THE OPOSSUM 41 



in the vessel by a rock (part of which, fortunately, itself 

 stuck in the hole it made), Captain Cook tells us that 

 on Friday, June 22, of that year, " Some of the people 

 were sent on the other side of the water, to shoot pigeons 

 for the sick, who, on their return, reported that they 

 had seen an animal, as large as a greyhound, of a slender 

 make, a mouse colour, and extremely swift." With 

 respect to the following day he tells us: " This day 

 almost everybody had seen the animal which the pigeon 

 shooters had brought an account of the day before ; and 

 one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, 

 told us on his return that he verily believed he had seen 

 the devil. We naturally inquired in what form he had 

 appeared, and his answer was, says John, ' As large as a 

 one-gallon keg, and very like it. He had horns and 

 wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass that if I 

 had not been af eared, I might have touched him.' This 

 formidable apparition we afterward, however, discovered 

 to have been a bat. Early the next day," Captain Cook 

 continues, " as I was walking in the morning at a little 

 distance from the ship, I saw myself one of the animals 

 which had been described. It was of a light mouse 

 colour, and in size and shape very much resembling a 

 greyhound. It had a long tail, also, which it carried 

 like a greyhound, and I should have taken it for a wild 

 dog if, instead of running, it had not leapt like a hare or 

 deer." Mr. Banks also had an imperfect view of this 

 animal, and was of opinion that its species was hitherto 

 unknown. The work contains an excellent figure of 

 the creature. Again, on Sunday, July 8, being still in 

 Endeavour River, Captain Cook tells us that some of the 

 crew " set out with the first dawn in search of game, and 

 in a walk of many miles they saw four animals of the same 

 kind, two of which Mr. Banks's greyhound fairly chased, 



