DOMESTIC CATTLE. 57 



property ; but if once they were turned loose, they would 

 be anybody's game ; and I do not see how they could be 

 preserved sufficiently to allow them to gain head in the 

 country. Nor do I fancy, wild as Port Phillip may be in 

 some parts, it is, anywhere in the settled districts, so 

 inaccessible as the native home of the alpaca. 



There is no particular wild breed of cattle, horses, or 

 sheep, indigenous to Australia. In fact, it would appear 

 that this immense island had been left a barren waste 

 upon the face of the globe, until its hidden resources 

 should be developed by the skill and perseverance of 

 civilized man ; for so genial is its climate, and so peculiar 

 its soil, that almost any animal or plant will thrive here, 

 no matter from what part of the world it is imported. 

 And this very fact, now clearly proved, goes far to refute 

 the argument that Australia is a country fitted by nature 

 only as a residence for the lowest class of animals, the 

 marsupial. "Whether or not, as has been hinted by a 

 modern author, this land is as yet only in a primitive 

 era, and may still be subjected to those changes which 

 the study of geology proves to have taken place in the 

 old world, must, of course, remain a vague hypothesis. 

 In some parts of the country, up the Bass Eiver for 

 instance, large mobs of cattle breed in the bush, roam 

 the forests, without a brand, as wild as any on the plains 

 of the Brazils, or the South-American Andes. I never 

 cared to meet what they call the tame cattle here in the 

 bush, notwithstanding even the stockman's guarantee, 

 " Oh, they won't hurt you." And this reminds me of a 



