1836.1 ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 441 



dened, profligate men were ceasing from their daily labours, 

 lii^e the slaves from Africa, yet Avithout their holy claim for 

 compassion. 



Early on the next morning, Mr. Archer, the joint superin- 

 tendent, had the kindness to take me out kangaroo-hunting. We 

 continued riding the greater part of the day, but had very bad 

 sport, not seeing a kangaroo, or even a wild dog. The grey- 

 hounds pursued a kangaroo rat into a hollow tree, out of which 

 we dragged it : it is an animal as large as a rabbit, but with the 

 figure of a kangaroo. A few years since this country abounded 

 with wild animals ; but now the emu is banished to a lons^ dis- 

 tance, and the kangaroo is become scarce ; to both the English 

 greyhound has been highly destructive. It may be long before 

 these animals are altogether exterminated, but their doom is fixed. 

 The aborigines are always anxious to borrow the dogs from the 

 farm-houses : the use of them, the offal when an animal is killed, 

 and some milk from the cows, are the peace-offerings of the 

 settlers, who push farther and farther towards the interior. The 

 thoughtless aboriginal, blinded by these trifling advantages, is 

 delighted at the approach of the w hite man, who seems predes- 

 tined to inherit the country of his children. 



Although having poor sport, we enjoyed a pleasant ride. The 

 woodland is generally so open that a person on horseback can 

 gallop through it. It is traversed by a few flat-bottomed valleys, 

 which are green and free from trees : in such spots the scenery 

 was pretty like that of a park. In the whole country I scarcely 

 saw a place without the marks of a fire ; whether these had been 

 more or less recent — whether the stumps were more or less black, 

 was the greatest change which varied the uniformity, so weari- 

 some to the traveller's eye. In these woods there are not many 

 birds ; I saw, however, some large flocks of the white cockatoo 

 feeding in a corn-field, and a few most beautiful parrots ; crows 

 like our jackdaws were not uncommon, and another bird some- 

 thing like the magpie. In the dusk of the evening I took a stroll 

 along a chain of ponds, which in this dry country represented 

 the course of a river, and had the good fortune to see several of 

 the famous Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. They were diving and 

 playing about the surface of the water, but showed so little of 

 their bodies, that they might easily have been mistaken for water- 



