Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/403

Rh "Sometimes the man is accompanied by a black boy, but quite as frequently he goes alone. 'Really it ought to be the rule for a stockman never to go out alone,' said Mr. Watson, 'as there are so many dangers connected with bush-riding, and on my run I insist upon it.

"'Many accidents have happened, and the history of the colonies is full of melancholy stories about men who fell and were crippled away from home, and died in consequence. Many a man has disappeared, and no trace of him has ever been found; in other cases bleaching skeletons have been discovered years later, and the few who have not forgotten the missing men will connect these skeletons with their fate.

"'There was a horrible case,' said Mr. Watson, 'that is fresh in the memory of many men. A man was riding alone in the bush, when his horse threw him and injured his spine in such a way that he could not move. Close to where he fell was an enormous ants' nest, and when the man was found, three days after the accident, he was still alive and conscious, but unable to speak, his body having been half devoured by the ants. He died a few hours after, and it is awful to think of what his sufferings must have been.