: 



827.] Terra Incognita. 6D3 



lave seen a dog that had killed a kangaroo, but its chest was seamed all 

 over; the wounds are generally all received in the first engagement, for, 

 after a dog has bought his experience at so high a price as a good kan- 

 garoo makes him pay, he will fight more warily ; 1 have seen a young dog- 

 with the skin of his chest hanging down over his fore legs like an apron. In 

 the early times of the settlement, when it was not allowed to slaughter 

 cattie and sheep, the kangaroo was killed for its carcass, and, in later 

 times, it has been murdered for its hide by men who made a trade of it ; 

 that is done, I believe, to the present day in Van Diemen's Land, but in 

 New South Wales they are not sufficiently plentiful to make it answer, so 

 that, perhaps, the greatest number killed now is for sport ; many, however, 

 are shot ; yet they cannot last long ; and as soon as the country gets a 

 little more open, it will be necessary to introduce deer and hares, or there 

 will be no game at all. I refer more particularly to the county of Cum- 

 berland, which contains the real population of the colony. There are a 

 few red deer now in the country, near Sydney, but they are claimed as 

 private property. 



Among sportsmen, the fore-quarters and entrails of the kangaroo are 

 the perquisites of the dogs ; the loins, haunches, and tail, are eaten ; as the 

 kangaroo never secretes fat, its flesh is rather too lean to roast, but for a 

 pasty it is excellent ; the tail is fully equal to ox-tail for making soup. 



While I am on the subject, I may add, that, besides the kangaroo, there 

 is no other indigenous animal fit for hunting. The number of birds, too, 

 worth shooting is very small the emu may be either shot or coursed, 

 but it is seldom found east of the blue mountains now; wild pigeons 

 may be had ; they are very fond of the apple tree, and may be more fre- 

 quently found in it than in any other ; these, with teal, and wild ducks, 

 which are found in large quantities on the lagunes, near the Hawkesbury, 

 comprise almost all the edible game the country affords, except snipes, 

 which are tolerably plentiful. Young cockatoos are as good as young 

 rooks, but are much harder to get at, the old birds build so confoundedly 

 high. The bays and rivers, connected with the sea, are well stocked with 

 a great variety of fish, not generally known here, but the ponds and creeks, 

 inland, boast of hardly anything but perch (frequently, however, veiy fine) 

 and eels. 



The banks of the Cowpasture river are high, and very steep ; in some 

 parts the whole bed is occupied by water to the depth of eight or ten feet, 

 and there the current is slow ; the ponds thus formed are frequently 

 clogged up with branches and trunks of trees, which have fallen in from 

 time to time, and sometimes one will be of sufficient length to reach from 

 bank to bank, and form a perfect bridge ; through the greatest part, how- 

 ever, the river does not occupy . more than one half the width between the 

 banks, and is seldom deeper than to a horse's knees ; the same obstruc- 

 tions, of course, are occasioned by the falling of trees, as in the deeper 

 parts. The banks of the river are composed of light rich loam and sand, 

 and are covered with a sort of wild fetch, that has a very disagreeable 

 smell, but of which horses are very fond brambles, nettles, vines, and a 

 variety of underwood are interspersed, and form an almost impenetrable 

 thicket for some distance on both sides. During the spring and autumnal 

 rains, the river in that part, as well as lower down, overflows its banks, 

 and tends to fructify the soil within its reach ; the banks themselves are so 

 rich, that I have known water-melon-seeds to be merely put into the 

 ground on them, with the finger, without any previous preparation, and 



M. M. New Series. VOL. III. No, 18. 4 G 



