A QUICK TRIP THROUGH ''THE BUSH." 329 



" Well done ! But how can we get at him ? Let us 

 see you solve that difficulty ! " 



Without waiting to be asked twice, Nagarnook seized 

 his hatchet and cut a foothold in the base of the tree a 

 yard up, and another a yard above that. Placing his toes 

 in this improvised ladder, and with his left arm embracing 

 the mighty trunk, he lifted himself, and with his right cut 

 a new rest higher up, and so on until he reached the 

 lower branches, where the animal's hole was. Into this 

 he ran his hand, and seizing the fellow by his tail to avoid 

 his sharp teeth, he swung him round his head several 

 times, and brained him on his own doorstep, and then 

 dropped him at our feet in triumph. It was all so neatly 

 and quickly done, that we could not help a shout of ap- 

 plause, as he descended in the same way he had gone up. 



The little animal was cooked for supper; and it was 

 now so late, we decided to camp where we were. The 

 meat of the 'possum — which is about three times as 

 large as a gray squirrel — is bitter and detestable to a 

 European palate ; but the native guides thought it de- 

 licious, and made a perfect feast of it. 



The night was enlivened by the cry with which this 

 animal salutes its coming, and which it utters as it seeks 

 its food from branch to branch in the darkness. This 

 note was like a bugle-call to the natives, who quickty 

 lighted pine torches, and started in pursuit with their 

 boomerangs as arms, and bagged over a dozen before 

 they were satisfied to turn in for the night. 



