AN INTERESTING JOURNEY 201 



babies, who sat on the top of the packs, clinging to 

 their mothers' hair. 



The morning was fine, but the paths led up very 

 steep and rocky hillsides, and we had a hard day's 

 climb. We did not carry any packs ourselves ; and, 

 had we started with any, we must surely have left 

 them by the way. The view was, at many places, 

 very fine. Sometimes we walked along a narrow spur 

 or ridge only a few feet wide at the top, and so steep 

 on each side that it made one feel dizzy to look 

 down. 



The canyons were filled with dark forests, and many 

 birds that were unfamiliar to us were flying among the 

 trees. 



I shot a large kangaroo about noon ; and, when the 

 packers came up, they called a halt, and made a meal 

 of him. They did not skin the animal, but singed the 

 hair off, and then cut up the flesh and cooked it. They 

 were not especially particular about what parts they 

 ate, and the entrails were roasted and eagerly devoured, 



We climbed higher and higher as the day advanced, 

 and finally came to a steep and most difficult place to 

 scale. It was little less than a precipice two or three 

 hundred feet high, composed of broken and ragged 

 lava rocks, with here and there a shrub or bunch of 

 grass striving to grow in the crevices and chinks. 



In places the rocks were covered with mud, which 

 made them very slippery ; and we had to advance with 



