WILD AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1816, 31 July 1913, Page 3

WILD AUSTRALIA.

A LONELY LIFE. DUTIES OF THE PATROLMAN, SCENES IN FAR NORTH. ''We think no more of setting, out on a thousand-mile ride, occupying n couple of months, than tho. folk down here do of making a. trip to the Blue Mountains." Tho speaker was Mounted-constable H. W. Holland, who arrived in Sydney the other day from Darwin, lie had been doing patrol work in remote portions of the tar north for 'tho last five years, and had como south on three months' furlough. For months at a stretch he has traversed sonic of the wildest portions of Wild Australia with no other companions than black boys. He says tins adventurous liio grows on one. He prefers the solitary bush to the roar und rattlo of 4he city. "We go out on these patrols every few months/' ha said. "As a rule, ono trooper is detailed for the work, and a couple of trackers accompany him. It is necessary to take a good number of horses. Horses cannot stand much work there, particularly in tho coastal districts. In addition to ;v couple of hoises for ourselves we have to lake two apiece for the trackers, and three or four packs. There arc 210 stores or provision depots there, so everything ha* to be taken on horseback, except for a little stray game jwe may get on the way. On the Bark ley tablelands we can get along with fewer horses, and do longer stages. .1 hat is magnificent country, and ought to bo carrving of sheei), but the trouW is the rainfall is a bit uncertain. These patrols arc made, bpcaws experience tcaches that the fact of a policeman travelling about has a wholesome elloct. Tho majority of the whites are law-abid-ing, but soma of the natives are troublesome. hi the Victoria, Fi'izmaurue, and Kopcr Kiver districts a good deal, of cattle vSjrj iring goes on. t'hey do not kill the beasts lor mere spite, but for food, because tho cat'tle are oiton easier to get thaa kangarjGs, and because they have developed a taste for beef. 111 the wet season, when the country is more or less boggy, they have 110 difficulty in running the cattle down. Some they kill on tli? spci. Others, with spears .sticking m them, get away into the bush, and die there/' # "Is there much native game? "Not a vast quaatity. Kangaroos and emus are not as plentiful as some people think. Along the rivers and on tho coast there is plenty of food in the shape of fish, turtle, una wild ducks, there ar? ab:> any .r.'unibor of Joannas, or which the blacks are very fond. ."Xo; there is no cruelty to the blacks; but they are dying out in the neighbourhood of white* settlements. 1 attribute that to the wearing 01 clothes. They get wet and arc never changed, and colds and then consumption the result, rhey make fine .stockmen,, and are very faithful servants. Theirs 'tracking is simply marvellous. - A 'boy* I had with me in a chas? after a native murderer followed his tracks—they were not visible to me— through tho bush for threo days, till we reached' a deserted native camp. -I he tribe which the murderer had joined had got: a couple of days' start ot us, and wo followed tiwm for another couple, or days, till we cume on them, and captured our nuan, after a fight. ' "Tho vrorat discomforts there are the attacks of mosquitoes. It is impossible to get: a wink of sleep anywhere near the rivons unless one is protected with neb. Alligator abound in the rivers, and many horses fall victims to them, but they ravelv attack human beings. Alligators, despite Jblneir ferocious appearance, arc timid ci*oaturos, mul if a man «pln<hcs about and make* n gi'cat noise, he is pretty tafe. my experience, anyway/'