COURSE A KANGAROO. 229 



Dashing through the thick underwood, amidst 

 volumes of smoke, — their dark active limbs and ex- 

 cited features burnished by the fierce glow of tho 

 fire, — they present a spectacle which it rarely falls to 

 our lot to behold, and of which it is impossible to 

 convey any^adequate idea by words. 



Aftery tethering out our horses and making our 

 breakwind for the night, we went out in the evening 

 to look for a kangaroo. I had never as yet seen 

 one put fairly at his speed on open ground 

 before a dog, but this evening I was fully gratified ; 

 for we soon found a couple lying out on our side 

 of the plain, and by crawling up through the 

 wood we managed to slip the dogs about five hun- 

 dred yards from them. Away they went, leaving 

 a stream of dust in their wake. Their habitual 

 curving direction soon gave us a broadside view ; 

 and a splendid course it was. They ran horizon- 

 tally, no leap or hop being perceptible. At first 

 the dogs closed rapidly, but for some time after- 

 wards no change in their relative positions took 

 place, each doing his best. The kangaroos held 

 their own well, until they had reached nearly the 

 other side of the plain, a distance of about two miles, 

 when the dogs began gradually to draw on them, 

 and at length, after a turn or two, the smaller was 

 run into just before entering the wood. It was a 

 fine young buck, weighing about 60 pounds, and 

 made a capital supper for our party. The natives 

 cooked the tail for us in their own way, roasting it 



