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* Contents derived from the Melbourne,Victoria,:Marian Clarke,1890 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
* Contents derived from the Melbourne,Victoria,:Marian Clarke,1896 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The narrator, in describing the Australian landscape, compares it to those of Europe, Asia, America, Africa and the Pacific and declares that 'In Australia alone is to be found the Grotesque, the Weird, the strange scribblings of Nature learning how to write'.
'There were three of us, Dougald M'Alister, Jack Thwaries and myself. The place was called in the grandiloquent languae of the bush, "The Dinkledoodledum Station...' (205)
A small and isolated country town without a resident preacher sees a succession of itinerant preachers, some of dubious credentials, lecturing at the pub.
The narrator muses on the different characters that constitute the Australian squatter. He takes as an example his friends, old Robin Ruff of the Murrumbidgee, and young Dudley Smooth of Murriowooloomoolooneriangtrotolong Station, and compares their distinctly different approaches to running their businesses.
The narrator declares that 'The quality of a race of beings is determined by two things: food and climate'. In musing on what the future Australian race will be like, the narrator looks to the past and the present as indicators of the likely progression that will eventuate.
Extent:xviii, 138 p.p. Edition info:With a biography by H. Mackinnon. Edition info:Ferguson, 8327a. Edition info:Vol. 1 of the series The Austral Edition of the Selected Works of Marcus Clarke
Link:U2261Full text documentThis is an etext of the work produced for Project Gutenberg of Australia in plain text. See copyright information on site for any usage restrictions.
