Part 11 (1/2)

”Melbourne is very fond of athletic sports, and there are nuolf, and the like There are also rowing clubs, and their favorite rowing place is along the part of the Yarra above Prince's Bridge The course is soood view of it fro e crowd”

CHAPTER IX

”THE LAUGHING JACKass”--AUSTRALIAN SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES

Our friends returned to their hotel, but, before leaving theed to call for the the parks and around the suburbs of the city

The drive careed upon, and a very pleasant one it was They visited the Botanic Garden, which is on the banks of the Yarra, and seemed to contain specilobe Harry said he wondered how elms and oaks could have attained the size of soinning in 1835 It was explained that all exotic trees greith great rapidity in the climate of Melbourne, and not only exotics but natives The clietable production

Our friends found cork trees and pal almost side by side with the birch, the pine, and the spruce As, their attention was attracted to soh, and there were cli to the trees, and others fastened to trellis work

[Illustration: TO THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN]

Almost every kind of tropical fruit tree was represented in the garden, and the gentlereat use in distributing exotic fruit trees through the colony, after first settling the question whether they would exist in the clie was there, and the orange is a in the colony Apricots, peaches, pears, oes, and other fruits have found a home in Victoria, and demonstrated that they can exist within its li,” said Harry in his journal, ”to leave the Botanic Garden and go elsewhere, as there were so s to be seen, but tiave the e proceeded with him From the Botanic Garden ent to the Fitzroy Gardens, which are situated in the eastern part of the town, and were to soh not entirely so The Fitzroy is arden; it is beautifully laid out alks and drives, and is rendered picturesque by means of rocky hills, miniature lakes, and occasional fountains

”We afterwards went to the Carlton Gardens and also to the Zoological Garden, the latter being situated in the Royal Park The 'Zoo,' as it is popularly called, contains a fine collection of ani elephants, lions, tigers, and the like, and also specie full of monkeys,--what Zoo is ever without them?--and they look just exactly like the collections of monkeys that we have elsewhere in various parts of the world

”There is a very fair collection of birds, and ere particularly interested in the specimens of the birds of Australia And that re experience, as we came around to where the aviary stands

”We heard soh it was Ned rereed with hi further was said, as the laugh died away

”When we got close to the door we again heard the laugh, which came froain,' said Ned 'Wonder if we can't share in the fun?'

”I said that I hoped so, as I had not seen anything to laugh at since we started out froot inside we looked around for thethe noise, but there was nobody visible except a very solehed for a month

”I remarked to Ned that the old fellow had put on a serious face now because company had come in, to which Ned nodded assent Just as he did so the laughing began again, and it was such a funny laugh that both of us joined in it

”The old fellow's face did not move a muscle, andthat he was not the humorous one of the place We looked in the direction of the laughter and saw that it came, not from a man, but fro, and the doctor and our host joined us in doing so

”Our host then explained that the bird which was a jackass' We had heard of the creature before, but this was our first view of hihed again, right in our faces The laugh is al It is not musical but is very cohing who is within sound of it

”The bird is about the size of a full-grown pigeon, perhaps a little larger He is not handsoe for his body and his tail very small His feathers are white and black, and he has a comical appearance that harmonizes ith his humorous manner He is easily domesticated, and will learn to talk quite as readily as the parrot does

”The laughing jackass is a friend of the bushman, as he foretells eather When the air is dry and clear, he is a very lively bird, and fills the air with the sound of his laughter; but if rain is co, or especially if it has come, he is the very picture of misery and unhappiness He e, or on the limb of a tree, or in the open air, with his feathers ruffled, and a very bedraggled appearance, like a hen that has been caught in a shower

In the forest he will i at a tree, andasofisher family, but does not huntsnakes It makes no difference to him whether the snakes are poisonous or not, as his attacks upon thee snakes he cannot handle, but sht He drops down upon them with the quickness of a flash, seizes them just back of the head, and then flies up in the air a hundred feet to drop theround he can find

”The fall breaks their backs, and he keeps up this performance until life is extinct, when he devours his prey His services as a snake-killer are known all over the country, and consequently he is never shot or trapped He is intelligent enough to understand his immunity from attack, and comes fearlessly about the houses of the people in the country districts

”Speaking of snakes reood collection in the Zoo We asked the keeper to indicate to us the snakes peculiar to Australia, and he did so The largest of them is known as the carpet snake, and the specis to the constrictor fa perfectly harmless so far as its bite is concerned, but it has powers of constriction that ht be very serious to the person around whom the creature has wound itself One traveler in Australia tells hoas visiting a cattle station in Queensland, and when he went to bed the first night of his stay, he found a carpet snake lying on the outside of his couch He called loudly for some one to come and kill the serpent

”His call was heard by the proprietor, who shouted to him not to kill the snake, as it was one of the family pets, and then the man came and seized the creature by the neck and carried it to a barrel where he said the snake belonged I hope they won't have any pets of that sort around any house that I visit during hty-three distinct species of snakes peculiar to Australia, of which sixty are venomous, and fifteen amphibious The most common of the deadly serpents are the death adder, black snake, brown snake, tiger snake, and diamond snake The latter is so called on account of the color of his skin, which is laid out in lozenges of a diamond shape, alternately brown and white The death adder, so the keeper told us, is the erous of all the Australian snakes, as it never tries to escape It lies perfectly still when approached, but the instant one touches it, it darts its head and delivers, if possible, a fatal bite The poison speedily accomplishes its purpose, and unless an antidote can be had in a few o about h-top boots as a protection against these serpents The black snake and the brown snake are the est of theht or nine feet The tiger snake seems to be related to the '_Cobra-di-Capello_,' of India, as it has the sa its neck when irritated