506 GREAT KANGUROO. 



has yet presented to our view (the Platypus alone 

 excepted), the Kanguroo must be considered as 

 the most extraordinary: its size, general con- 

 formation, teeth, and other particulars, conspir- 

 ing to render it a most interesting object to every 

 naturalist. 



The first discovery of this remarkable quadru- 

 ped, which had till then remained concealed in a 

 distant corner of the globe, and .surveyed only by 

 the eyes of savages, was in the year 1770, when 

 our celebrated navigator Captain Cook was sta- 

 tioned for a short time on that part of the coast 

 of New Holland which is now called New South 

 Wales. 



" On Friday, June the twenty-second (says 

 Captain Cook), a party who were engaged in 

 shooting pigeons for the use of the sick of the 

 ship, saw an animal which they described to be 

 ' as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, of 

 a mouse-colour, and extremely swift.'" The fol- 

 lowing day the same kind of animal was again 

 seen by a great many other people. On the 

 twenty-fourth it was seen by Captain Cook him- 

 self, who, walking at a little distance from the 

 shore, observed a quadruped, which he thought 

 bore some resemblance to a greyhound, and was 

 of a light mouse-colour, with a long tail, and 

 which he should have taken for a kind of wild 

 dog, had not its extraordinary manner of leap- 

 ing, instead of running, convinced him of the 

 contrary. Mr. Banks also obtained a transient 



