Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/71

 employments and these resources, there is many an hour which hangs heavily on the solitary occupant of the squatter's hut. In respect that it is solitary, it is a very vile life. However, most of the stations are jointly occupied by two partners who form society for each other, and there are many now on which married men are residing with their wives and families, who seem to live very happily.

The persons whom I have observed to make the best settlers, are either those men of good education and gentlemanlike habits and feelings, who from the cultivation of their minds, possess sources of entertainment and interest unknown to those who are without such advantages; and who, from a true appreciation of what raises or lowers character, are not, when occasion requires it, above putting their hands to any work however rough. But I must do bushmen in general the justice to say, that on this score there is very little squeamishness amongst them. They are from first to last a hardy, enterprising, hard-working set of men. Or else, those men who, brought up from infancy in rural pursuits as farmers, find little change from what they have been accustomed to &om childhood, save that which is caused by difference of country and climate.

There is one incident, and that by no means an uncommon one, which puts to the proof all a bushman's energy. This is the occurrence of bush fires. All parts of the country, but particularly those which are naturally rich, and where the grass is not sufficiently eaten down by stock, are exceedingly apt to catch fire in the summer-time, when the grass has become withered