Queer Things In Australia

Wo have been witnessing sirange phenomena in this regi a. The blue sun which shone upon us when we were voyaging between Honolulú and Auckland seems to correspond with the green sun secn about the same time by voyngers on the Indian Ocean. Ever since then.atnear intervals, the extraordinary rose-colored afterglow has followed tho sun8ets. The sunsets in Australia are said to have been always splendid, but the metereologists here have not hitherto observed these afterglows any more than tho eea captains have observod blue and green suns. One nïght at St. Kilda, which looks westward over the sea, we saw the afterglow assume the exact form of an aurora, w:th Rhooting and pulsating columns of pink light. There is little doubt hero that "Jt"so phenomena are conne ted with ,irr"iT'qr"i8 volcanic convulsión in Java which sant., nf „.„„„tains sixty miles long. A stianger ín T-iri región mio-ht ensily be persuaded that t,i.. . 1„ - _-mni s„ abnonnal seem some of the ordinary phenömenn. The moon is seen so olearly that every mark on it is often visible to the naked eye. The presence of a nevv firmament and ncw con3tellations Is very impressive, and even one not much given to star-gazing is likely to discover that he had grovvn more familiar than he had supposed with the heavens under which he was born. The Australian earth, too, presenta a strange appearance. Betweon Melbourne and Sidney one travels nisarly a day amid gum trees, whose trunks, according to one's mood, may appear silvery or blanched in death Many of them are indeed dead, girdled by the farmers. The bush has a desolate look. In the gray morning a laro-e '-native bear" was seen nlaspino- ateleoraph pole as oar train passed. Knowing the passion of bears for honey I believed it was a cub deluüed bv the humming noises mto the beliel Cötwv O„„rmoL bees was ncar. My theory was soon upset by discovering that the "native bear' is no bear at all, but a marsupial (Koala); however.it loves fruit, and po.ssibly honey, Ihis animal bas only a rudimentary tail; lts thumb and second finger are opposed to the other fingers, and the innermost toe is oDDOsable like a thumb. This way the Austral ians have of callino- thino-s by inappropriate names is inconvenient. Their "bcar" is no bear, thetr "rirttíng" (fish) is no whiting, their "oherry' is no cherry, their "flying fox" only a big bat. It u.sed to be proverbially reported that "Australia is a place where the oysters grow on trees, the fences are made of mahogany and cherries grow with their stones outside." ïhere i no real mahogany in the country, so far as I can learn, except it has been inipoited; the so-called cherry is a kind of cypress, and the only truth abouttheoysteristhataboutsome harbor oystors cover everything close to the water, includingoccasionally the roots and fallen trunks of trees. (Miserable little bits of oysters, of which it would tak e a dozen to till a tablespoon.) More wonaeriui is uie mn -- = -'- . " which climbs up on the beach sand, props itself on its fin-handa and looks atoneas pertly as a sparrow. "lasmanian devil" is a good deal of a humbuz, too. At Anckland I heard him described as fierce, untamable, dangerous; at Sydney (his bones only are found in New Sonth W ales) he was üerce, but not often met with in Tasniania; at Melbourne he sank to "an uo-ly little beast;" in Tasmania it is discovercd that the poor little nocturnal crcature is rare and timid. Ihero is one creature of whose alleged habits I had heard with some skepticism- the eroimd parrot of New Zealand. On inquiry I found the worst reports abont it confirraed. This parrot builds its nest ou the o-rouml, and' since the introduction of sheep, has been building it ciiiely of wool. To obtain tlns it perches on the sheep's back. For some time the worst tnat was ïem cu num uu parrot was sich small thefts of the ir lden fleece, but for somo years now ït ha? taken to tearing throngh the sheep s back and draing out the liver, which it devours. lt has become a pest in New Zealand since this rapid evolution in Knglish civilization. lt is a large „.,,.,¦„? hut I do not think it prettr; 1Ö