THE KASGABOO. 31 



the man who bought the kangaroo of us, and the use of 

 his horses for driving ; without this assistance we must 

 have kept a horse ourselves, and had a third mate. 

 A good many may always be sold on the ground, and a 

 couple of men, if they were worth anything, ought to 

 kill two dozen weekly, and they can live well in the bush 

 for 1 per week. There are two great advantages attached 

 to kangarooing : the shooters get their meat for nothing, 

 and they " have their nights in," which the duck-shooters 

 do not. But if ever I were going into kangarooing again, 

 I would adopt a different system, and salt the hams 

 instead of selling the carcasses ; I would try and get two 

 good mates, buy an old horse, tent, and rations for six 

 months, go up into a good country, shoot for the skins, 

 and cure the hams. There would be, besides, a few joeys 

 at 1 each, and opossum-skins always worth 5s. per 

 dozen ; and if one of the party could skin and preserve 

 any rare pretty birds they fell in with, a good many 

 might always be sold. 



The receipt for curing kangaroo hams, which I had 

 from a very old hand, was as follows ; and what few we 

 made for home consumption were first rate, and ate as 

 much like reindeer hams as anything I ever tasted: 

 15 Ibs. of salt, 2 Ibs. of treacle, 3 Ibs. of coarse sugar, 

 3 oz. of saltpetre, ^ Ib. of carbonate of soda, mixed 

 cold in a tub, the brine strong enough to float a potato : 

 don't boil the brine. The above quantity is sufficient for 

 fifty hams. Cut the hams nicely into shape ; if the bone 

 is taken out, the better for soaking, but the shape of the 



