And dreams in the dark lagoon;
Drawn by John Rowell
The Warrigal.
While halting hard by the station yard,
Aghast at the hut-flame nigh,
The warrigal yells, and flats and fells
Are loud with his dismal cry.
On the topmost peak of the mountains bleak, The south wind sobs, and straysThrough moaning pine and turpentine And the rippling runnel ways;And strong streams flow, and dark mists go,
Where the warrigal starts to hear
The watch-dog"s bark break sharp in the dark,And flees like a phantom of fear!
Henry Clarence Kendall.
Author.-Henry Clarence Kendall, born 1839, near Milton, N.S.W. He was educated in the bush. At an early age he lost his father, and for a time was dependent on relatives and friends. At the age of thirteen he went to sea as cabin-boy on a small brig. Returning to Sydney at the age of fifteen, he received office employment. He then began to read and write books. He essayed journalism in Melbourne, and spent a few miserable years there, but returned to Sydney, where he was employed till his death in 1882. His works include Poems and Songs, Leaves from Australian Forests, Songs from the Mountains, Poems. He is the most musical and one of the most melancholy of Australian poets.
General Notes.-Mention any other poems of Kendall"s that youknow. A warrigal is a blackfellow"s term for a wild dog or a wild horse. Spelt differently, it is the name of a Victorian town. See how smoothly the verses run. Note how wild is the wild dog"s lair. Discuss the question, "Which leads the happier life-a wild dog or a tame dog?"LESSON 22
THE lANDINgS OF THE ANzACS
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps were to make good their landing on the AEgean coast, to the north of Gaba Tepe. They sailed from Mudros on the 24th of April, 1915, arrived off the coast of the peninsula at about half-past one in the morning of the 25th, and there, under a setting moon, in calm weather,, they went on board the boats which were to take them ashore. At about half-past three, the tows left the ships and proceeded in darkness to the coast.
Gaba Tepe is a steep cliff, covered with scrub where it is not too steep for roots to hold, and washed by deep water. About a mile to the north of it, there is a possible landing- place, and, north of that again, a long and narrow strip of beach between two little headlands. This latter beach cannot be seen from Gaba Tepe. The ground above these beaches is exceedingly steep, a sandy cliff. broken by two great gullies or ravines which run inland. All the ground, except in one patch in the southern ravine, where there is a sort of meadow of grass, is densely covered with scrub, mostly between two and three feet high. Inland from the beach, the land of the peninsula rises in steep, broken hills and spurs, with clumpsof pine, upon them, and dense undergrowths of scrub. The men selected for this landing were the 3rd Brigade of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, followed and supported by the 1st and 2nd Brigades.
The place selected for the landing was the southern beach, the nearer of the two to Gaba Tepe. This, like the other landing-places near Cape Helles, was strongly defended, and most difficult to approach. Large forces of Turks were entrenched there, well prepared. But, in the darkness of the early morning, after the moon had set, the tows stood a little farther to the north than they should have done, perhaps because some high ground to their left made a convenient steering-mark against the stars. The headed in towards the north beach between the two little headlands, where the Turks were not expecting them. However, they were soon seen, and very heavy independent rifle-fire was concentrated on them. As they neared the beach, "about one battalion of Turks" doubled along the land to intercept them. These men came from nearer Gaba Tepe, firing, as they ran, into the mass of boats, at short range. A great many men were killed in the boats; but the dead men"s oars were taken by survivors, and the boats forced into the shingle. The men jumped out, waded ashore, charged the enemy with the bayonet, and broke the Turk attack to pieces. The Turks scattered and were pursued; and now the steep, scrub-covered cliffs became the scene of the most desperate fighting.
The scattered Turks dropped into the scrub and dis- appeared. Hidden all over the rough cliffs, under every kind of cover, they sniped the beach, or ambushed the little parties of the 3rd Brigade which had rushed the landing. All over the broken hills there were isolated fights to the death, men falling into gullies and being bayoneted, sudden duels, point- blank, where men crawling through the scrub met each other, and life went to the quicker finger; heroic deaths, where some half- section which had lost touch were caught by ten times their strength, and charged, and died.
No man of our side knew that cracked and fissured jungle. Men broke through it on to machine-guns, or showed up on a crest and were blown to pieces, or leaped down from it into some sap or trench, to catch the bombs flung at them and hurl them at the thrower. Going, as they did, up cliffs through scrub- covered ground, they passed many hidden Turks, who were thus left to shoot them in the back or to fire down at the boats from perhaps only fifty yards away. It was only just light. Theirs was the first British survey of that wild country; only now, as it showed up clear, could they realize its difficulty. They pressed on up the hill; they dropped and fired and died; they drove the Turks back; they flung their packs away, wormed through the bush, and stalked the snipers from the flash. As they went, the words of their song supported them, the proud chorus of "Australia will be there," which the men on the torpedoed Southland sang as they fell in, expecting death.