of their continuing a terra incognita might possibly have been a fitter subject for rejoicing than was dreamt of in the colonist's philosophy. A successful survey of the plains would have been followed by the dispatch of men and sheep to take possession of them, perchance but to meet the same fate that befell the flock-owners of the riverless northern districts of South Australia, where, after a long continuance of drought in the deadly season of 1865, the stock entirely perished, and the proprietors narrowly escaped with their own lives.
As to the wild dogs, their race had been so carefully extinguished, in the vicinity of Barladong, that the only living specimen I ever saw was one of the before-mentioned puppies. It was black and sleek, with long pricked ears, and had an eager, restless look, which appeared to justify the sheep-farmers' animosity; moreover, the unlucky wretch, as if resolved to run headlong upon its fate, set to work killing chickens like an old hand at the first civilized tenement to which it was introduced. The origin of these dogs is quite a mystery; that they are not indigenous in Australia is universally allowed, and conjecture runs wild as to whether their progenitors swam ashore from a shipwreck, or were landed from canoes, in company with the persons by whom the continent was originally peopled.
There was another class of persons, unconnected with explorers, who chose the winter as the most favourable time for wanderings in the bush, and not a year passed without instances, more or less alarming, of prisoners running away from road parties and becoming bushrangers. The frequent recurrence of such events caused Binnahan to decide very confidently that an engraving in an illustrated
