relish now and then to jump 'em, and you ought to see the buggies
fly in the air. They always take a rope or two to mend up a bit. If a
horse is injured, they go on with the rest and leave it, and wire us for
another team. Horses ain't worth thinking about out here, and the gates
ain't much use, nor the fences either, now that we have nothing to keep
in them."

I turned to the "vet."

"Valuable race-horses are the best off after all, then?"

"Well, they have neither bits of gates nor fancy fences to negotiate;
they have stone walls and solid five-foot timber jumps. They have to go
over the whole lot clear, or come to grief. I have shot about 1,000
crippled first-class crack racers in ten years on the course alone."

"Then there is no love for the horses here?"

"Nonsense! we love 'em. Why, it is a touching incident, I tell you, when
I come on the scene to save further pain for the poor animal. The boy
who has had it in charge runs over with a cloth to throw over his
favourite. Then he draws me on one side, and says, 'Don't shoot, sir,
till I'm away, I can't bear it.'"

[Illustration: LANDING AT ADELAIDE.]

Adelaide is a charming place when you get there, but you have to get
there first. Getting there is no easy matter if you arrive by sea, as
you must when coming direct from the Old Country. Both for comfort and
effect Adelaide is better approached by land, as when coming by rail
from Melbourne. The railway has to cross the range of hills which shuts
Adelaide in from the east, and some fine views of the city and the
plains are obtained.

From the anchorage at Largs Bay the city is barely visible, and
travellers have to take train through Port Adelaide up to the city, a
journey of about eight miles across the plains. These plains have been
cleared of trees, and the country is bare and uninteresting.

Before starting on this journey, however, the unhappy voyager has much
to go through. In this respect Adelaide compares badly with Melbourne
and Sydney. Sydney harbours the largest steamers in the centre of the
city; Melbourne allows them to come to the back door--at Port
Melbourne; while Adelaide compels them to stay outside in the middle of
the road, or roadstead, and a very rough roadstead it is. When the
weather is at all fresh, the landing is positively dangerous. The steam
launches which come out to the mail steamers are bound round from stem
to stern with huge rope fenders. When the launches are jumping,
wr