230 THE GEOGRAPHY 



in the face, till I had somewhat recovered myself, and 

 rapidly executing a sudden resolution, I swung myself up 

 on to the bank, before my antagonist had time to thrust 

 again. Then I flung my plaid, from above, over the head 

 and eyes of the exhausted animal, and again threw myself 

 upon him. But I did not give him the death-wound 

 without a despairing struggle on his part, and then I 

 sank down exhausted on the damp moss beside my prize." 

 " It is not unusual," began the second, "for such a 

 noble and strong animal to bring the hunter into a 

 dangerous dilemma ; but some years ago I witnessed a 

 most ridiculous scene, in what, without my interference, 

 would have been a hopeless combat of a man with one of 

 the weakest and most cowardly of animals. Early on one 

 fine Sunday morning, I was rambling on the wide plains 

 of Gipps* Land. My thoughts were wholly withdrawn 

 from my special intention of hunting, by the peculiarities 

 of Nature by which I was surrounded. First my path led 

 through those shadeless woods of New Holland, formed by 

 the leafless Casuarinas and the Eucalyptus and Cajeput 

 trees, with their sparing foliage, the narrow leaves of 

 which, oddly twisted, turn not their surfaces but their 

 borders up and down. With amazement I watched the 

 strange world of insects, among which a kind of locust 

 which exactly resembled a straw, especially engaged my 

 attention. Next I entered on a broad sandy plain, in 

 places decked with the wonderful Grass-tree.* The trunks, 

 several feet high, bear on their summits a bunch of 

 gigantic grass, from the middle of which the shaft bearing 

 the spike of flowers rises from fourteen to twenty feet. 

 Sometimes the soil was moist, and the vegetation, though 

 merely low bush, almost impenetrable. Only here and 



* Xanthorrhsea australis. 



