41 6 The Australian Bush, 



country are many of them under water, and not to be traversed. 

 Moreover, the kangaroo are just now coming into season, and 

 will afford a good supply of meat for the tent during the winter, 

 even if the party are camped out of reach of a market where they 

 can sell them. 



Kangaroo-shooting will occupy them till the end of September, 

 and if they are shooting for the market they will do nothing else, 

 except duck-shooting, during the winter months. If not shooting 

 for the market, one good shot with the rifle will be able to kill quite 

 as many as are required for home consumption ; but if the party is 

 camped within reach of a market, the kangaroo must then be shot 

 by driving them up to the shooters stationed in a line across the 

 forest, or caught in snares. For either of these purposes a horse will 

 be required, both for driving or bringing the bodies home ; and as 

 such a horse will always pick up his own living around the tent, he 

 will cost nothing more than the original outlay and a pair of hobbles. 

 An old crawler, good enough for this purpose, can be bought at 

 any station up-country for perhaps a live-pound note. 



The most useful dog for all the bush game — quail, snipe, and 

 duck — will be a steady, close-hunting retriever. A good bull-terrier 

 to guard the tent and tree opossums, cats and squirrels, will also 

 drive the kangaroo. As dogs in the bush get their own living, by 

 opossums, which you shoot for them, and then throw on the camp 

 Are whole to warm through, the more you have about the tent the 

 better. 



Next in relation to the bushman's mate stands his dog, and it 

 would be very difficult to say what is the most general breed of dogs 

 one meets with in the bush. Every bushman brings a dog or two 

 up with him of such breed as he fancies best ; and as there is no 

 care bestowed in crossing them they breed indiscriminately, and it 

 would puzzle a good dog-fancier to distinguish one breed from ano- 

 ther. But mongrels as they are, these bush-dogs are not to be de- 

 spised ; for, although self-taught, nature seems to supply the place 

 of education, and their natural instinct appears to be much more 

 highly developed than among the fuller-broken and truer-bred 



