330 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

meet with patches or streams of water, to vary and brighten the
landscape; but his journey is through forest after forest.

“What are these trees?” asked Ralph.

“The bush is of the gum-tree growth,” said Mr. Bright. “ Botanists
call it the eucalyptus, but we common folks say gum-tree. There
are a good many kinds in all Australia. Sometimes it grows very
big. I have seen a gum-tree that measured sixteen feet through
the trunk, and one tree I heard of had run up to the height of
four hundred and eighty feet! Why, they say a plank one hundred
and forty-eight feet long has been sawed out of a gum-tree. When
so very tall, running up straight, without branches for a long way,
they are handsome as pillars in a church.”

“Why do they call them gum-trees?” asked Rick.

“ Because a kind of gum escapes from the tree. There is one kind
that the natives use as food, and another serves as a medicine, and
a third, when tapped, gives out a juice from which a kind of beer
has been made; and that, I think, they might as well let alone.”

“Oh, Ralph, what is that? A possum, I guess. Bumble-bee says
he would give anything to see one.”

“ Where is it, Rick?” asked Mr. Bright.

“There, that dark thing in the bush,” answered Rick, anxious
to show off his familiarity with Australian phraseology.

“ Oh!” laughed Mr. Bright. “That creature? That is a kangaroo.”

“He doesn’t seem to be frightened.”

“ Why should he be? You could not catch him.”

“There are two or three of them. Let’s chase them.”

“Do you want to try it, Rick?”

“ Oh, yes.”

Mr. Bright kindly pulled in his horses, and they all jumped out
and together made for the kangaroos. These looked about, as if