Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/399

Rh "We dismounted, and sat down on a log, while the stockmen and the cattle-dealer proceeded to draft out the animals that were wanted. I may as well explain some of the terms used here, as they will doubtless seem strange in America.

"A 'mob' is a bunch or group of cattle that have assembled for grazing purposes. A herd consists of several or many mobs.

"'Tailing' is the assembling of one or a few mobs at the stock-yards or cattle-camps; tailing is sometimes called mustering, but the latter term applies more particularly to the annual or semi-annual assemblage of all the cattle belonging to a run for the purpose of counting, branding, and other operations to which cattle are devoted. The muster is exactly analogous to the American 'round-up.'

"Unruly cattle in Australia are termed 'rowdy;' 'drafting' is the process of selecting animals from the herds, and when they are rowdy, as they generally are, the performance is by no means free from danger. Not infrequently drafting is called 'cutting out.'

"The word 'squatter' in Australia has a meaning almost the reverse of its American one. In America a squatter is the occupant of a small area of land on which he has 'squatted,' or settled, with a view to