358 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



whilst travelling at an easy pace and loosened rein, the rider 

 finds himself summarily ejected high up into the air, and 

 thence over his steed's head, by a series of gymnastics, yclept 

 buck-jumping, which some sudden caprice or olden recollec- 

 tions have caused him to execute. He fixes his head firmly 

 between his knees, curves up his back and body into the 

 shape of a ball, erects his tail, and simultaneously makes a 

 spring and kick that would unseat almost any horseman 

 either unprepared for it or otherwise. 



A small police-station, composed of a party of four men, 

 was situated at an embryo township and pastoral district 

 called Chepstow. This place was about twenty-five miles 

 from Ballarat, and the road to it lay chiefly through forest 

 scenery until the traveller arrived near his destination, when 

 the country assumed an open appearance, almost entirely 

 divested of trees. Ranges of undulating hills enclosed val- 

 leys, in some of which were large swamps covered with 

 weeds and grasses, and in others the bed of some creek, or 

 line of water-holes, fringed with the same description of 

 vegetation, and innumerable grasshoppers (it was now the 

 month of February) were chirping in one immense chorus 

 over the whole surface of the earth. 



I had been driven over to this place from Ballarat in a 

 gig by the clerk of the bench, who resided at this spot, in 

 the double capacity of a farmer on his own account and a 

 factotum to the squatters in the vicinity who acted in the 

 capacity of justices of the peace, and had- made the trip for 

 the purpose of shooting wild turkeys as they are called, or 

 bustards in fact, which were said to abound in these plains, 

 and, indeed, had seen several on the road, but which, as 

 usual, I found it impossible to approach on foot, even within 

 many hundred yards distance, so extremely shy and cautious 

 are these birds of the presence of a human being in his 

 natural state. We tried to get a shot at them from the gig, 



