No. 7.J THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD 169 



naturalist's life. He made arrangements to go to New Zealand 

 to join his father's cousin ; but that project fell through, and he 

 turned his attention to West Australia, the attractions of which 

 had been told to him by London friends. 



On November 1, 1886, Carter sailedin the s.s. "Australind" 

 for West Australia, and after meeting with a few mishaps, such 

 as grounding on the Geographe Shoals, the ship arrived off 

 Carnarvon on February 6, 1887. One of the leading squatters 

 came on board, and Carter agreed with him to learn station 

 work as a " new chum " for lodging and " tucker " only. 

 Carter's natural ability for strenuous work enabled him success- 

 fully to overcome the novelties of this hard life, and while so 

 doing he was taking ornithological notes, so that we find a paper 

 in the Zoologist for September the same year dealing with the 

 local bird life. Another paper appeared in the January number 

 and still another in May, 1888. This is worthy of attention, 

 because the " new chum's " life is not an easy one, and the 

 hardships are apt to narrow one's outlook on natural science. 

 Carter, however, undertook 200-mile trips, and collected birds 

 and made skins on the journeys, carefully making notes all the 

 time. Water was scarce, and natives numerous and dangerous, 

 white men having been speared shortly before. Moreover, 

 these natives still indulged in cannibalism from choice. 



Carter later took a couple of thousand wethers to Perth, a 

 distance of seven hundred miles, and he has told me how his last 

 camp was at a "paper bark" swamp north of the city, which 

 is now an artificial lake in a park inside the city boundaries. 



He went to stay at Busselton and there, busy as always, 

 he assisted with his host's farm, learning about the business 

 in many ways. He returned to Carnarvon and took a " job " 

 as a full-blown station hand on a station on the Minilya River, 

 where he worked for another year. Having now satisfied 

 himself as to his own capabilities, he made a prospecting trip 

 inland in search of suitable country to take up ; but all the 

 places were too far inland, so he drove a small flock of sheep 

 to Carnarvon and came back with a waggon full of stores, 

 and getting it deeply bogged within sight of his destination 

 the owner paid him off, much to Carter's satisfaction. 



