Janet Millett

“ The white cockatoo lives chiefly upon roots, which Nature has enabled the bird to dig for in the driest weather, by furnishing him with a large bill shaped exactly like a pick-axe. A flock of these busy delvers hard at work turning up the ground in search of grain just sown, their eyes surrounded by the curious broad blue rim peculiar to white cockatoos making them look like a gang of navvies in spectacles, is an object of such especial disgust to the farmer, that it is no wonder that he tries every plan to keep his cook in a good supply of them, more particularly as they make capital broth. ”

“ The manner in which Nature teaches all her creatures to provide for their own concealment and safety, is a most interesting study to any observant person; while in some cases she herself has rendered such instincts unnecessary by so framing the outside appearance of her protégés as to be of itself an all-sufficient disguise, as in the rose-caterpillar in England which the most quick-sighted observer can scarcely distinguish from the short stumps of the bush on which it feeds. ”

“ It is to this elasticity and purity of the air that the climate of Swan River owes its healthfulness and its charm—no matter how hot the sun has been, nor, how wearisome its fierce beams have made the labours of the day, it has no sooner sunk below the horizon than the spirits at once revive, and a fresh buoyant feeling replaces all sensation of languor ”

“ Smythe had noticed, was darker than her hair, which was soft and curly, setting off by its lighter colour the line of jet-black eyebrow and the dark expressive eyes below.
She shared the Malay nose and mouth with her countrymen in general, a type of feature which is unfortunately far more commonly found amongst them than fine hair, and which imparts to the countenance a sullen look even when there is no real sullenness in the temper; but nature's even hand makes amends for this by the brilliancy of the teeth and eyes, so that a smile on a native face is like a flash of light. ”

“ Although this impression given by the first view of Perth is doubtless disappointing to anyone who arrives with the hope of making money therein, it makes the place much prettier than it would probably be if a larger trade were carried on there. There is a look of cheerfulness and brightness about the many gardens which surround the houses and the avenue of trees which lines each side of the main road passing from one end to the other of the town, that makes the new-comer feel that a home there might be a very pleasant one. ”

“ In course of time she would either jump upon my shoulder at breakfast and curl her tail round my throat, or would sit beside me on the table holding bread in her fore paws like a squirrel; showing no signs of native wildness unless we gave her something that she thought especially nice, such as cake or apricots, when, seeming to fear that the possession of such dainties might be disputed, she would instantly scamper across the floor with the prize in her mouth, and dashing up a flight of shelves would sit on the topmost one to enjoy her feast in leisurely security. ”

“ A short distance beyond the creek we came upon a turn of the road to which a melancholy interest has been since attached, by the burning at that spot of four horses with their load of sandalwood in a February bushfire. In that month, which corresponds to August in the north, the dryness of the Western Australian forest has reached its culminating point, and the sight of trees on fire is so much of an every-day matter as to excite little attention, unless the conflagration should spread very much, so as to encroach upon sheep-runs or endanger homesteads. ”

“ On no point does Father Salvado insist so strenuously as on the folly of saying that the Australian native cannot appreciate the value of money or property: "he acquires a just idea of both in a short time, and diligently studies, thenceforth, how he may better his condition; but if he is only made to feel the burdens of civilization without its advantages, (the wages paid him being so insignificant as to disgust him with labour,) he prefers the freedom of a wild life, and returns to the bush." ”

“ Whereas the horse of an English gentleman is kept with as much precision as if intended for exhibition in a glass-case, Australian horses are really treated with no more ceremony than at home falls to the lot of a donkey. In all seasons and in all sorts of weather they are left in the open fields or in the bush; they seem equally to disregard the storms and rain of winter and the burning suns of summer, and even when the shelter of a shed or stable is at their command, they appear to prefer exposure. ”

“ One of the heaviest parts of a convict's punishment, offering also the severest hindrance to his reformation, is that he has it not in his power to shake himself so entirely free from old companions as that they shall never enter his doors; he cannot, if he would, in a penal settlement stand altogether aloof from the class with which crime has identified him, and the meeting of former associates ends too often in the hatching of new offences. Then comes reconviction, and the wife must shift for herself whilst the husband spends a fresh term in jail. ”

“ Many sand plains, it is true, look wild enough, with patches of low growing scrub, varied only with the gaunt stems of Xanthorrhoea, and a few weird shea-oaks destitute of leaves, between whose fine countless twigs, doing duty for foliage, the air sighs in passing with the sound as of a distant railway train, and mocks the sense of hearing in much the same manner as a mirage of water deceives the eye in the deserts of other lands. ”

“ To make money in this colony a man must learn to understand all its products, all its various forms of employment, and must teach himself, by degrees, to be as much at home in the valuation of the flocks upon a sheep-run, the cattle upon a farm, or the trees in an acre of mahogany forest, as he is when engaged in the more legitimate calculations of a merchant's business, such as pricing silks and broadcloths from England and France, wines from Spain, or teas and sugars from Singapore. ”

“ As cage birds they are much valued, are soon tamed, and easily taught to whistle; I have heard a Twenty-eight that could even manage a few bars of the "Prairie flower."
Bright as the Twenty-eights are their plumage is but plain compared with that of another parroquet called the Rosella, which, like the former, is barely so large as an English blackbird, excepting for the greater length of tail. Of these last parroquets, the breast and throat are of a deep brilliant red, the cheeks yellow, and the back and wings of green mingled with dark blue. ”

“ The labour and loss of time in fetching and carrying water are not the only evils involved in distant wells. The much-frequented spring is, as Goethe well knew, the fountain-head of half the gossip in the neighbourhood, and the fact of the poet having been able (in his 'Faust') to transmute the chatter of village maidens into an immortal scene, gives no consolation to an unfortunate housewife distracted with waiting for her servant, who has been sent for a bucket of water and remains at the well talking idly with the girls whom she finds congregated there. ”

“ As this little island is the pilot station for the port of Fremantle we might now consider our voyage as completed, since a very few more hours would bring us to the anchorage. I was not tired of our ship life, but the sight of land, after being so many weeks at sea, brings with it a sensation of pleasure which can scarcely be imagined by those who have never experienced it. ”

“ I could not help remarking that an amusing sort of self-deception prevailed amongst the West Australians in a habit of expressing themselves as if they had done the mother-country a great favour in receiving the criminals whom they themselves had asked for, and that she could only relieve herself from a heavy burden of gratitude by the expenditure of correspondingly heavy sums of money for the good of her colonial benefactors. ”

“ Close at hand, and descending steeply to a valley filled with broken fragments, was a bold mass of rock, some twelve or fifteen feet in height, off which a man sprang in the early days of the colony, with a spear in his back, when escaping from a party of natives who disputed his first attempt at driving cattle over the mount. A poor young fellow, acting as herd-boy on the occasion, was killed. The fugitive was doubly fortunate, as he not only reached the rough ground with his bones uninjured, but stumbled upon a humane old native in the stony valley who drew the spear out of his wound. ”

“ Ants were busiest in summer-time, but intense heat lessened the house-flies considerably, and in July and August even blue-bottles seemed to be ready to lay down their arms and to proclaim a two months truce. However, what we gained in one way we lost in another, for at the precise period when the last-named enemies discontinued their hostilities the fleas proclaimed war, and that in such a manner as to leave no doubt in a reasonable mind that their design, had their power equalled their blood-thirstiness, was the extermination of the whole human race. ”

“ For more than fifteen miles of its course the Swan resembles an arm of the sea rather than a river, and gives to the fine forest landscape through which it flows that charm which nothing else can supply. ”

“ The next rat that was given to me I introduced to the dog with a solemn injunction that the new-comer should be allowed an unmolested existence. But the rat repaid the dog's sufferance by giving himself great airs, behaving as though he was master of the house, and resenting with truculent kicks from his long hind legs the slightest difference of opinion between himself and any one of us. ”

“ I had wished, if possible, to keep out of Binnahan's head for a year, at least, all thoughts of either shoes or boots, as they were expensive and unnecessary articles of dress. Even on Sundays many well-dressed children came to school barefoot, the smartness of whose appearance was in no way diminished by their shapely bare legs and feet, whilst those who wore boots, on that day and no other, limped like young colts that have been shod by a clumsy blacksmith. ”