Now and then, they saw herds of cattle and horses.

Once, a company of kangaroos sitting up with fore paws drooping and a baby marsupial poking its head out of the pouch of one of the does.

Then, taking fright in a second, all leaped up, long back legs stretched, tails in air, and, in a few ungainly bounds they were lost to sight among the gum trees.

Early in the afternoon the train reached the temporary Terminus, for the line was being carried on by degrees through the Leura district.

This was a mining town called Fig Tree Mount--why, nobody could tell, for there were no fig trees, and not a sign of a hill as far as the level horizon--except for the heaps of refuse mullock that showed where shafts had been sunk.