CHAPTER XIV. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ANTIPODES.
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CHAPTER XIV.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ANTIPODES.
IT is not my intention to go into the systematic and lengthy description which constitutes this most delightful branch of natural science, but merely to touch, and that very briefly too, upon some of the features of this charming study, in order to stimulate enquiring minds, and above all travellers, to avail themselves of the vast store of interesting and valuable and rare objects which abound at the Antipodes. Prior to my visit to Australia I had botanized in the Northern hemisphere, nearly from the North Cape in Lapland to the island of Jamaica, and in most countries on the continent of Europe, as well as through the greater part of North America, which gave me a tolerable acquaintance, not only with systematic or descriptive botany, but also with that delightful and most interesting branch of study, the geographical distribution of plants. After such extensive roamings amongst the wild flowers, and many peregrinations amid the primeval forests of Norway, Europe, and North America, I flattered myself that I went well prepared to understand some of the features of the vegetable world at the Antipodes. This, however, was very, very far from being realized.
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NATURAL HISTORY.
When I first landed in Australia, to my utter astonishment and bewilderment, I looked around me in vain for my old vegetable acquaintances of the Northern hemisphere. I examined the many wonderful trees which abound in the Australian forest. I looked at the various shrubs that are spread over the surface. I made the acquaintance of all the flowers that surrounded me, not forgetting to pry into banks, hedges, ditches, lakes, and many other localities too numerous to mention, without being able, perhaps, to encounter a true British species. I fell in with the Anagallis arvensis and the Convolvulus arvensis, which are plants that belong to the British flora, growing in a crop of corn, which circumstance induced me to conclude that they were introduced. I am much inclined to the opinion, from what I saw myself, as well as from what I learnt from those well acquainted with the botany of the country, that a single British species of the vegetable kingdom may possibly not exist throughout the whole extent of the vast continent of Australia. It is quite needless for me to assert that any attempt on my part to give a description of what I saw would be as ridiculous as it would be fruitless. This wonderful region of the vegetable world must be seen by the experienced and well-travelled botanist to be duly appreciated. I may remark, however, that the leaves of the trees possess entirely another character when compared with those of the Northern hemisphere. Instead of being smooth, soft, juicy, and flexible like our own, they are hard, leathery, and comparatively dry, presenting their edges to the sky instead of the broad and expanded surface. Botanists distinguish
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them by the scientific name of Phyllodium, from the fact of their differing from the trees of Europe. The rind or bark of some of the gum-trees (Eucalypti) resemble the skins of eels and some other fishes, rather than the outer covering of an English tree. The first time I beheld the Epacris grandiflora at one of the botanic shows in London, it struck me as being one of the loveliest things to be found in the wide, wide world. I was truly delighted one day, when roaming in the neighbourhood of Sydney Heads, to find myself surrounded with numberless specimens of this most elegant species.
Nor is it in the vegetable world alone that this singularity and rarity of British species are to be found. Perhaps in the whole range of ornithology not a bird belonging to Great Britain can be enumerated amongst the various and numerous tribes of birds that stock the Australian continent. Entomology, however, affords a slight exception to this rule, as there are three species which are common to Britain. As far as I was enabled to judge, the character of the fishes too was as perfectly antipodean as other objects belonging to the vast field of natural history. The ornithorynchus and kangaroo are specimens which the zoology of Australia alone presents to the student of natural history.
When at Melbourne Mr. Blandowski gave an account of his recent discoveries in natural history on the lower Murray, extending from December, 1856, to August, 1857, and introduced his remarks by describing the difficult and threatening character of the natural features of the country. The small staff by which he was
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accompanied on setting out in December, soon failed to render him any assistance. Prosecuting his studies he had to swim the Murray and other smaller rivers several times, and among them the Darling, which even at three hundred miles from its junction was a formidable river. To the aborigines he was indebted for the greater part of the information and specimens of the country. The general features of the country were correctly laid down in Arrowsmith's large map of Eastern Australia. The Goulburn Ranges, so called by Sir Thomas Mitchell, appeared to- have existed only in imagination. That traveller was probably deceived by distant clouds, for there was nothing but extensive plains, relieved by small hills, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet in height. From latitude 32° a new vegetation commenced; and north of Mount Murchison, at a horizon of some twenty-five miles appeared ranges of some very high hills. He was not able to discover any fossils in Victoria, but found large quantities of very beautiful ones on the South Australian side of the river. In the river Murray he had found sweet-water sponges--he believed a new feature--and various spiders, lobsters, crawfish, &c., besides three species of viviparous shellfish. It was supposed that there were only five kinds of fish in the Murray, but he was able to furnish drawings of no less than twenty. Mr. Blandowski then alluded to an Australian boa constrictor, of which he exhibited a specimen preserved in spirits of wine. The characteristics of the boa-such as the small scales upon the head, the large scales round the mouth, the fangs, and the scales divided on the abdomen, &c. --were
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all present; and Mr. Blandowski said the head was a perfect miniature of the American species. He came to a native camp, and asked the natives for a snake; and they found him one four inches in diameter, in an old stump. He regarded the reptile at first as a venomous one; hut the natives laughed at him, and he then found it was a boa, and went away with it alive in his saddle-hags. He noticed how the reptile could climb the trees. It had two small legs, difficult to he seen, hut sufficiently developed for the purpose of climbing; which process it effected by means of its head and the legs or feet, or as they might be called spores. By the help of these the snake could climb even a straight, smooth gum-tree; sticking the spores into the small holes, often not bigger than a pin's head, with which the bark of the gum-tree is covered. Mr. Blandowski then spoke of a very poisonous snake which he had encountered at Lake Boga, and a specimen of which is in the museum. Of lizards he had met with specimens, some of which were of very curious forms. He believed eleven new species would be added to our fauna. Three kinds of turtle were believed to exist in the Murray, one of which grew to the length of eighteen inches, or more. The eggs were deposited in little holes at the bends of the river, and afforded delicious eating. Of birds he had only been able to discover three new forms, so small were the advances he had in eight years been enabled to make upon the researches of the celebrated Gould. Mr. Blandowski exhibited these three birds, which were all of small size. The bee-eater and a species of parrot were found a considerable distance beyond the dividing
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LITERATURE.
ranges. He had also found the Eos, or rose cockatoo, and two specimens of parroquet. He had found twenty-six specimens of quadrupeds, of which eleven were marsupial. He had paid the natives at the rate of a penny to threepence for specimens, according to their size. On the Darling he had found a small animal, which was in the habit of digging up the dead bodies of animals and devouring them.
Of the natives Mr. Blandowski assured us he could furnish many interesting particulars, if time permitted. He had met with some who lived entirely on vegetables; others on the death of a relative, not only inflicted large gashes upon their persons, but actually burnt their backs by pressing a burning stick slowly over the flesh. At Swan Hill he had seen a finer man than he had met with before in the colony--being six feet six or eight inches in height, and the rest of his frame every way in proportion. Some of the women cut gashes on their thighs, breasts, and arms: why, we were not told by Mr. Blandowski, who after alluding to certain striking peculiarities which the natives used in the treatment of their dead, concluded his interesting remarks.
LITERATURE.
Many young tyros in literature may fancy that in a young colony he most probably may meet with that patronage which has, perhaps, been unjustly refused in the old country. A man of first-rate talent might take himself to the antipodes, and be vastly disappointed when he arrived,
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unless he happened to fall in with the right stamp of people on his first landing.
In a young country, where money-making, agricultural and pastoral pursuits, fencing the land, and pioneering into the wilderness, are the leading characteristics of the people, literature will find itself at a dreadful discount. In the town of Melbourne, where there are many newspapers and periodicals, and a Punch to boot, literary talent, no doubt, at certain intervals, would meet with ready employment and a just compensation. That there are men in the colonies already capable of achieving a respectable status in the walks of literature I can fully testify, especially in the department of newspaper literature. The "Australian Essays," advertised in the Times some time ago, show, however, that that department has been entered upon, not with the view of money-making so much perhaps as for the gratification of an honourable ambition, seeking no other pleasure than the exercise of the intellect, unremunerated and perhaps neglected. Of the nature, tone, and character of these essays, I am not able to speak. Mr. Hursthouse has written an able, interesting, and amusing book on New Zealand, which has had, I believe, a pretty good circulation in England. Archdeacon Paul, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in the town of Nelson, has written a book upon the Canterbury settlement, which has been reviewed in the English newspapers. Mr. Fox, late agent to the New Zealand Land Company, published, some time since, his "Six Settlements of New Zealand." Dr. Lang, of Sydney, has made his debut before the world for some time, as religious reformer,
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politician, author, and radical reformer. Besides acting in the capacity of parson, historian, political leader, member of the Legislative Council, the Doctor, some time since, rejoiced in the additional title of editor of a newspaper, now defunct.
When at Sydney, I took up the great newspaper of the colony, the Sydney Morning Herald, in which I read an account of a lecture given at the School of Arts by a member of the Legislative Council, upon a poet of the colony of whom I had never heard. The panegyrics passed upon this wonderful poet, who, in the estimation of the lecturer, took a rank with the far-famed Milton, drew forth the strictest animadversion from the Herald, who spared no pains in castigating the upstartism and self-complacency of certain would-be litterateurs and poets in the colony. This drew forth an answer from the lecturer, who explained that he had been somewhat misunderstood in the eulogies he had passed upon his favourite poet, Mr. Charles Harpur. I will leave the reader to judge for himself, by presenting him to the poet:--
I.
BLINDNESS TO MERIT.
Blindness to merit! 'tis an irksome fact
That meets us in the dull world's every act!
While of its causes, two in chief, like drones,
Fly large and lumpish 'mongst the minor ones:
The first is want of judgment, as a ground,
And measure of the rule whereby 'tis found;
The other's worse, and works for social scath,
As in religion does a want of faith--
Namely, a poverty of worth, and thence
Of sympathy with it, as a consequence.
There once was one, a shrewd, sarcastic rogue,
Who used to sneer forth this queer apologue:
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There is in every shire of every nation
A Donkeydom, with a large population,
So that when five are met, full three are from
(Or four it may be) the same Donkeydom!
Prone creatures! having heart, eyes, ears for none
In the man portion of their likeness done
Who may outmeasure some renowned long Tom,
The standard hero of these Donkeydom;
For they are clannish, and delight to call
Their fellows fondly, brother-donkeys all!
With them all noble sentiment's a flam,
All unfee'd effort an insulting sham;
Nor could an angel make them understand
How bravely genius doth enrich a land.
In fine, they hate all influence that tends
To universal, and not local, ends;
And aid in nought that may not issue from
Some petty project born in Donkeydom.
Now there is truth here, even though it be
Evinced methinks somewhat too scornfully;
For how can men whose every breath of life
Is drawn in the hot air and 'mid the strife
Of pettish interests, have a kindred heart
With him who hath built heavenward and apart
The structures of his mind, and looking thence
Over this world-thronged universe immense,
Is wont all such emoluments to deplore,
As light-obscuring vapours--nothing more?
What ladder of experience can they build
To mount with, up to a nature filled
With beauty, or by mighty truths inspired;
Or one even with a bold ambition fired,
So to appraise it rightly, and disclose
The reason of its godlike overflow's?
But least of all in such men can there be
Devotion chiming into sympathy
With some poor soul, unsuccour'd and alone,
Struggling in weariness unwearied on,
Unwearied, day and night, and night and day,
Towards the far Mecca of its faith alway!
But 'tis an old complaint, whose age forbids
The grey antiquity of the Pyramids
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To stand so far back in the dusk of time;
And it is useless, too, though edged with rhyme,
If towards some remedy it do not tend,
Nor touch us like the warning of a friend.
But this it should do, and at once demand
Of nature's sovereign men in every land;
"Whate'er the province of their merit be--
Arms, science, morals, art, or poetry--
That they do claim, and aid wherever known,
All spirits truly kindred to their own;
Nor can they shirk this duty if they would
Decline not from all noble brotherhood.
But runs this tune too high? Well, let them then
Look forth amongst the common herd of men;
And gather thence their rule. Yea, let them be
As prompt and true in their fraternity,
As honest brother Bullion is to rub
The world's path smooth for brother Money-grub;
And that, ay, even that, I say at last,
Will be a brave improvement on the past.
II.
FINISH OF STYLE.
A last fine touch will add to, not diminish,
The value of all beauty--never doubt it;
And what deserveth not a perfect finish
Must on the whole be very bad without it.
But against this how pertly some inveigh--
Young heady critics, warning men of rhyme
Not to correct their juvenals, lest they
Should hurt the freshness of the morning prime.
But when to song some damage thus accrues,
And it looks faded in a finished dress,
The fault was more in the bard's mental hues
Than in his artist love of perfectness.
Who more than Coleridge, with a dainty heed,
Retouched his verses into faultless shapes?
Yet were they tarnished by it? No, indeed,
But left all blooming as unhandled grapes.
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All genuine bards are critical, and thence
Their work with more of care more perfect grows,
As Nature's iterated influence
But adds a last grace to the full-blown rose.
Else were it somewhat puzzlingly apart
From the progressive tendency of things;
And worse than useless were the poet's art,
If best he singeth when he rudely sings.
The sum of all is this: with breadth of ken
Beyond it, and Promethean fire beneath,
Finish of style's the best assurance then
Of Poetry's crown'd sovereignty o'er death.
III.
LOVE IS SIMPLE.
So long as our wine in its nature be good,
What matters it whether we drink it
From a vessel of gold or a vessel of wood?
And so--even so--to the heart in its health,
Is the vintage of love; in itself is its wealth,
If we only would think it.
But we will not--and thus the main reason is told
Why we have it so bad, though in vessels of gold.
The Sydney Morning Herald, as I said before, severely castigated a renowned member of the Legislative Council for bis unbounded worship of Mr. Charles Harpur. I met with some people of the colony who ought to have heard of this renowned hard. They declared to me that they never heard of the poet before the Sydney Morning Herald discussed the point with the Legislative lecturer. It strikes me, without arguing the worth of Mr. Harpur as a poet, that in this respect the people of Sydney are somewhat analogous to the people of the old country, who some few years ago were unacquainted with some of the
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greatest philosophers and scientific men of their own land. This state of things is most discreditable to both countries. In England it is vanishing before the enlightenment of the age; not so quickly, however, as might be desired; neither will it until we become an educated people.
