The perplexity augments instead of diminishing. I sleep but little. It
has ceased from lying around, and goes about on its four legs now. Yet
it differs from the other four-legged animals in that its front legs
are unusually short, consequently this causes the main part of its
person to stick up uncomfortably high in the air, and this is not
attractive. It is built much as we are, but its method of travelling
shows that it is not of our breed. The short front legs and long hind
ones indicate that it is of the kangaroo family, but it is a marked
variation of the species, since the true kangaroo hops, whereas this
one never does. Still, it is a curious and interesting variety, and has
not been catalogued before. As I discovered it, I have felt justified
in securing the credit of the discovery by attaching my name to it, and
hence have called it Kangaroorum Adamiensis…. It must have been a young
one when it came, for it has grown exceedingly since. It must be five
times as big, now, as it was then, and when discontented is able to
make from twenty-two to thirty-eight times the noise it made at first.
Coercion does not modify this, but has the contrary effect. For this
reason I discontinued the system. She reconciles it by persuasion, and
by giving it things which she had previously told it she wouldn’t give
it. As already observed, I was not at home when it first came, and she
told me she found it in the woods. It seems odd that it should be the
only one, yet it must be so, for I have worn myself out these many
weeks trying to find another one to add to my collection, and for this
one to play with; for surely then it would be quieter, and we could
tame it more easily. But I find none, nor any vestige of any; and
strangest of all, no tracks. It has to live on the ground, it cannot
help itself; therefore, how does it get about without leaving a track?
I have set a dozen traps, but they do no good. I catch all small
animals except that one; animals that merely go into the trap out of
curiosity, I think, to see what the milk is there for. They never drink
it.