Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/115

 a huge plateful of fried pork, a damper as large as a blackfellow's shield, a kettle-full of tea saturated with sugar, and a pot of milk. My horse was also indebted to their hospitality, as he got several cobs of corn. There were a number of blacks here, and I noticed, among the children, several who were of a brown colour, like the South Sea islanders, being the offspring of white men. The wilder tribes of Australian natives, however, invariably put to death the children resulting from the intercourse between their women and the stockmen at out-stations, especially if they are males.

On the other side of the Manning I entered the county of Gloucester, in which the Australian Agricultural Company possess a portion of their grant. I now rode to the right of the rocky range before mentioned, tracing up the valley of a fine limpid brook, which flowed in a bed of dark-coloured rock. As I advanced, the country became rather hilly, but very grassy; the ranges were lightly wooded by blue gum and stringy bark, whilst the apple-tree, (Angophora lanceolata), predominated in the valleys and on the lower slopes of the hills. The country in this neighbourhood would be very good for sheep, if the grass were not allowed to grow too long and too old, for when once the Australian grass becomes dry, the sheep will never eat it. An intelligent overseer of a sheep-station in Australia, ought therefore so to regulate the grass on his run, by feeding it down, and burning it off in small