288 THE NATIVE BLACKFELLOW 



well-developed man, strong, lithe, and of great powers of 

 endurance. I notice some of his most ingenious methods 

 of capturing the animals on which he loves to feed ; for 

 the man pursues the larger game and that which is most 

 difficult to secure, leaving to the woman the task of collect- 

 ing the smaller fry mentioned above. 



Kangaroo and wallaby are captured in several ways, 

 the two most frequently resorted to being the chase with 

 dogs and the pitfall. In both the game is driven into a 

 crowd with the aid of the semi-tame dingo dogs. In the 

 chase the men surround the troop of frightened kangaroos 

 and spear them as they attempt to escape. If a herd of 

 sixty or seventy are driven together, the hunters think 

 they have had very good luck if they succeed in killing 

 eight or ten of that number. 



The pitfall is a short trench ten and sometimes thirty 

 or forty yards long and nine or ten feet deep. In section it 

 is V-shaped, and the kangaroos of whatever size that fall 

 into the trenches, being unable to obtain a purchase for 

 their paws, cannot leap out, and are most effectually trapped. 

 A line of pitfalls is made across the country, and they 

 are generally placed in echelon, so that those kangaroos 

 which escape or try to avoid the first pits they come to 

 have still many chances against them. This pitfall 

 method is the best way of hunting such game as kangaroos 

 and wallabies, as the animals over a wide area of country 

 are driven together and forced to fly, by men and dogs, in 

 the desired direction. Though, of course, the majority 

 escape, many animals are sure to be taken ; and it is not 

 unusual for an emu or two to be thus captured, for the 

 wedge-shaped pit is admirably adapted for holding fast the 

 unfortunate creatures that slip into them ; and the skill 

 evinced by the blackfellows in the construction of these 

 pits, and in the use of the wommera, or throwing-stick, and 

 of the boomerang, show conclusively the high order of his 

 natural intelligence, for all these inventions are mechanical 

 contrivances of the highest ingenuity. It is vain to argue 

 that they are chance discoveries — all human inventions 

 have taken their beginnings in chance. It is only superior 



