K A N G U R O O. 



thing of the stability of a pyramid from the thickness 

 of the hind parts and the slenderness of the fore, the 

 kangaroo is really more stable and difficult to be 

 thrown down than an ordinary animal of greater size 

 and weight, when that animal rears on its hind legs. 

 The bear, and such other plantigrade animals as 

 have the habit of rearing their anterior part while 

 they rest with the tarsi of both hind feet upon the 

 ground, partake in great part of this stability ; but as 

 none of them have equal strength or efficiency in the 

 tail, none of them are so stable as the kanguroo. It 

 has often been remarked, however, how very firmly 

 a bear can stand, and how large a weight it can carry 

 clasped in its fore paws, when it is in an erect po- 

 sition ; and it will readily be understood that the 

 kangaroo will derive the full benefit of its superior 

 conformation in this respect. 



And it is worthy of remark, that though the kan- 

 garoo has none of the carnivorous propensity of the 

 bear, its action at close quarters is not very dis- 

 similar. Its fore feet are very short and feeble as 

 compared with the hind ones ; but they are so free 

 in their articulations, that the fore arm can perform 

 almost a complete rotation. They are furnished with 

 five toes of unequal length, and each one provided 

 with a strong and sharp claw, so that the animal can 

 use them very effectively both in striking short blows at 

 close quarters, and in hugging. In performing this last 

 operation, the toe of the hind foot is sometimes brought 

 into use, and used in ripping open the abdomen of 

 of the animal hugged ; and as the great length of the 

 hind foot, and the mobility of the tail, can give a 

 firm base, though one hind foot is off the ground, this 

 lacerating operation can be performed very certainly 

 and very rapidly, and both the half savage dogs of the 

 natives, and the better trained ones of the European 

 settlers, are apt to be killed by kanguroos in this way. 



These animals have still another mode of defen- 

 sive warfare. When pursued, they betake themselves 

 to the water, where they stand upon 'their tripod 

 with only the body as far as the fore legs raised 

 above the surface. In this situation they can very rea- 

 dily turn round as if on a pivot, and this facility of 

 turning, together with their large and prominent 

 eyes, enables them to command the horizon on every 

 side, so as to front any danger that may present 

 itself. If the enemy takes to the water and attempts 

 to go in, the ready paws of the kanguroo seize it by 

 the head ; and, from the advantage of the structure 

 and position, the animal is able to keep a large dog 

 under water till he is drowned. 



In the ordinary locomotion of the kanguroo, when 

 undisturbed by danger, it leaps about rather than walks, 

 generally using the tail to assist in the leaping. This 

 leaping in its tranquil and unalarmed slate is per- 

 formed upon the entire soles of the hind feet ; and 

 the fore feet are not brought to the ground, except 

 when, the animal feeds upon grass, which it cannot 

 do constantly, as there is little or no grass at any 

 time in some of its haunts, and all of them are sub- 

 ject to have the grass burned up at some seasons of 

 the year. On these occasions the fore feet are not 

 brought to the ground at all, but employed like 

 hands in bringing toward the mouth the branches of 

 those shrubs and bushes upon which the animal feeds, 

 when subsistence upon the ground fails it. Where, 

 however, a more expeditious rate of locomotion is 

 necessary, either for the safety or the pleasure of the 

 animal, it can proceed by immense leaps, in the 



taking of which it delivers its body from the points 

 of the great claws of the middle hind toes ; and as 

 these are very strong, stiff, and sharp pointed, it gets 

 so powerful a hold on any surface, however hard, 

 that it can leap to a great distance;, and recover itself 

 and leap again with so much agility, that its march 

 bears some resemblance to a rapid succession of short 

 flights. 



Altogether it is a most singular animal, both in 

 the style of its action and in the instruments In 

 means of which that action is performed. The region 

 which alone it inhabits is, perhaps, in its physical 

 character the most singular on the face of the earth, 

 for the uncertainty of its climate and the singularity 

 of its vegetation. For long periods of time, tin; 

 atmosphere is without a cloud, and does not let fail 

 a single drop of rain, so that the streams become drv, 

 the larger rivers are in many places evaporated to a 

 few pools in which the fish are huddled together, 

 and a great breadth of the surface is plantless 

 and covered with a saline efflorescence. From the 

 extreme of this state of things, and without any other 

 warning than that dismal rnurkiness which is the 

 harbinger of great, atmospheric changes in such plac( s, 

 the winds are let loose in tornadoes, and the rain de- 

 scends as though the clouds had been pitchers shi- 

 vered to pieces by the burning of the lightning, the 

 bellowing of the thunder, and the fitful fury of the 

 gusty storm. The winds themselves in such coun- 

 tries assume much of the majesty of thunder, for 

 they sound upon the mountains as if the heavens 

 were sown with hammers, and wrench and twist the 

 trees, till even those species of eucalyptus, which 

 are as hard as iron and as heavy as stone, are torn 

 to shreds by internal shakes and fissures in their stems. 



Amid this direful conflict of the elements, the 

 earth upon every summit and every slope gives way; 

 and mingling with the "torrent flood," it descends into 

 the levels, or more generally floats onward in the 

 swollen river to where that river meets the sea. At 

 such times, the majesty of the main is in motion, as 

 well .as that of the atmosphere ; and the yeasting 

 surge flings back toward the shore those spoils of the 

 land which would stain the beryl tint of its own 

 waters. But the red-rolling flood of the swollen 

 river presses onward on the other side, and the con- 

 tending waters work the earthy deposit into a bul- 

 wark near the shore, behind which a certain quantity 

 of the land flood is imprisoned ; and this speedily 

 converts the accumulated mud into a nursery for 

 mangroves and other trees and plants which grow in 

 the water ; and thus at every violent storm there is 

 formed near each outlet of the water a portion of new 

 land totally unfit for the subsistence of ordinary land 

 animals. In places a little more inland, the older 

 surface of the earth is covered b}^ a new stratum of 

 stones, earth, and vegetable and animal remains, mis- 

 cellaneously blended together, and often to the depth 

 of several feet. Along wkh the remains of dead 

 vegetables, there is a very considerable admixture of 

 the seeds of living vegetation ; and as those seeds 

 are brought from grounds of different elevation and 

 physical character from that on which the seeds are 

 deposited, the same effect is produced as cultivation 

 brings about when the seeds and germs of plants are 

 conveyed to a more genial climate, and more abun- 

 dantly watered soil, a vegetation entirely new springs 

 up, and attains a most luxuriant growth in tne course 

 of a very short time. 



