18 KATUBAL HISTOEY SKETCHES. 



one turn on me, and this was an old male which I had 

 knocked down, and when I went up to it on the ground, 

 it sprung up and came at me: he luckily fell from 

 exhaustion as I stepped back. Like deer, when wounded, 

 they will often take to water, and, if they get a dog in 

 their claws at such a time, always try to drown it. But 

 I do not believe in the fiction that they will carry a dog 

 to a water-hole for that purpose. They are exceedingly 

 tenacious of life, and, when wounded mortally;, will run 

 for a long way, till they drop from internal hemorrhage. 

 As soon as they are down, the best plan is to cut the 

 throat ; and be very cautious, in going up to a kangaroo 

 apparently dead, to keep out of reach of the hind foot, 

 for, in the death-struggle, the kicks are often very 

 dangerous. I have been twice knocked off my legs as 

 clean as if bowled down by a cricket-ball ; but I was 

 luckily, in both instances, close to the kangaroo, and 

 was struck with the flat of the foot instead of the 

 sharp claw. I never heard them utter any sound, 

 except when wounded : their cry of pain is a loud hoarse 

 groan. 



The best kangaroo-ground in Port Phillip is theWestern- 

 port district, and begins about thirty-five miles south of 

 Melbourne. Prom hence down to the Heads is a wide 

 promontory, covered with deep forests intersected with 

 plains, about forty miles long, bounded by Port-Phillip 

 Bay on the one side, and Western-port Bay on the 

 other. Here, such is the wild nature of the country, 

 and so well is it adapted to the habits of the kangaroo, 



