"swag,"
which had now assumed the disagreeable aggregate of 1½ cwt. These preliminaries then having been arranged, the provisions, &c., were placed on the dray, and it was afternoon before I was prepared to start. We were eleven in company, two gentlemen of the number being more particularly my compagnons de route. You would have been rather amused could you have seen your Special Commissioner in the heavy marching order in which he set out. A pair of blue blankets, in which were rolled up such small necessaries as towel, soap, comb, brush, &c., and in the straps of which was thrust a small American tomahawk, was hung, à la knapsack, at his back; a small bundle, containing what was considered to be sufficient for two days' rations, hung in front; the waist-belt was decorated with a revolver and a pouch of powder, ball, caps, &c., and a pint pannikin; whilst a two quart billy -- the diggers' name for a covered tin pot -- hung now from his right hand, now from his left. Such was my load, and my two immediate companions were as heavily freighted as myself, one of them carrying, in addition, a light calico tent for our nightly use. We left Rockhampton by a westerly route, crossing a series of low stony ranges for two miles and a half down on to a swampy looking plain, through which large lagoons of excellent water, abounding in water-fowl of every description, stretched away in all directions. This continued for a distance of five miles, when the lagoons ceased, there being then a dreary waste of nine miles to pass over before the next water-hole is reached. In this intermediate distance is comprised beautiful and grassy downs of rich black soil, a plain of some three miles in length, and fine open forest flats; in fact, the whole distance, forty miles, from Rockhampton to Canoona, is, with the exception of the first two miles, over a country as level almost as a bowling-green. There is a deep creek, which has to be crossed twice before reaching the Round Waterhole, the name given to the small pond which greets the traveller after his nine miles of arid journeying. The bank of this creek are almost straight up and down, and teams are compelled to unload in crossing, making two or three trips across with an ordinary load. We pitched our tents for the night at the Hound Waterhole, and made ourselves as comfortable as we could under the circumstances, though, to tell truth, the unwanted loading had begun already to tell upon most of us. At daybreak, the next morning, we boiled our pots of tea, which, with biscuit and cheese, formed our breakfast, meat being inconvenient as well as heavy to carry, and then pushed on for the river, another twelve miles, which we got over by dinner time. The same uniformly level country was passed over in this distance, though it was very agreeably diversified by large lagoons perfectly alive with ducks, and their margins bordered by a thick fringe of most magnificent water-lilies, all flowering in profusion, and shedding around a delightful fragrance. Within four miles of the river we passed a sheep station of the Messrs. Archer. By the side of the hut was the first palpable evidence I received of the existence of alligators in these waters. This was the half-dried carcase of an alligator, then about twelve feet long, which had been shot on one of the lagoons by a shepherd attached to the station. It was an ugly looking animal, very like the common Jew lizard of Sydney, magnified an indefinite number of times. Its teeth were much after the fashion of those of the shark, set saw-wise in the jaws, but much larger, those at the back part of the jaw being very strong, and more after the style of molars than is to be found amongst fish in general. The road passes for nearly a quarter of a mile along and across the shingly bed of the river, this forming without exception the worst part of the line between Rockhampton and Canoona. At the river, we halted and had dinner, a meagre repast of tea without sugar, and biscuit without meat. In fact, we had underrated our powers of consumption, and the result was that first the sugar, then the cheese, and now, alas, the biscuit was entirely demolished. Somewhat refreshed with the rest and the refection we pushed on to Canoona Station, six miles distant, where we were sure of procuring beef. The road continued of the same monotonous and flat country, undiversified by hill or dale, until we reached the now celebrated station of Messrs. Ramsay and Gaston. We had been consoling ourselves during the day for our deficient breakfast and dinner, with the prospect of a glorious feed of beef and fritters -- fritters being a simple compound of flour and water, mixed to the consistency of batter, and fried in a pan of fat -- a kind of festal dish given upon holiday occasions by joyous diggers to honoured guests; -- with these then we expected to regale, and though we arrived so early as four o'clock, we at once pitched our tents in anticipation of the coming feast. One of our party was despatched to the store with the necessary funds for supplying our wants, but returned with the unwelcome news that they were short of supplies on the station, and that neither sugar nor flour was to be had. At this information we all looked exceedingly blank, and I undertook the task of softening down the indurated storekeeper."By what by-ways and crooked paths"
I gained my end, it is needless here to recapitulate; suffice it that I returned triumphant with three pounds of flour and a pound of sugar, my achievement being hailed with greater joy by my companions that ever was the greatest victory of the greatest conqueror of the world by his admiring subjects. A hearty meal of beef and the much-coveted fritters rendered as very loth to perform the remaining six miles to the diggings that night, and we consequently turned-in -- if the term is to be applied to rolling oneself up in a blanket, which is about the extent of a digger's turn-in when en route. As the sun rose on the following morning, our breakfast, composed of the debris -- very scanty indeed -- of the previous evening's repast, had been discussed, and we were once more on the way. For the remaining portion of the road, the track traverses the same level plain, with this difference, that for the last two miles the plain is formed by the broad flats that border the upper portion of Canoona Creek, running between high and rugged mountains that rise up abruptly on either side. At the upper end of this flat, when the road seems perfectly hemmed in by mountains, and when further advance appears forbidden, the traveller comes almost suddenly upon the assembled tents of the diggers.