THE "WILD DOG. 37 



creep in, and kill and maim many of the sheep ; for, like 

 the common dog which takes to "worrying sheep, they 

 ■will bite and tear perhaps a dozen to every one that they 

 kill ; and this is not the worst ; for the sheep will often 

 break fold, and, frightened to death, scattering themselves 

 over the bush, may not be recovered again for days. 

 There is a kind of venom attached to the bite of the wild 

 dog ; for the wound always festers, and sometimes morti- 

 fication takes place : the bush remedy is to rub a little 

 salt into the bitten part. Like the Ishmaelite of old, 

 every man's hand is against them ; they are shot, snared, 

 and run down by kangaroo-dogs, "whenever they can be 

 met with ; but the most certain way of getting rid of 

 them is by poison. Take a small piece of meat, cut a 

 slit in it, and insert as much strychnine as will cover the 

 end of the blade of a penknife ; hang it up by a string to 

 a twig about a foot or eighteen inches from the ground. 

 The dog never goes far to die after taking this bait ; but 

 they will carry arsenic a long way. They are difiScult to 

 shoot, being very wary ; and there is no regular method 

 of hunting them carried on here : what are killed, are 

 shot, worried by bush-dogs, or poisoned. 



The wild dog will often breed with the tame bush-dog, 

 and the cross is generally larger and savager than the 

 original breed. I recollect one morning about daylight 

 going out of my tent and seeing a wild bitch with all 

 our dogs playing round her. She made oif into the 

 forest when she saw me. One of our dogs followed her, 

 and came back after three days, bitten all to pieces. The 



