moving about uneasily; the bulls were bellowing, and
pawing, and having an occasional fight; the cows were lowing for their
calves, from which they had become separated, and the young bullocks
were making mild disturbances in the ways peculiar to the bovine race.
The stockmen and black fellows were kept busy in preventing the straying
of the animals, but even with all their vigilance a refractory animal
would occasionally break away and disappear in the scrub. The cattle
dealer had already begun to select his purchases, and we watched with a
good deal of interest the process of separating them from their
companions, and this is the way they did it:--

"They cut out a small mob of cattle, perhaps a dozen or twenty animals,
and drove them off to one side. This was called the draft mob, or rather
it was the beginning of the draft mob. The cattle that were picked out
from the rest of the herd were put with these in order to keep them
quiet while the operation was going on, and then the original of the
draft mob were allowed to go back to the rest of the herd.

"The cattle selected by the dealer were mostly young and fat bullocks,
possessing a good deal of strength and tempers of their own. They were
what is called 'rowdy' in this country, that is, they were badly
behaved, and it was no easy job for the stockmen to handle them.

"The cattle dealer would indicate an animal that he wanted, and then two
of the stockmen would bring the creature out. Generally the bullock was
disinclined to go, and made things pretty lively for the stockmen. Each
man was mounted on a horse that knew his business and had done the same
kind of work many times before. The horses stuck to their work just as
earnestly as did the riders, and whenever a bullock tried to run away
they ran after him, and kept up with him, too. I wonder that horse and
riders did not break their necks in this performance, and one of the
young gentlemen with us said that accidents were by no means infrequent.
He said that sometimes the bullocks showed a tendency to use their horns
and charge upon the men and their horses just as the bull does in a
Spanish bull-fight. No accident happened while we were looking on, and
for this I am very thankful.

"One by one, the cattle which the dealer wanted were separated from the
herd and placed in the draft mob until their number amounted to eighty.
Then the animals originally constituting the draft mob were allowed to
rejoin the he