partake of the scattered grain; and in the fullness of their feast, they were easily captured, and stowed in separate bags and pouches, till a new dwelling could be made for them.

Then the little feathered hero below, having vanquished and left his antagonist for dead, perched for a moment on the pinnacle of a shattered rock, and crowed triumphantly, as if to defy the whole race of native birds; after which demonstration, he leisurely followed his female friends up the steep, to share their feast and their captivity.

Notwithstanding the alarm and delay caused by this accident, there was something amusing about it that was not without its beneficial effects. Ruth continued to lament the loss of her basket; but Jack scolded her seriously for her foolish fears and awkwardness, which were the sole cause of the loss. He declared the fowls were absolute pests, and wholly useless in a region where birds and eggs dropped into your hands; but his remonstrances having produced tears of penitence and promises of amendment, he relented, and promised to make for her a coop, or cage, of cane, which would be easier to carry than the basket, and afford more air to the unfortunate prisoners.

After wandering for two days along their frequently dangerous, and always difficult, aerial pathway, resting only when they came to some rocky hollow, they began to pine for a less-hazardous road; and they now perceived that, with the usual caprice of Australian rivers, the stream in the narrow bed below them had disappeared, though slender rills continually fell from the mountains, but subsided into bogs, or formed pools below. They therefore resolved, if they could safely

AN EXTEMPORE STAIRCASE.

225

accomplish it, to descend to the bed of the river; and endeavour to extricate themselves from the rocky maze in which they seemed hopelessly involved.

After another day's travelling, they fancied the descent appeared more practicable than it had yet been since they set out on the shelving terrace, and it was decided to make the trial. The first step would decidedly be the most difficult. About twelve feet below them another shelf of rock projected, wider than that on which they now stood; but how to reach it was a puzzling question, for the descent was perpendicular, and quite overgrown with thorny bushes.

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'If you will help me, Master Hugh,” said Jack, “I think we may manage it. We must just cut down the bushes into steps, like, for them that feel timid."

Employment was the grand need of the active boys, and to clear a passage as low as they could reach, and then step down on the bushes to work below, was a pleasant amusement. The stone axes were now found to be perfectly serviceable, and they soon cut six clearances, each two feet deep, graduating like a staircase, of which the matted brush formed the steps, which reached to the lower terrace; and down the staircase the agitated females were, one after another, assisted, and safely placed on the broad shelf.

This was a decided victory, and they now saw, to their great satisfaction, that the lower descent sloped so much, from accumulated rocks and drift-wood, that by clearing the way with the axes, they easily reached the comparative security of the muddy bed of the vanished river. They looked round on the immense walls which inclosed them with some dismay; then Gerald said,—

66

Now, Meggie, we only want the great rains to come

226

THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS.

on, and then we shall have some notion of the situation of sinful man in the Deluge."

"I trust, my dear boy," said Mr. Mayburn, "that you do not allude to that fearful judgment with levity. And surely, Arthur, we are not near the time of the terrific tropical rains."

Usually, papa, I believe the heaviest autumnal periodical rains are in February and March," said Arthur. "We are now in the midst of summer; still, I must confess I have read of continued rains, even at this season; but I trust we shall be in a safer locality before such trying weather comes on. We are certainly progressing in the way we wish to go; but the immense extent of the mountain-range is extraordinary. Fortunately, we are not in a desert, we are surrounded by plenty, and as far as we have yet penetrated, ferocious animals seem unknown; and more, ferocious man rarely encountered. I only fear for your strength, dear papa, and for that of dear Meggie."

"Fear not for us, Arthur," answered Margaret; 'you know I am naturally strong; and God has given renewed life and health to dear papa. His delight in these new and varied scenes of Nature makes every toil light to him. Observe him now, pausing and contemplating something at yon large pond; let us join him. Now, papa! what is the new discovery?”

"Wonderful, my children," said he. "Behold this marvellous new creature. Undoubtedly it must be the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, the duck-billed Platypus, which I should have recognized, from the numerous sketches I have seen ; and my warmest hopes are fulfilled in the happiness of really looking on the rare animal in its native wilds."

AN ANOMALOUS ANIMAL.

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"Is't a duck, think ye, Miss Marget?' asked Ruth, with a kind of awe.

"Has a duck four legs, Ruth?" asked Gerald. "Has it fur on its back, and a broad finny tail? No, Ruth, this is not a strange fowl, but a strange beast."

"Nevertheless," said Mr. Mayburn, "there are irreconcilable circumstances in such a decision. This animal, if we rank it among the mammalia, belongs to no order yet named, but stands alone. Quadruped it is, certainly; web-footed, certainly; ovo-viviparous, certainly, as the eggs are hatched before birth, and the young then suckled, like the mammalia. Feeding on worms and grubs, like the duck; sleeping rolled up, like the hedgehog; playful as the monkey, and harmless as the dove ;-we cannot but look with astonishment and admiration on this remarkable caprice of Nature."

"They're ugly beasts, that I'll say," was Jenny's remark, "and not half so good as a duck for such as us; but I'se warrant them poor heathens eat 'em as we would a roast goose."

Leaving the platypus, which they now saw at every pool as they proceeded, they walked on till the ravine gradually became wider, but the mountain-line still spread on each side. Soon after, the pools disappeared, and rich grass supplied their place. Wild and wonderful was now their daily journey, for before them lay immense untrodden forests, inclosed between lofty cliffs, which rose to the clouds, and the travellers felt inspired with awe as they looked round on the majesty of nature.

Yet, the softer features of loveliness were not absent;

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THE LAUGHING JACKASS.

every step was on some beautiful, usually some quite new, plant, and the lofty forest trees were of species now first seen, and were garlanded round with flowering creepers of the most brilliant dyes; while the rich perfume of the jasmine, and the heliotrope-like odour of the golden-blossomed acacia filled the air. Bright orchidæ, unnamed and unknown, masses of ferns of unexampled beauty, were scattered round this vast conservatory of nature; and amidst all this profusion, thousands of birds whistled, chattered, warbled, and uttered the startling foreign notes which assure you that you are in a strange land.

There was the sweet-voiced bell-bird, a pretty little creature, whose notes ring with a silver sound; there was the pert pied bird, which might seem really a magpie, if it were not tailless, which has a low flute-like song, swelling like the organ; whence it is named by the colonists the organ-magpie; and as each strain of these warblers died away, the loud, hoarse, derisive notes of a curious bird, resembling none of the known species of the world, seemed to ridicule the musical performers.

"No doubt, papa," said Hugh, "this must be the 'laughing jackass,' of which we have read an account. Do you hear the regular' Ha! ha! ha !' from which he derives his name, and which sounds so strangely when mingled with the notes of the warblers? But now he has roused all the cockatoos and parrots, who are screaming their jargon above all other sounds."

"Just listen, Hugh," said Gerald, "those jackass birds are surely blowing a penny trumpet.

Did you

ever hear such a noise-laughing, braying, trumpeting? you might fancy you were at a country fair.

How