of wool
are not as good as they used to be. The wool market of the world is low,
and so is the cattle market. Since the practise of freezing beef and
mutton and carrying the frozen meat to England has come into vogue the
prices of meat have improved, but the supply is so abundant and the
sources of it so numerous that we have not been greatly benefited by the
new process. There still remains enough in either business to encourage
those who are in it to continue, but the inducements for new enterprises
of this kind are not great."

Some of the stories that were told about experience on cattle and sheep
runs were so interesting to our young friends that they made note of
them. One of the party told of the dangers surrounding the life of the
stock-riders, the men who look after the herds on a cattle estate.

"He has some hard duties to perform," said the narrator. "He gets his
breakfast early in the morning and starts out at once, mounted on
horseback, and with a horse that is more or less unruly. Each
stock-rider, or stockman, as we call him, has a particular part of the
run assigned to him, and every morning he goes along the boundary of it,
and if his own cattle have strayed across the line, he drives them back
again; likewise, if he finds his neighbor's cattle have strayed into his
territory, he drives them out. He is expected to show himself to his
cattle at least once a day, to accustom them to the sight of men, and
also to train them to go where they are wanted whenever he cracks his
whip and rides in among them.

"The group of cattle belonging to each stockman is called a 'herd,' and
he is expected to train them so that they will recognize his authority.
A bunch of fifty or so is called a 'mob,' and it takes several mobs to
make up a herd. All over the run, at intervals of two or three miles,
are places where the cattle assemble when they hear the stockman's whip.
These places are called 'cattle camps'; they are open spaces of level
ground and are always near water; in fact, many of them are used as
regular watering places for the mobs and herds of cattle. Occasionally
the animals are driven into these camps, either for the purpose of
branding the calves or selecting cattle to be sent to market. You will
have an opportunity of seeing one of these to-morrow, as a man arrived
here to-night who is buying cattle to take to Melbourne.

"Well, the stock-rider is on horseback for the greater part of the day.
Sometimes