The cattle grazing is carried on generally in a different part of the run, by a stockman, who is provided with a hut-keeper. The chief requisite here is a firm seat on horseback, and great activity of body, as the cattle are much disposed to run wild, and are often with difficulty collected. Both cattle and sheep were annually slaughtered in great numbers, and boiled down for tallow, which was readily bought up, by foreign merchants, for the London market, and became an article of large export. The price of wool and mutton has, however, now put an end, or nearly so, to this custom. To improve the feed of a cattle or sheep run, recourse is often had to firing the country; and this practice, apparently singular in so dry a soil, is said to be effectual. As a remarkable instance of the nature of Australian occupations, or the ups and downs of fortune, the list of shepherds given by a writer, in a certain district, is worthy of notice. They comprise “an apothecary, a lawyer’s clerk, three sailors, a counting-house clerk, a tailor, a Jew, a Portuguese sailor, a Cingalese, a barman, a gentleman’s son, a broken-down merchant, a former Lieutenant in the East India Company’s Service, a gipsy, a black fiddler, a dancing master. Of these the gentleman’s son, the Jew, and the barman made the best shepherds.”[17] This summary of sheep farming—the substance of which is taken from a series of very good papers upon Australia, relating chiefly to New South Wales—is also applicable, in most respects, to the banks of the Murray, and I therefore introduce it here.[18] Leaving this digression, our first station yesterday (September 15) was that belonging to Mr. Hamilton. It appeared very populous. Towards evening the river became tortuous in the extreme; indeed, with the breadth the _Lady Augusta_ and _Eureka_ occupy upon the water (forty-two feet), steering the vessels, without a check, through the narrow curves and opposing branches, which continually met us at every point, was almost an impossibility. The weather, which had been lowering since morning, in the evening became perfectly tempestuous; and, amidst flashes of lightning, occasional peals of thunder, and sudden gusts of wind, little else was heard but the crashing of the opposing trees, or, in the deep tones of our commander, the often repeated words, “stand by, below;” “stop her;” “turn a-head, slow;” and at length the welcome order, “full speed.” Thus, for some hours, did we advance, dimly lighted by an overcast moon; and the storm at length abating, without any other mishap than some slight damage to the _Augusta’s_ funnel, and the destruction of part of the _Eureka’s_ rails—thanks to Captain Cadell’s perseverance—we were enabled to hold on till two a.m., about which time we made fast alongside the station of a Mr. Coghill.