30 NATTTBAJi HISTOEY SKETCHES. 



work I ever joined in. There is, it is true, some excite- 

 ment in a day's kangarooing to the man who only now 

 and then joins in it, and the old hand often feels " his 

 heart in his mouth " as the mob come up to him, thump- 

 ing and crashing through the forest; and there is at 

 times a good deal of boisterous merriment in the day's 

 sport with a party of the right sort. But to me it always 

 appeared like coursing at home, slow for an hour and 

 dead for a minute; and although, when getting my 

 living by shooting, I had to take everything in its turn, 

 still I must say that I think I found less real sport in 

 kangarooing than in any other kind of shooting. 



But men situated like myself must look to the profit 

 of the chase, not to the sport alone ; and I think, on this 

 head, kangaroo-shooting, if rightly followed, beats any 

 other kind of winter shooting within the same distance 

 of Melbourne. Duck-shooting certainly was the most 

 profitable a few years ago, before the birds were shot 

 out round Melbourne ; but now a man can hardly get his 

 living by ducks, unless he shoots with a punt and big 

 gun ; and even then he must go up the bay ; and for this 

 purpose will require a sailing-boat. When we were kan- 

 garooing, we used to sell our carcasses on the ground for 

 2s. Gd. each to a man who carried them up to Melbourne, 

 and we had the skins, which were worth about 18s. per 

 dozen : the hind-quarters in Melbourne are worth from 

 Ss. to 10s. each, according to quality. Twenty-five we 

 considered a fair two-horse load in the winter, and these 

 we could easily get in four days : but we had the help of 



