THE TASMANIAN THYLACINE 225 



The dog" pluckily flew at it, but was thrown. Young 

 Sheridan approached to about a yard's distance 

 from the beast and fired, wounding it in the 

 head. The mysterious animal ran up a leaning 

 tree, but the dog barking, it became savage, and 

 rushed down first at the dog and then at the 

 boy, who "got frightened and came home." From 

 the boy's description, this beast can hardly have 

 been anything but a thylacine ; the banded wallaby 

 kangaroo is certainly striped on the back ; but it is 

 a West Australian species of small size and timid 

 disposition, and very unlikely to be able to throw a 

 terrier. 



There are, moreover, other reasons for supposing 

 the animal to have been a thylacine. In 1872, 

 Mr. Hull's party, when engaged in surveying 

 on the Murray and Mackay Rivers, were startled 

 one night between eight and nine p.m. by a "roar." 

 Taking their guns, they reconnoitred, but without 

 result ; next morning, however, they found, perfectly 

 imprinted in the soft ground, the track of ^foui^-toed 

 anmial with non-retractile claivs. Mr. Hull measured 

 and sketched the spoor ; the figure reproduced in the 

 "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" for 1872 

 appears to be a typical thylacine foot-print. Mr. 

 Walter Scott, of Cardwell, writing to the Society, 

 mentioned that in 1864 one of his bullock drivers 

 had stated that he had seen a tiger ; but the man 

 being a notorious liar, he had not believed him. 



