COMBAT WITH A KANGAROO. 255 



active foe. No sooner had the heavy blow I aimed 

 descended on his head, than my weapon shivered into a 

 thousand pieces,* and I found myself in the giant embrace 

 of my antagonist, who was hugging me with rather too 

 warm a demonstration of friendship, and ripping at me in 

 a way by no means pleasant. My only remaining dog, 

 too, now thoroughly exhausted by wounds and loss of 

 blood, and apparently quite satisfied of her master's 

 superiority, remained a mute and motionless spectator of 

 the new and unequal contest. 



" Notwithstanding my utmost efforts to release myself 

 from the grasp of the brute, they were unavailing ; and I 

 found my strength gradually diminishing, whilst, at the 

 same time, my sight was obscured by the blood which 

 now flowed freely from a deep wound, extending from the 

 back part of my head over the whole length of my face. 

 I was, in fact, becoming an easy prey to the kangaroo, 

 who continued to insert, with renewed vigour, his talons 

 into my breast, luckily, however, protected by a loose 

 coarse canvas frock, which, in colonial phrase, is called a 

 'jumper,' and but for which I must inevitably have shared 

 the fate of poor Trip. As it was, I had almost given 

 myself up for lost ; my head was pressed, with surpassing 

 strength, beneath my adversary's breast, and a faintness 

 was gradually stealing over me, when I heard a long and 

 heart-stirring shout. Was I to be saved ? The thought 

 gave me new life : with increased power I grappled and 

 succeeded in casting from me my determined foe; and, 



* The reader will find an explanation of this fact at page 106, supra. 



