82 THE RABBIT IN AUSTRALIA. 



furnish materials of the most extraordinary description, 

 which would occupy a chapter to itself had we space 

 for such details. This however would be the history 

 of an imported pest overrunning and destroying thou- 

 sands of square miles of bush lands in that continent. 

 In some districts they became so bad, that having 

 destroyed every green thing throughout large areas 

 of country, they subsequently perished of starvation, 

 and their decaying carcases poisoned the whole atmo- 

 sphere over many square miles. The rabbit in Australia 

 probably furnishes the most curious example that has 

 ever been chronicled of an animal becoming* a pest 

 through sheer numbers. The State had to fight them, 

 like an army of foreign invaders. 



These instances of great herds of game, already 

 furnished, are sufficient to show the magnificent charac- 

 ter of the sport which even quite recently was obtain- 

 able and indeed may still be had in Africa and else- 

 where, by sportsmen who care to go far enough in 

 search of it. For it must be remembered a very large 

 portion both of the Asiatic and African continents- 

 is still very imperfectly known, and the recent experi- 

 ences of numerous hunting parties show what can be 

 done in Africa, at all events, even at the present day, 

 by energetic and fearless hunters. 



Probably this chapter could not be brought more 

 appropriately to a close, than by the reproduction of 

 the poem " Afar in the Desert" by Mr. Thomas 

 Pringle, the Poet of South Africa, which was first 

 published in The South African Journal, in 1824. 



A really good hunting piece, such as this, is rare 

 -perhaps because few men of poetic genius have 



