Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/395

Rh plenty of good bread, some pickles and jam, washed down with strong tea. Coffee is not often used in the Australian bush, the greater convenience of tea having made it much more popular. Living in the bush is not luxurious, and on many stations the unvarying round of tea, damper, and beef or mutton soon becomes monotonous. These are the staples of food; vegetables of any kind are rarely seen; and as for pickles, jam, and the like, they are luxuries which only the prosperous can afford. 'Damper' is dough baked in hot ashes or on a hot stone; when you are hungry and the damper is fresh, it is by no means unpalatable; but cold damper requires an excellent appetite to get it down.

"Soon after breakfast the horses were brought up, and we started, under the guidance of Mr. Watson, for a ride among the cattle. The run, as a cattle or sheep range is called (the word corresponding in usage to the American 'ranch'), was about twenty miles square, and was said to be an excellent one, as the grass was good and there was plenty of water. Cattle and sheep runs are frequently much larger than this; I heard of some that covered areas of more than six hundred square miles, and were capable of carrying thirty thousand head of cattle; but such runs are becoming more and more rare every year.