130 WHE AUSTRALIAN NATURALISY. 
THE CASTLEREAGH. 
By Arcupeacon Havimanp, Coonamble. 
The Castlereagh district has, at times, been brought much 
before the public in song and yarn; but they only who have 
lived on its banks and plains, are aware of the weird magnetism 
of its environments which seems to have a “pull” something 
akin to the “Mulga Fever’ further hack, upon its settlers. Rich ~ 
in both fauna and flora, it has a field of interests mostly its 
own; the stream, sand-coyered, as if to keep out the dust from 
its hidden waters, rises by many driblets somewhere or any- 
where amidst the most ancient of Australia’s climbs—the War- 
rumbungles; a course of mountains of mostly basaltic formation, 
and originally a continuous spur of the Liverpool Ranges, rising 
sheer-headed and forbidding, with only needle points and organ 
pipes to interpret the effects of millenia of weathering; from 
such haunted abodes emerges this river, at one part at least of 
which you can cross over and yet be on the same side as that 
from which you, had started; a riddle which is frequently offered 
to the bewildered visitor. Be it now sand, now water, it had 
apparently a difficulty in finding a course over the level plains, 
and thus for two-hundred miles slowly staggers along till it en- 
ters the waters of the Barwon, near Walgett. Whether on the 
hills or along stretches of plain, bird life serenades the bushman 
with tones of unmatched purity and tune. There the Emu and 
Kangaroo vie with each other in leg strokes, and the Brolgas 
(Antigone) gracefully bow their courtesies to the passing travel- 
ler, while the IXookaburra ridicules the furtive attempts of the 
drought-stricken settler. The “Jacky Bird’s’ “Don’t Hit So 
Hard,” and the “Diamond Dove’s” “Do, Do,” the melodious bush 
Canary and the ubiquitous “Pee Weet,” the mischievous “Bower 
Bird,” which carpets its hall at somebody else’s expense, and the 
“Twelve Apostles’ “Much Ado About Nothing,” all break the 
monotony of the otherwise everlasting stillness and turn an 
otherwise weird sameness into such a variety in the way that 
only unaided Nature knows how. Yet, amidst all Nature’s wit- 
nesses, the flora is not second in the adornment of hill and plain; 
there the “Darling” and: “Wileannia” Lilies (Crinum and Calo- 
stemma) contrasting their whites and yellows star the grassy 
canvas, and the “Hyerlasting Daisies” with their snowy spreads, 
relieve the earthy acres; the “Bachelor’s Buttons” (Craspedia). 
stand up in protest to the twigs and nails in the wayfarer’s gar- 
ments, and the gums and “Apples” (Angophora) shower their 
