THE KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN BEAR. 467° 
quality seems to be really excellent. Some few experiments have been made upon the 
capabilities of this fur, and, as far as has yet been accomplished, with very great success. 
Good judges have declared that articles which had been made from this fur presented 
great resemblance to those which had been made from Angola wool, but appeared to be 
of superior quality. The hat-makers have already discovered the value of the fur, and 
are in the habit of employing it in their trade. 
The natives employ the skin of the “opossum” in the manufacture of their scanty 
mantles, as well as for sundry other purposes, and prepare the skins in a rather ingenious 
manner, As soon as the skin is stripped from the animal's beat, it is laid on the ground, 
with the hairy side downwards, and secured from shrinking by a number of little pegs 
which are fixed around its edges. The inner side is then continually scraped with a shell, 
and by degrees the skin becomes perfectly clean and phable. When a sufficient number 
of skins are prepared, they are ingeniously sewn together with thread that is made from 
the tendons of the kangaroo, which, when dried, can be separated into innumerable 
VULPINE PHALANGIST.—Phalangisia vulpina. 
filaments. A sharpened piece of bone stands the sable tailor in place of a needle. From 
the skin of the same animal is also formed the “kumeel,” or badge of manhood, a slight 
belt, which no one is permitted to wear until he has been solemnly admitted among the 
assembly of men. 
In its colour, the Vulpine Phalangist is rather variable, but the general hue of its fur 
is a grey ish-brown,. sometimes tinted with a ruddy hue. The tail is long, thick, and 
Ww oolly i in its character, and in colour it resembles that of the body, with the exception of 
the tip, which is nearly black. The dimensions of an old male are given by Mr. Bennett 
as follows: Total length, two feet seven inches ; the head being four inches in length, and 
the tail nearly a foot. 
THE QUAINT-LOOKING animal which is popularly known by the native name of Koana, 
or the AUSTRALIAN BEAR, is of some importance in the zoological world, as it serves to 
fill up the gulf that exists between the phalangistines and the kangaroos. 
It has been well remarked that this creature, arboreal in its habits, and really ursine 
in its general aspect, is the representative of the sun-bears of the Indian Archipelago, 
or of the sloths of America. The Koala is nocturnal in its habits, and is not very 
frequently found, even in the localities which it most affects. It is not nearly so widely 
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