192 DEATH OP THK KANGAROO. [CH. III. 



muscles, as if he had eaten them. It was now most desirable 

 to get a-head of this track, and I lost no time in proceeding, 

 to the extent of another day's journey parallel to the Bogan, 

 or, rather, so as to cut off a great bend of it. 



We crossed some good, undulating ground, open and 

 grassy, the scenery being finer, from the picturesque group- 

 ing and character of the trees, than any we had hitherto seen. 

 On one of these open tracts, I wounded a female kangaroo 

 at a far shot of my rifle, and the wretched animal was finally 

 killed after a desperate fight with the dogs. 



There is something so affecting in the silent and deadly 

 struggle between the harmless kangaroo and its pursuers, 

 that I have sometimes found it difficult to reconcile the sym- 

 pathy such a death excites, with our possession of canine 

 teeth, or our necessities, however urgent they might be. 



" The huntsman's pleasure is no more," indeed, when such 

 an animal dies thus before him, persecuted alike by the 

 civilized and the savage. In this instance, a young one, warm 

 from the pouch of its mother, frisked about at a distance, as 

 if unwilling to leave her, although it finally escaped. The 

 nights were cold, and I confess that thoughts of the young 

 kangaroo did obtrude at dinner, and were mingled Avith my 

 kangaroo-steak . 



As we turned to our right, in the afternoon, in search of tlie 

 Bogan, we encountered some casuarina scrub, to avoid 

 which, we had to wind a little, so that we only made the 

 river at dusk, and at a part of the bed which was dry. 

 Water, as we afterwards found, was near enough upwards, but 

 the two parties sent in the evening having by mistake both 

 sought for it in the other direction, we had none till early in 

 the morning. 



May 2. — Five natives were brought to me by Whiting and 

 Tom Jones, on suspicion ; one of them having a silk pocket- 

 handkerchief, which they thought might have belonged to 

 Mr. Cunningham. 



The native wore it fastened over his shoulders, and seemed 



