Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/396

372 "The large runs have two or three, and sometimes more, stations, or residences, with yards and buildings; one of them is the 'head station,' where the owner or manager lives, and from which orders are sent out. Each station has from one to three or four stockmen, with as many black assistants; this force is sufficient for managing the cattle; and each station has its herd of horses, which are driven up every morning, as already described. The horses are in a paddock, or fenced pasture, but the cattle roam at large and are generally about half wild. Some of the runs have boundary fences; but this is by no means the rule, and the consequence is that cattle of different owners are constantly mixed up and require separating.

"All over the runs there are cattle-camps at intervals of a few miles; these are level places, free from stones, and with plenty of water, and it is part of the stockman's work to accustom the cattle to run to these camps whenever they hear the crack of his whip. Driving into camp is called tailing, or mustering, and we were bound on a mustering expedition to a camp five or six miles away. The object of the muster was