Adventures in Australia | Page 2

From our black guide we could not obtain much information; for,
although we were well assured that he spoke English when we engaged
him, we found that it was of a character which would take us some time
to learn. However he understood us better than we did him, though we
had to put questions in all sorts of ways and repeat them over and over
again. We then had to puzzle out his replies, not always arriving at a
satisfactory conclusion.
Guy frequently stood up in his stirrups and looked ahead, hoping to
catch the sheen of water. At last we began to have some uncomfortable
suspicions that, although our black attendant professed to know the
way, he had managed to lose it--a circumstance not at all unlikely to
occur-- and that we were wandering far out of our proper course.
Though the sun was of some assistance, yet we might be going too
much to the north or too much to the west, and might pass a long way
off from the station which we wished to reach. All we could do
therefore was to exert our wits, and, should we have got out of the
direct path, to try and find it. At length the foliage before us became
somewhat thicker, but no sign of water did we see. We were riding on
when a loud cry reached our ears.
"There's some one in distress!" I exclaimed.
"I fear that you are right, we must find out," answered Guy.
We were urging on our horses, when a peal of mocking laughter
seemed to come from the wood close to us.
"What can that be?" I asked; "some natives who want to frighten us, or
an unfortunate maniac."
The shout of laughter was repeated.
"Him one jackass!" observed our guide, Toby.

"Jackass! What can the fellow mean?" cried Guy.
Then looking up we discovered a large bird not far off who was
evidently uttering the extraordinary sound we heard. It was, as Toby
told us, a laughing-jackass, or a gigantic kingfisher. So ridiculous were
the sounds that we could not help laughing too.
Presently a number of cockatoos, rising with loud screams just before
us, flew over the trees to pitch again not far off. As we were watching
them we found ourselves at the top of a bank, some thirty or forty feet
in height. Below it, to the right and left, stretched a sandy bottom
scarcely less than half a mile in breadth, and on the opposite side rose
another bank. Below the one on which we stood was a stream of water,
flowing sluggishly along, scarcely twelve feet wide, and so shallow that
we could see the bottom.
"Can this be the river we were to come to?" I exclaimed, examining the
map.
"No doubt about it," answered my brother; "perhaps sometimes this
broad bed of sand is covered, and if we had found it so, we should have
had considerable difficulty in crossing; so it is as well as it is, here is
water enough for ourselves and our weary beasts." We accordingly
agreed to stop and dine. Having watered our horses, we hobbled them
and turned them at liberty under some trees where grass was growing;
then unslinging our guns, we went in search of the cockatoos we had
seen. I killed one, and Guy a parrot; but the report of our guns
frightened away the birds, which were more wary than usual, and we
had to return satisfied with this scanty supply of food. On reaching the
spot we had selected for our camp, close to the water where our black
boy was waiting for us, we found that he had during our absence made
a fire, at which we cooked the birds, Toby devouring the larger portion.
We would gladly have eaten some fruit, however sour it might have
been, but none was to be found. We had just finished masticating the
tough parrot, when we caught sight of two natives scampering along as
if they were mad, so it seemed to us, for they had their eyes fixed in the
air and appeared regardless of all impediments in their way. We

shouted to them, but not hearing us, on they went, now leaping over the
fallen trunk of a tree, now rushing through a bush, now tumbling into a
hole, still keeping their eyes fixed on the object which engaged their
attention. We asked Toby what they were about.
"Dey huntee bee. Soon catchee!" he answered. The reply was
intelligible enough, but why they should hunt a bee puzzled us. They
however stopped, while yet in sight, under a large tree, the stem of
which they began to climb. Hoping, as was really the case, that they
were going to rob the