230 PIT FALLS FOR KANGAROOS. 



with the hair on, the best mode of dressing it, 

 except in soup. 



Next morning we found that our sable friends 

 had eaten so much of the kangaroo that there was 

 great difficulty in getting them to move. However, 

 they at length consented to accompany us, and we 

 proceeded five or six miles further on the Swan 

 River road, to a place where a party of soldiers were 

 stationed. Here the temptation of a fresh supply 

 of kangaroo proved irresistible, and with the ex- 

 ception of one, who was Lieutenant Warburton's 

 servant, the natives all left us to resume the 

 pleasant occupation of eating. The gastronomic 

 feats performed by these persons are really 

 surprising ; and in the work recently published 

 by Mr. Eyre the reader will find some curious 

 details on the subject. 



We now took a westerly direction, for a tract of 

 good country lying about thirty-five miles from the 

 Sound, a little to the westward of the road to 

 Swan River. On our way we crossed several short 

 trenches, cut by the natives for pit-falling kanga- 

 roos, which were here very numerous. They were 

 dug across the runs of the animal, and covered 

 with a slight layer of brush or grass, and were very 

 narrow at the bottom, so that the prey could get 

 no footing to bound out. I have never, at any 

 other place, seen similar contrivances resorted to by 

 the aborigines ; in this neighbourhood they have 

 probably been suggested by the great abundance in 



