et on very fast at
this rate, but presently they reached a flat place that in time of
flood was full of water, but was now, in the height of summer, only a
set of pools, each surrounded with a fringe of plants, with bulrushes
standing in the inside of all. In that country the people are fond of
the roots of bulrushes, which they think as good as onions, and one of
the young men said that they had better collect some of the roots and
carry them back to the camp. It did not take them long to weave the
tops of the willows into a basket, and they were just going to wade
into the water and pull up the bulrush roots when a youth suddenly
called out: 'After all, why should we waste our time in doing work
that is only fit for women and children? Let them come and get the
roots for themselves; but we will fish for eels and anything else we
can get.'

This delighted the rest of the party, and they all began to arrange
their fishing lines, made from the bark of the yellow mimosa, and to
search for bait for their hooks. Most of them used worms, but one, who
had put a piece of raw meat for dinner into his skin wallet, cut off
a little bit and baited his line with it, unseen by his companions.

For a long time they cast patiently, without receiving a single bite;
the sun had grown low in the sky, and it seemed as if they would have
to go home empty-handed, not even with a basket of roots to show; when
the youth, who had baited his hook with raw meat, suddenly saw his
line disappear under the water. Something, a very heavy fish he
supposed, was pulling so hard that he could hardly keep his feet, and
for a few minutes it seemed either as if he must let go or be dragged
into the pool. He cried to his friends to help him, and at last,
trembling with fright at what they were going to see, they managed
between them to land on the bank a creature that was neither a calf
nor a seal, but something of both, with a long, broad tail. They
looked at each other with horror, cold shivers running down their
spines; for though they had never beheld it, there was not a man
amongst them who did not know what it was--the cub of the awful
Bunyip!

All of a sudden the silence was broken by a low wail, answered by
another from the other side of the pool, as the mother rose up from
her den and came towards them, rage flashing from her horrible yellow
eyes. 'Let it go! let it go!' whispered the young men to each other;
but the captor declared that he had