NEW SOUTH WALES. 273 



and low shrubs, but have a dark aspect. A grass 

 tree grows here, similar to that about Port Jack- 

 son, except that no reed, either living nor dead, 

 could be found belonging to it. Im the brushes, 

 were a few tufts of grass ; dmt the greater part 

 of it was the coarse sort that grows in hassocks. 



It is curious that a place where food seemed 

 to be so scarce should yet be thickly inhabited 

 by the small brush kangaroo, and a new quad- 

 ruped, also a grass -eater. 



This animal, being a new one, app'ears to de- 

 serve a particular description. M The Wom-bat 

 (or Womback) is a thick, short-legged, inactive 

 quadruped, with appearance of every strength, 

 and bigger than a turnspit dog. Its figure and 

 movements, strongly bring to mind the bear. 



" Its length, from the tip of the tail to the tip 

 of the nose, is thirty-one inches, of which its 

 body is twenty- three and five-tenths. The head 

 of this curious animal is seven inches. Its cir- 

 cumference behind the fore- legs, twenty-seven 

 inches; across the thick part of the belly, thir- 

 ty-one inches. Its weight is between twenty- 

 8ve and thirty pounds. The hair coarse, and 

 nbout one inch in length, thin on the belly, 

 thicker on the back and head, and thickest up- 

 pn the loins and rump ; the colour of it a sandy 

 brown, of varying shades, darkest along the 

 )ack. 



" The head is large and flattish, and, when ' 

 ooking the animal full in the face, seems, ex- 

 duding the ears, to form nearly an equilateral 

 riangle, any side of which is about seven inches 



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