THE LITERATURE OF THE STATION 291 



Many other Avorks embodying the experience of 

 squatters complete or complement the early history of 

 squatting in New South Wales. Captain Lancelott's 

 two-volumed book again abounds in precious personal 

 details on the formation and development of a station, 

 the colhsions with rival would-be squatters, the successes 

 and failures of those who had to buy experience at so 

 dear a rate. Light sketches by several French writers 

 (such as Hubert de Castella's Les Squatters australiens), 

 or studies by Germans like Semon's Im australischen 

 Busch, show how many sides the large subject possesses 

 and to how many interests it appeals. 



None of the colonies has a richer squatting literature 

 than Queensland. Settled late in the history of Aus- 

 tralia, it has given birth to quite a number of writers 

 who have left no feature of its pastoral development 

 without a record. The descriptive literature of annals, 

 history, and reminiscences is hardly more opulent than 

 the constructive literature of poetry and fiction. Some- 

 times they are skilfully blended, as in Alexander C. 

 Grant's Bush Life in Queensland. The arrival of the 

 new chum in Australia, his first sight of a colonial city, 

 his journey up country, his initiation into bush life, his 

 experiences on a station, his visits to other stations, 

 where he makes the acquaintance of admirable families — • 

 worthy men and attractive women and girls, station 

 life and work, the tragedies, the humours, and the 

 amusements of the station. All this is interwoven with, 

 or strung upon, a thread of personal romance that runs 

 through the work. A Bushman's Romance, it might 

 be called. Vivid pictures of the incidents and accidents 

 of station life leave an indelible impression on the 

 memory. It shows a complete mastery of the subject 

 that could have arisen only from actual reahsation. 

 We have no difficulty in understanding that so experi- 

 enced a bushman and so skilled a Avriter should have 

 become the active head of one of the best-known stock 

 and station agencies in all Australia. 

 To Queensland also belongs Nehemiah Bartley's 



