Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/383

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IN A COUNTRY HOTEL.
359

CHAPTER XVI.


RIDING THROUGH THE BUSH.—AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALITY.—ARRIVAL AT THE STATION.—THE BUILDINGS AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS.—A SNAKE IN FRED'S BED.—SNAKES IN AUSTRALIA.—UNDERWOOD'S REMEDY FOR SNAKE-BITES, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.—CENTIPEDES AND SCORPIONS.—A VENOMOUS SPIDER.—NOCTURNAL NOISES AT A CATTLE-STATION.—HORSES AND THEIR TRAITS.—BUCK-JUMPING AND ROUGH-RIDING.—HOW A "NEW CHUM" CATCHES A HORSE.—ENDURANCE OF HORSES.—AMONG THE HERDS OF CATTLE.—RIDE TO A CATTLE-CAMP.—DAILY LIFE OF THE STOCKMEN.—CASTE IN AUSTRALIA.—SQUATTERS AND FREE SELECTORS.—HORRIBLE ACCIDENTS IN THE BUSH.—A MAN EATEN ALIVE BY ANTS.—BURNED TO DEATH UNDER A FALLEN TREE.—CHASING AN EMU.—ROUSING A FLOCK OF WILD TURKEYS.


THE TEAM.

ON their arrival at Roma, Doctor Bronson and his young companions spent the night, or what remained of it, in a hotel that was anything but comfortable by comparison with the spacious caravanseries of the city, but fully as good, as they had expected to find in an