NATURAL HISTORY. 85 



of progression is "by immense leaps from its long hind legs 

 assisted by its tail. The length of each leap is about fifteen 

 feet. Of course this swiftness would soon leave its pursuers 

 behind, but the Australian is able to break one of its limbs 

 or strike it insensible to the ground with his boomerang, the 

 most wonderful weapon that uncivilized man ever produced. 

 This extraordinary missile is a flat curved piece of wocd, which 

 the Australian natives can wield with wonderful skill, making 

 it describe circles in the air, or rush at an object, and then 

 return to its owner's feet ; or throw it at the ground and 

 make it leap over a tree and strike an object at the other side. 

 Many boomerangs have been made in England from models 

 brought from Australia, and it is not very difficult to learn 

 the turn of the wrist necessary to make them describe a circle 

 and return, but no one except an Australian can perform the 

 complicated evolutions which the natives force the weapon to 

 describe. 



The Kangaroo, except when feeding, stands upright en his 

 hind legs, and can then see over the tops of the rank herbage. 

 Hunting this animal is a very favourite sport with both 

 colonists and natives. The natives either knock it down with 

 the boomerang, spear it from behind a bush, cr unite together 

 and hem in a herd, which soon fall victims to the volleys cf 

 clubs, spears, and boomerangs which pour in cri all sides. 

 The colonists either shoot it or hunt it with tlcgs, a herd of 

 which is trained for that purpose just as w r e train fox-hounds. 

 The "old man," or "boomer," as the Colonists call the Great 

 Kangaroo, invariably leads the dogs a severe chase, always 

 attempting to reach water and escape by swimming. It is 

 a formidable foe to the dogs when it stands at bay, as it seizes 

 the dog with its fore-legs, and either, holds him under water 

 until he is drowned, or tears him open with a well directed 

 kick of its powerful hind feet, which are armed with a very 

 sharp claw. 



The female Kangaroo carries its young about iri a kind of 

 pouch, from which they emerge when they wish for a little 

 exercise, and leap back again on the slightest alarm. All the 

 kangaroos and the opossums have this pouch, from which they 

 are called " marsupiated" animals, from the Latin word mar- 

 supium, a purse or pouch. 



