EIGHT YEARS' TRAVEL IN AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 51

EIGHT YEARS' TRAVEL IN AUSTRALIA.

(Wbitten fob the Witness Little Folks by compagnon, walkawa.) VII. The marsupials, to which family or group kangaroos and opossums belong, do not conceive their young as other animals do. The word marsupial, from the Latin marsupium, partially explains this. Tha undeveloped young pass into a pouch attaohed to the front of the animal, there to be nourished until fully developed. The poach of a kangaroo i 3 lined very thickly with warm, soft fur, and tbe young, live .therein nntil able to eat. On its reaching maturity, and for some considerable timo afterwards. The young is' carried about in tbe poach of the kangaroo doe. On beginning to eat the young leave the bag only partially — that is, they feed with one hind leg in tbe poach ready to drag themselves into it at the approach of danger, the mother giving the alarm by a short, harsh cry— half grant, half bark. It it surprising how swiftly a. doe can hop when burdened by the weight of the young in her pouch, and it is only when hard pressed by doga that she will cast it out by grasping it by the neck with her fore leg and dragging it from j its cosy bed. This the doe does without ! baiting or slackening her speed, which is very great. While speaking on this point I would like to dispel a delusion which is common to j those unacquainted with the kangaroo's j method of locomotion. From your object pic- j tures at school and from what your teachers tell you, you are perfectly well aware that the kangaroo has a long tail, which is heavy and rather disproportionate to the rest of animal's body, and many people are under tbe impression that it is nsed to propel the kangaroo by aiding it to take such tremendous leaps (18ft is cot uncommon) while. . travelling ; but this is altogether a mistake. - While in the act of feeding the tail is nsed as a means whereby the animal pushes itself ahead little by little, but immediately on commencing to travel quickly the tail is j raised clear of the ground and never touches ie while the speed is kept up— it simply acts as a balance to prevent tbe kangaroo from ' toppling over on to its head. ! If you break tbe tail at the butt, near its j junction with the body, the animal cannot ' escapefromyou — it will only hobble round and j round and reel about like a tipsy man. The [ kangaroo is very tenacious of life. If struck j by a ballet anywhere about the body it will tun for miles, and unleßß the thigh bone be broken or the animal be shot in the heatt, throat, or head the chances are it will escape from you and not die for a considerable time after being wounded. While chased by dogs and hard pressed most of them run towards a creek or waterIs, and entering the water to waist deep, •y will drown any dog which comes within -xch of them by grasping it behind the ears* af.' 1 pushing its head under water. -.Dtna Ifzv fuU-grown males — ', old men V:^ garoos," as the huaters call them — run to lurge tree when tbe dogs pursue them, d placing their back towirrts : ; .■JA tec dnai- life. Tney draw tuems'sives up to their lull height, aud endeavour to seiz^ tbeir enemies with their forepaws. Tbe instant a dog ia caught the kangaroo raisQß its bind leg, and by a swift, powerful kick disembowels it or slits open the throat with the sharp strong horny claw at the extremity. In fighting with each other the kangaroos follow the same plan. Their sole means of offence and defance consists in kicking forward. They are very easily tamed, and make nice pets, though rather dangerous to be kept where young children are on accouut of their proneness to scratch them badly in playfulness. They are also very cunning. I used to laugh at one that was kept at a farmer's house at which I was boarding. It would watch by rhe kitchen door (our outhouse) until the cook had gone ont for wood or water; than I bounding into the room it would seize a loaf i i-f bread in its forepaws and scamper away \ full speed towards the bash to devour it. j Sometimes, for very mischief it seemed, ib ; would creep up behind one of the children, [ and grasping it by the sleeves or shoulders j of its pinafore, give it a good rough shaking and then run away. The kangaroo dogs — :.nd there were a good many of them— kept 1 >>r hunting on the farm would not molest 'h*re were about 200 acres of lucerne r, jwing some little distance away from the i irmhoufie, and the crop was almost entirely ■ stroyed by the kangaroos, id spite of dogs, ' .iSP, and snares being continually employed ■ frighten them away or destroy them, so c farmer's son caught a half-grown one -, i.l dressed it in a bright scarlet shirt and 1 .1 an old horse bell round its neck. Then • ;on the mob of kangaroos were feeding in . :-. cultivation paddock he turned the one ( :d in the- shirt in among them. It ran Mraight towards the mob, the shirt streaming behind it and the bell ringing as the animal proceeded. Oil the mob went in terror, and tbe dressed one of course followed. The farmer was not troubled with kangaroos any farther antil the crop was cut. But however destructive the kangaroo may be it is also of use. The flesh of the young is very palatable, and from the tail is made the far-famed kangaroo. tail soup. The skins are also valuable. Leather made from them is used in making whips and boots. The skins of the young make excellent rags, and if carefully tanned last much longer, and are much warmer, though somewhat heavier, than opposum rags. They formed the chief food of the aboriginals before the white people inhabited Australia, and in the far interior do so still, bat they are fast disappearing, as do all animals indigenous to almoßt any country nooa after the amval of tbe whites, and in a

short time this peculiar animal will be wholly exterminated.