. The Land of the Lyre bird; a story of early settlement in the great forest of south Gippsland. Being a description of the Big Scrub in its virgin state with its birds and animals, and of the adventures and hardship of its early explorers and prospectors; also accounts by the settlers of the clearing, settlement, and development of the country . en, and I have also aroundthe coasts of Australia and Xew Zealand experienced tempests of wind andwater, such as I hope never to experience again, but I have never 3et seenanything to equal the warring of the elements of nre and wind as Inis so oftenb
. The Land of the Lyre bird; a story of early settlement in the great forest of south Gippsland. Being a description of the Big Scrub in its virgin state with its birds and animals, and of the adventures and hardship of its early explorers and prospectors; also accounts by the settlers of the clearing, settlement, and development of the country . en, and I have also aroundthe coasts of Australia and Xew Zealand experienced tempests of wind andwater, such as I hope never to experience again, but I have never 3et seenanything to equal the warring of the elements of nre and wind as Inis so oftenbeen seen by the pioneers of South Gippsland during the progress, of a scrub-fire or biun. What an endless variety of colour is there in the rolling,tumbling, surging and seething masses of smoke: and what a diversity ofsound, with the roar of the wind developed by the fire I The roar of the fire itself, the incessant ci-ackling of the wire and sword-grass, the fizz and sphuter of the gas in the green twigs, the occasional loudreport of a bursting sandstone boulder, the prolonged crashing of a big greenfalling tree, the heaA^- thud of a huge dry stinnp, the belching roar of a greathollow dry tree that is pumping volumes of flame and smoke from a dozenor more portholes oetween its root and the topmost limit—and over all and PICKING UP. 81. Showiiii A NEW il witli wliite .isl. ;iii(l strewn with siiais (Iciiiulc:hiMiiches l)v the tire. eveiytliing. as far as the ove can reach, that weird, eerie, livid, yellowish-gieen hue. giving all around a most unearthly ai)pearance. the face of thesun appearing like a great dull copper disc—would suggest to the uninitiatedthat the last days were at hand. These conditions, however, were but transient, and dej^endent largelyupon the number of fires in the h)cality. If there were not many, a coolbreeze would clear the atmosi)here probably before daik. and if the scrubburnt l)e mostly hazel, a fair idea of the result coidd be obtained t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidlandoflyrebi, bookyear1920
