or jumper, being worn over his fustian trousers, and 

 confined by a broad black belt. The stock of a revolving 

 pistol peeped out from his breast, and a large case-knife was 

 affixed to his waist. His manners and language were 

 evidently assumed, and he attempted to conceal a certain 

 superiority of education, which by a few tones and remarks 

 now and then unwittingly transpired, beneath the coarse 

 slang terms in common use amongst that class of men. He 

 treated me, however, with rough civility, and, upon my 

 emptying the bag of eels before him, remarked " that the 

 squatters were very good fellows, but that it was not con- 

 venient for him just now to approach a station, as he was 

 making a short cut across the country." As I carried no 

 blanket or knapsack of any kind with me, he saw clearly I 

 was not a traveller, and had no gold with me, so that, not 

 being worth plundering, it was his policy rather to do away 

 with than create suspicion about himself. He told me that 

 he had observed all my movements, from my first hiding my 

 gun to the scrambling descent into the torrent, with some 



