THE PLAGUE OF FLIES IN AUSTRALIA.--OTHER CREEPING AND FLYING
THINGS.--LAUGHING-JACKASSES, BOWER-BIRDS, LYRE-BIRDS, PARROTS,
ETC.--TRICKS OF THE LYRE-BIRD.--ORIGIN OF THE BOWER-BIRD'S NAME.--BLACK
SWANS AND WILD-DUCKS.--SNIPE, QUAIL, AND OTHER BIRDS.--AUSTRALIAN RIVERS
AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.--RETURN TO THE COAST.--GYMPIE AND THE
GOLD-MINES OF QUEENSLAND.--AN AUSTRALIAN GOLD RUSH.--DOWN THE COAST TO
SYDNEY.--THE GREAT BARRIER REEF: ITS EXTENT AND PECULIARITIES.--SPORT IN
NORTHERN QUEENSLAND.--GOING UP-COUNTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES.--A KANGAROO
HUNT.--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HUNT AND A DRIVE.--AUSTRALIAN
MARSUPIALS.--SHOOTING WILD HORSES.--KILLING AN "OLD MAN"
KANGAROO.--DINGOES.--STORIES OF KANGAROO HUNTS.
Several days were passed agreeably in the pastoral and agricultural
region of the Darling Downs, and our friends were overwhelmed with
invitations from the hospitable squatters who inhabit that region. Fred
said the invitations would have enabled them to spend a year there, and
even then he was confident their welcome would not be worn out. Wherever
they went they were comfortably lodged and well cared for, and they were
unanimous in declaring that the world contained many worse places than
the Darling Downs, even among those that were classed as highly
attractive.
[Illustration: AN AUSTRALIAN PEST.]
Frank considered the flies and other creeping and winged things a great
drawback to existence in that region. "They have mosquitoes and sand
flies in certain localities," said he, "while others are entirely free
from them; but as for the common fly, he is everywhere and is a first
class nuisance. On the coast the flies are said to be troublesome only
for a few months in the year, but in the interior they are perennial,
and sometimes almost make life a burden. They are worse at some periods
than at others, but bad enough at all times. In the worst 'fly-time'
nobody ventures to ride about without wearing a veil; and men have taxed
their ingenuity to keep the pests out of their houses, but practically
without success.
[Illustration: THE SAND-FLEA (NATURAL SIZE AND MAGNIFIED).]
"Fleas are also abundant, though not as much so as flies; neither are
they seen as much in public. They abound most in sandy places, and the
sundowners transport them from one station to another free of charge. A
more welcome insect is the common honey-bee; it has long been
acclimatized in Australia, and owing to the great number of
honey-bearing flowers, it has become very abundant. Bee-farming is an
important industry in New South Wales, and is carried on to quite an
extent in the other colonies.
"They tell us that in the north of Queensland white ants are very
destructive, as they eat nearly every textile fabric, and have a
voracious appetite for all kinds of wood. They have even been charged
with devouring window-glass, iron bars, and similar substances usually
considered inedible. I heard a man say with the utmost gravity that they
had eaten up two cross-cut saws and a boxful of American axes, handles
and all; but I don't believe it, and I doubt his veracity in several
other statements he made, and therefore won't repeat them."
One day while the youths were strolling in the bush not far from the
station, they were startled by the sound of immoderate laughter that
seemed to come from among the limbs of a low tree. The sound was
repeated after a short interval, and, curious to know the cause, they
went in its direction. As they neared the tree, two or three birds flew
from it and settled in another tree a short distance away. They did not
seem at all alarmed at the presence of Frank and Fred, and the latter
remarked that the creatures were evidently allowed to go about unharmed.
On their return to the station they told what they had seen and heard,
and asked what were the birds that had so surprised them.
"Those were laughing-jackasses," was the reply; "or if you want another
name for them, you may choose between 'giant kingfisher,' 'piping crow,'
'musical magpie,' or 'settler's clock.' The bird under consideration
belongs to the kingfisher family, and is called by all these names, the
last being given on account of the uproar he makes at noon, and thus
tells the settler who does not carry a watch when the middle of the day
is reached. Many people believe he destroys snakes; some of us are
skeptical on this point, which has never been satisfactorily decided;
but at any rate he is useful, as he often indicates the locality of
fresh water, and so has saved many persons from suffering, or perhaps
perishing of thirst. He is never shot, and consequently is not fearful
of the presence of man.
"I wonder you have not heard the bird before this," he continued, "as he
abounds near the cities and towns as well as in the bush." Then the boys
remembered that they had heard the same sound on several occasions, but
always supposed it was somebody laughing, and did not consider it any
business of theirs to investigate.
[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN BOWER-BIRD.]
"There's another curious bird in Australia," said their informant,
"which we call the satin, or bower, bird. He builds a bower, or walk,
and decorates it with any gaudy feathers or other things he can find,
and also with shells, bleached bones, and similar small objects. So well
is his propensity known that when we drop a pipe-bowl or a penknife in
the bush, we search for it in the bowers or runs of these birds, and
very often find it there. As the bower-bird feeds entirely on seeds and
fruits, it is evident that he secures these small things for the sake of
ornament."
Fred suggested that perhaps the bower-bird had been infected with the
bric-à-brac craze which pervades society in other countries. The
ambition to gather a cabinet of curiosities was a fashionable one, and
why shouldn't a bird have it as well as any one else.
Frank asked if it was possible to see a lyre-bird in that region, and
was disappointed when told that it was rarely seen outside of the fern
country of South-eastern Australia. Their authority on birds told them
that this winged emblem of Australia was about the size of a pheasant,
and had a tail three feet long; the outer feathers of the tail are
beautifully marked, and form the lyre from which the bird takes its
name. The male bird forms a mound of earth on which he promenades,
displaying his beautiful tail to its utmost advantage, in the same way
that the peacock exhibits his feathered ornaments. The female is as
plain as an ordinary hen, and presents a very mean appearance by the
side of her lord.
The youths were further informed that the lyre-bird is an excellent
mocking-bird, and could imitate with exactness the notes of all the
other feathered denizens of the forest. "He can also," said their
authority, "reproduce nearly every sound made by man. Settlers in the
region inhabited by these birds are often deceived by them, and many
amusing stories are told. Sometimes a man working on his clearing hears
somebody chopping wood a short distance away, and a dog barking at his
heels. He goes in search of the intruder, and finds after a long walk
that the 'pheasant' has been making game of him. A man using a cross-cut
saw hears somebody doing the same thing, and after searching
unsuccessfully for him, discovers that it is the pheasant's
performance."
[Illustration: WALLACE'S STANDARD-WING BIRDS-OF-PARADISE, MALE AND
FEMALE.]
Frank summed up the rest of the ornithology of Australia as follows:
"The great southern continent has many varieties of the parrot family;
it possesses the king parrot, the bird-of-paradise, the blue
mountain-parrot, the cockatoo--blue, white, and crested--lories,
paroquets, and love-birds. It has the wild turkey, which we have already
mentioned, and a bird closely allied to it, called by the singular name
of 'native companion.' Wild-ducks are found all over the country, the
'mountain duck' being the finest; then in their order come the black
duck, wood-duck, and the Australian teal, followed by five or six other
varieties less known and less liked by sportsmen."
"Don't forget the black swan among the water-birds," said Fred, as Frank
paused after reading the foregoing paragraph.
"I was not forgetting him," replied Frank; "what would be our picture of
Australia without the black swan? He is found in all the lakes and
swamps of the southern coast; in the Gippsland lakes thousands of black
swans may sometimes be seen in a single flock, and the sound of their
feet and wings striking the water as they rise for a flight may be heard
for miles when the air is still. The black swan is not strictly a
game-bird; his flesh is rather rank, but this taste can be removed in
cooking, and then he isn't at all bad to eat.
"Going from large birds to small," continued the youth, "I learn that
snipe are abundant in many localities, but they do not seem to be
appreciated as in England and America. The Argus snipe is the prettiest
of the family, and also the most difficult to find; he is beautifully
marked on the back and wings, and is a valuable addition to an
ornithological collection.
[Illustration: HEAD OF THE VALLEY QUAIL.]
"There are at least a dozen varieties of quail in Australia, and as
articles of food they are abundant and cheap. With very little effort a
settler in most parts of the country could have quail on toast every day
in the year; at least the quail would be easily forthcoming though the
toast might not. Cold roast quail and damper are not to be despised for
lunch after a long ride in the bush."
[Illustration: A QUAIL FAMILY.]
While Frank was busy with the study of the birds of Australia, Fred
contemplated with great care the map of the country. He observed that
all the mountain ranges were near the coast, so that the course of the
larger rivers was towards the interior. "There is not," said he in his
note-book, "a single large river flowing into the ocean from all this
great continent, with the exception of the Murray. Every other stream is
short and insignificant; and even the Murray and its tributaries do not
form a first-class river.
"Here we are," said Fred, "on the head streams of the Darling, one of
the rivers that unite with the Murray to pour into the sea through Lake
Alexandria, between Melbourne and Adelaide. On looking at the map I
thought we should be able to descend in a boat to the ocean, but Mr.
Watson tells us we can do nothing of the sort. Some of the rivers on the
maps are at this season simply dry beds, though at times they have water
enough to float a first-class boat from the Mississippi.
"Steamboats have ascended the Darling to Walgett, 2345 miles from the
sea, but they can only do so at certain, or rather uncertain, times, and
therefore no dependence can be placed on the navigation of the Murray
and its tributaries. The Darling depends on flood-waters; sometimes they
will fill the stream to its junction with the Murray, and thence to the
sea, and again they fail before going half way. The river can never be
navigated throughout the year, and in some years boats are not able to
run at all.
"So my scheme of going down by water to the ocean is not practicable,
and we return to the coast the way we came."
[Illustration: OUT PROSPECTING.]
And return they did, taking the railway to Brisbane, and thence going by
coach and rail to Gympie, the centre of the Queensland gold-mining
region, or rather one of its centres, as the colony possesses several
auriferous fields. There is a standing offer of a reward of £1000, or
$5000, to any one who discovers paying gold-deposits in a new locality
upon which there shall be upwards of two hundred men at work six months
after the fields are opened. Consequently a great many prospectors are
constantly at work, through the double hope of the reward and of making
a fortune out of the discovery.
The gold-fields of Gympie were discovered in 1868 by Mr. James Nash, and
the settlement which rose there was at first called Nashville. The
existence of the precious metal in the colony was known for at least a
decade before that date, but none of the mines had proved remunerative.
At present there are upwards of twenty gold-fields in Queensland, and
the aggregate annual yield exceeds $5,000,000. From 1867 to 1885
inclusive the mines of Queensland yielded 4,840,221 ounces of gold,
valued at not far from $80,000,000.
But we are forgetting Frank and Fred in our contemplation of these dry
statistics. Here is what Frank wrote concerning their visit to Gympie:
"We came here partly by rail and partly by coach, the railway from
Brisbane to Gympie not being completed, though perhaps it will be by
the time this is in print, if it should ever have such good-fortune. It
is one hundred and sixteen miles from Brisbane to Gympie, and sixty-one
from here to Maryborough. The town is prettily situated on the side of a
range of hills on the river Mary; it has handsome public buildings, and
bears every evidence of prosperity. It has a School of Arts, a public
library, and other institutions not always to be found in mining towns,
and altogether deserves the good name that it bears. It has a population
of nearly eight thousand in the municipality alone, and there are four
thousand more in the immediate neighborhood.
[Illustration: QUARTZ-MILL IN THE GOLD-MINES.]
"There are the usual paraphernalia of the mining industry, which we have
already described in other places. In every direction there are
mining-shafts and reduction-works, and for miles and miles around the
country is full of prospecting holes, where gold has been sought but not
found, at least in paying quantities. The first rush here was for the
alluvial diggings, and large amounts of gold were taken out by the early
comers.
"We were much interested in hearing about the adventures of Mr. Nash,
the discoverer of the gold-diggings here. He had been an unsuccessful
prospector for twenty years, had gone through all kinds of privations,
narrowly escaped death at the hands of the blacks on many occasions, and
was almost killed by the earth caving in on him while working a prospect
hole. He always went by himself, and worked alone. When he found gold
here he managed to work away for three months without interruption; then
he was discovered by a stockman, who took a claim next to his and spread
the news abroad. Nash became a rich man at last, but his health was
ruined, and he had little real enjoyment of his wealth.
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN GOLD-HUNTERS.]
"The alluvial diggings at Gympie were soon worked out, and reef, or
quartz, mining followed. In fact, the reef mining began while placer
mining was at its height and the alluvial diggers were in the full tide
of success. The placers were, and the reefs are, very rich, and many of
the workings have paid enormously to their owners. Of course where there
have been so many prizes there has been a proportionate number of
blanks, and there is no telling how many thousands of men have left
Gympie poorer than when they came here.
"The town consists practically of a single street which straggles up and
down for more than a mile, with here and there an attempt to run a
lateral street in the direction of a mine or a crushing-mill. Most of
the houses are of wood, and scattered over the hills are the huts of the
miners, in order that they may be near the places where they are
employed. This does not prevent their coming into the town in the
evening, and occasionally making it a very lively place. In the early
days there were the usual disorderly scenes of the centre of a 'gold
rush;' and one of the old inhabitants told us that a few months after
the discovery became known, it seemed as though half the bad characters
in Australia had congregated there.
[Illustration: A GOLD-MINER'S HOME.]
"When the alluvial diggings had been exhausted, the wandering miners
disappeared and wended their way to newly reported fields. The place
became more orderly, and then the abandoned claims were occupied by the
Chinese, the most patient workers the world ever saw. They are
contented to take up what white men consider unprofitable, and,
considering all their disadvantages, they have done wonderfully well.
They are not allowed to enter any gold-field until it has been open for
two years; and there is a poll-tax of £10 a head upon every Chinese who
enters the colony. They are generally peaceable, but occasionally they
quarrel among themselves over the right to work a certain spot, and then
the noise they make is something tremendous."
[Illustration: A CHINESE DISCUSSION.]
From Gympie our friends went by rail to Maryborough, a seaport town on
the Mary River, twenty-five miles above its mouth, and one hundred and
eighty from Brisbane. The railway carried them past many sugar
plantations, and they learned that Maryborough is the outlet of a
considerable district devoted to sugar cultivation, the annual product
being not far from five thousand tons. Large quantities of lumber are
exported from Maryborough, and there is also a considerable business in
wool and hides from the cattle and sheep stations in the country towards
the interior.
Here they took steamer for Sydney, touching at Brisbane, Newcastle, and
several other ports of lesser consequence. During their voyage they
became acquainted with a resident of one of the northern ports, who had
much to say about the advantages of his part of the colony, and greatly
regretted that they had not been able to visit it.
"It's a pity," said he, "that you missed the Great Barrier Reef, which
is one of the most remarkable geographical and geological phenomena to
be found anywhere on the globe. It stretches along the whole eastern
coast from opposite Port Bowen, in latitude 23°, to Torres Strait, at
the extreme north of Queensland, and is one thousand two hundred miles
long. Its greatest width, which is near its southern end, is about
seventy miles, and it is from five to one hundred miles from the shore
of the continent. All along its whole length there are sunken reefs,
which make navigation in its vicinity very dangerous. Many a ship has
been lost on this reef, and scores or hundreds of persons have found a
watery grave by its side."
Fred asked if a ship inside the reef was obliged to go its entire length
before finding an opening to the ocean.
"Not at all," was the reply. "There are many openings to the ocean
through the reef, some of them very narrow and others several miles in
width; and the reef contains specimens of all kinds of coral
formation--atolls, fringing reefs, and others. The portion of the reef
above water, and the numerous coral islands near it, are thought to have
an aggregate surface of thirty thousand miles."
"What is supposed to have caused the formation of this reef?" Frank
inquired.
[Illustration: WRECKED ON THE REEF.]
"The outer margin of the Great Barrier Reef probably indicates the
former coast-line of this part of Australia," was the reply. "This was
fringed with coral reefs; but as the land sank, the coral animals
continued to build upward to the level of the sea, and thus a great
ridge was formed which was broken and heaped up by the waves of the
Pacific. Fresh water prevents the formation of coral, and the openings
in the Great Barrier Reef are thus formed by the fresh-water streams.
The largest is opposite the mouth of the Burdekin River, which drains a
considerable area of country.
"The reef is a good place for sport, just as are the reefs of the
Feejee, Samoan, and Society Islands, which you tell me you have visited.
Vessels go there in search of beche-de-mer, for which they have a good
market in China. The fishery for this curious article of food is
practically just the same as in the island groups of the Pacific, and
therefore I need not describe it to you.
[Illustration: THE MANATEE, OR DUGONG.]
"Very good sport can be had in Northern Queensland in hunting the
dugong, or sea-cow. This animal abounds along the coast of that region;
its flesh is not bad eating, and its oil was formerly in demand as a
substitute for cod-liver oil, but some of the fishermen got to mixing it
with shark-oil and other abominations, so that its good name was ruined.
If you have a taste for turtle-catching, it can be accommodated. We
supply the Sydney and Melbourne markets with green turtle, and also put
the soup and meat into tin cans and send it to England. There are
numerous fishes, some good to eat, and others worthless as articles of
food but with all the colors of the rainbow. We have sharks of the
largest size, and the stranger should be careful about venturing into
the water for a bath."
Their new acquaintance had a great deal to say about the northern part
of Queensland, whose praises he was never weary of sounding. He declared
that within a very few years Queensland would consist of two colonies
instead of one, as the north was inclined to cut loose from the south
and set up a government of its own. He thought it did not receive its
fair share of the public money, and having paid its proportion of the
taxes, it had a right to grumble when the south received all the
appropriations for railways and other costly improvements.
On his arrival in Sydney Doctor Bronson called at once on the gentleman
who had invited the party to see the interior of New South Wales.
Arrangements were made for immediate departure, and at nine o'clock on
the following morning they were off for the upper country.
So far as their experiences of cattle and sheep stations were concerned,
they were practically a repetition of what they had gone through in
Queensland. A new feature of the trip was a kangaroo hunt to which they
were invited, and of which Fred gives the following account:
"You must know that this is the land of marsupials, or animals which
carry their young in a pouch until they are able to take care of
themselves. Nearly all the animals of this country belong to this
family; and geological researches show that there were once some
marsupials here that equalled if they did not exceed in size the
rhinoceros and hippopotamus. But these big fellows are all extinct;
there are one hundred and ten species now, and the largest of them does
not exceed two hundred pounds in weight.
"The largest of the marsupials is the kangaroo, and the next in size is
the wallaby. There are eight species of large kangaroo, inhabiting
different parts of the country, the prince of them all being the red
kangaroo of South Australia. Then come seventeen species of small
kangaroos (_Halmaturus_) weighing from ten to fifteen pounds; and then
three species of silky-haired kangaroos (_Onychogalea_), inhabiting the
interior of the continent. They weigh eight or ten pounds, and are about
the size of a common rabbit; then come five species of hare-kangaroos,
five of jerboa-kangaroos, and then the rat-kangaroos, the bandicoots,
opossums, 'rabbit-rats,' and numerous other small animals. We'll go back
to the large kangaroos, where we began.
[Illustration: EVENING AT HOME ON THE NORTH COAST.]
"In former times, when the only human inhabitants of Australia were the
savage blacks, the kangaroo was kept from increasing too rapidly,
through the combined efforts of the dingoes and the natives. The dingo
is the Australian wild dog, and closely allied to the wolf and jackal,
of which he is certainly the first-cousin. He is carnivorous, and fond
of sheep, and was therefore poisoned and otherwise killed off by the
settlers, to prevent his depredations upon the flocks. A bounty was
placed on his scalp, and he has been greatly reduced in numbers. The
natives have likewise died off since the settlement of the country; and
with their natural enemies removed, the kangaroos, which live wholly on
grass, have increased till they have become a nuisance. A kangaroo eats
as much as a sheep, and when a drove is undisturbed its numbers multiply
with a rapidity that dismays the squatter on whose land it has made its
home.
[Illustration: DINGOES, OR AUSTRALIAN WILD DOGS.]
"Our host gave us the foregoing information while we were riding to the
place where we were to enjoy the sensation of hunting the kangaroo. He
furthermore told us that it was no uncommon thing for them to kill
several hundred kangaroos in a single drive, but it could not be called
sport. He said a drive wasn't a hunt, and I asked him to explain the
difference, which he did.
"The necessity of killing off the kangaroos to prevent their utter
destruction of all the grass in the country was forced upon the settlers
by the rapid increase of the animals. The Government passed a law giving
a bounty for the scalps of kangaroos; and none too soon, as in some
parts of the country the droves fairly blackened the plains for many
miles, and literally starved the sheep out of the country. The bounty on
the scalps, added to the value of the meat and skins, partly paid for
the trouble, which required a muster of all the squatters and their
employés for a considerable distance around.
"A drive, or battue, is managed in this way: A yard with a high fence
is built in one of the scrubs on the plains, and from this yard two
fences run out on the plain for a long distance, widening like the sides
of the letter V. All the men, boys, and blacks in the neighborhood are
mounted on horseback, and scour the country for many miles around; they
move in the direction of the jaws of the V, and when the herd is once
inside it, the animals are doomed. They go straight towards the scrub
which conceals the yard, and do not discover where they are till they
are inside the enclosure. Then the rails are put up, the blacks enter
with clubs, and the slaughtering begins. A kangaroo can jump clean over
a horse, and therefore the fence must be not less than seven feet high
to prevent his escape when frightened.
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN WILD HORSES.]
"We were not bent on any such performance, which is nothing but
slaughter, though made necessary by the conditions of the country. I may
add here that in some parts of the colony it is often necessary to make
a drive of wild horses exactly as they drive the kangaroo. It is no
uncommon matter for a squatter to make a drive of four or five hundred
wild horses, which are killed for their hides, but more especially to
prevent their eating the grass, destroying the fences, and enticing tame
horses out of the paddocks. We have seen several droves of wild horses,
and they look very pretty as they gallop over the plain. We wished we
had some of them under the saddle, but were told that the value of the
animal rarely pays for the trouble and cost of breaking him.
Occasionally horses with brands on them are found in the wild herds;
they are impounded and advertised; at least such is the theory, but
quite as often they are killed with the rest to save trouble.
"A black boy mounted on a swift horse came riding back to us, and said
the kangaroos were in a part of the plain that was concealed from us by
a patch of scrub. We moved in their direction, keeping the scrub
between us and them, so as to get as close as possible before they
discovered us.
"Our manoeuvre worked very well. There were ten or twelve of the
animals feeding quietly, and we were within a few hundred yards of them
before they were aware of it. At the first alarm they rose on their
hind-legs and took a look all around, and a second later they were away.
How they did jump! They seemed to go thirty or forty feet at a time, but
our host says it was little if any more than fifteen feet. Even that is
a tremendous jump; if you don't think so, just try it.
[Illustration: A KANGAROO BATTUE, OR DRIVE.]
"We let loose the dogs, which up to this time had been kept behind us,
and they went away without any urging. The dogs are kept for this
purpose, just as fox-hounds are kept in England and France, or
deer-hounds in Scotland. The dogs soon overtook and pulled down a young
kangaroo; this caused some delay, but not much, and they were speedily
put on the track of an 'old man' kangaroo, as a full-grown male is
called.
"The 'old man' led the dogs a lively chase. He made directly for water,
several miles away, which is always the custom of the kangaroo; if he
cannot reach water he takes his stand with his back against a tree, and
in that position he is a dangerous creature to approach. We followed the
dogs as closely as we could, but did not come up to them until the
kangaroo was at bay in a pool where the water just left his fore-legs
clear as he stood upright.
[Illustration: RED KANGAROO.]
"The dogs were all experienced in kangaroo-hunting, and knew enough to
keep out of reach of his legs. Had they come within grasping distance he
would have held them under water till they were drowned, or else have
ripped them open with a blow from his powerful hind-leg, which has a
claw in the middle capable of inflicting a fatal wound upon man or dog.
"The dogs swam around him, or stood on the shore of the pool, when we
came up. The pool was a small one, and the creature realized that it was
his safest retreat, and he was evidently determined to die game. A shot
from a rifle in the hands of one of the men finished him, and he was
quickly dragged to the shore. Fortunately, not a dog was killed or
injured; rarely does a hunt terminate without some one or more of the
dogs receiving a scratch, and nearly every kangaroo-dog in the country
has a scar or two to show as evidence of his experience and prowess.
[Illustration: SHORT EARED KANGAROO.]
"After this exploit we dismounted, and took our lunch. Then we made a
circuitous journey homeward, and roused up another 'old man,' which we
despatched as he stood fighting with his back to a tree, but not till he
had wounded one of the dogs. Another full-grown kangaroo was killed by
one of the stockmen the same day, in another part of the run, and the
three skins will be properly cured and sent to Doctor Bronson and
ourselves as souvenirs of the day's experience.
"We supped on steaks from a young kangaroo; the meat of the old and
full-grown animals is too rank to be enjoyable, and is usually fed to
the dogs. We had soup made from kangaroo tail, and it was delicious;
kangaroo soup has become an article of export, and some epicures are
said to prefer it to ox-tail, or even to turtle soup, though I very much
doubt the latter statement.
"Our host says the natives in former times were very skilful in killing
the kangaroo with the boomerang; when a native armed with this weapon
was within reach of a kangaroo, the aim rarely missed. Another way of
killing the creature was by stalking. The blackfellow dressed himself
with twigs and brush to look like a small tree. In this disguise, and
carrying his spear between two toes of his foot, he advanced slowly,
taking care to keep to leeward, so that the animal could not get the
scent. Slowly he closed up, remaining motionless when the kangaroo
looked up, and moving again when it began to graze. Once within spearing
distance, he speedily settled the question of dinner or no dinner from
the flesh of that identical beast."
Frank asked what became of the skins of the kangaroos when they were
slaughtered by wholesale, as already described.
"They are pegged out on the ground and dried," said their host, "and
then are shipped to market. Many of them go to America, where they are
made into leather for boots and shoes and other purposes. The leather is
very tenacious, and almost impervious to water, and the demand for it is
said to be increasing. Previous to 1869 very few of the skins were
tanned, as the merits of the leather had not become known. The first
that were sent to America were sold at a loss, and then in a few years,
when their qualities were known, the American tanners could not get
enough of them. One firm in Newark, New Jersey, is said to receive six
thousand skins every week, and even with that number cannot meet the
demand for kangaroo leather."
During the evening, stories of kangaroo hunts were naturally in order,
and a goodly number were told; but as all were of the same general
character it is hardly necessary to give them. Frank made note of the
fact that there is one kind of kangaroo which climbs trees and jumps,
like a squirrel, from limb to limb. He is called the tree-kangaroo, and
has curved claws on his fore-paws to enable him to cling to the
branches. He is not a bad pet to have about a park, but his numbers
should be judiciously kept down, or he may become a nuisance, like the
larger kangaroos that live on the ground.
[Illustration: KANGAROOS IN CAPTIVITY.]