In the rivers the traveller is introduced to the alligator. Many are the tales of horror and of escape related in connection with these saurians. One member of the original exploring party of the South Australian Government, a man named Reid, fell asleep in a boat on the Roper river, with his leg hanging carelessly over the side of the craft. An alligator seized the limb and dragged the man out of the boat, his screams too late calling attention to his fate. The alligator is found right down the Queensland coast. While writing, the following telegram appears in the _Argus_ (Melbourne, March 10, 1886): 'A girl named Margaret Gordon, the daughter of a dairyman on Cattle Creek, thirty miles from Townsville, has been devoured by an alligator. She went with a servant-girl to the creek for water, when a large alligator rushed at her and carried her off. The occurrence was witnessed by the girl's father, who was unable to render any assistance.' The one trace left of the early settlements of Raffles Bay and Port Essington is that herds of buffaloes are to be met with in the districts in question, and also some Timor ponies. Both animals were introduced from Timor, and when the settlements were abandoned males and females were left to run wild. The buffaloes have spread along the north coast, nearly, if not quite, to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and to the south as far as the bottom of Van Diemen's Gulf. They are generally found congregated in herds of twenty to fifty, under the guidance of a single full-grown male, oftentimes of enormous size. But stragglers are often met with far beyond these limits. The young males are turned out of the herd by the patriarch as soon as they approach maturity, becoming wanderers for life unless they can re-establish themselves, or gain a footing in other herds; and this can only be done by killing or driving off the leading bull. Of course many are doomed to a solitary life, and roam far from the haunts of their fellows. There is no danger of the buffaloes mixing with the herds of the settlers, as the antagonism between these cattle races is pronounced and insurmountable. [Illustration: THE BOTANICAL GARDENS, ADELAIDE.] CHAPTER VII. QUEENSLAND. SIZE AND CONFIGURATION--EARLY SETTLEMENT--BRISBANE ISLAND AND COAST TOWNS--GLADSTONE--ROMA--GYMPIE--TOOWOOMBA--TOWNSVILLE--COOKTOWN-- SQUATTING--THE CATTLE STATION--THE SHEEP STATION--THE QUEENSLAND FOREST--THE NETTLE-TREE--SUGAR PLANTING--POLYNESIAN NATIVES-- STOPPAGE OF THE LABOUR TRADE--GOLD MINING--THE PALMER--SILVER, TIN, AND COPPER. [Illustration: BRISBANE.] [Illustration: A VILLAGE ON DARLING DOWNS.] The following sketch of the great colony of Queensland is from the pen of Mr. Carl A. Feilberg of Brisbane.