THE EMEU. 199 



It was thus that tliese adventurous traders were enabled 

 to supply themselves with provisions, even while they 

 devoted nearly the whole of their time to the commer- 

 cial pursuits in which they were engaged. This state- 

 ment, M. Peron assures us, does not depend on the 

 mere assertions of the fishermen themselves, for he had 

 himself witnessed the fact. From his account of the 

 dogs it does not appear whether they were of the native 

 Australian breed, figured among the quadrupeds of the 

 present work. It is more probable that they were 

 English hounds ; and the name of one of them, Spot, 

 adds some confirmation to this conjecture, for we are 

 not aware that the pure New Holland dog has ever 

 been found spotted. In either case the account may 

 be quoted as a surprising instance of animal docility, 

 which would be only the more striking if exhibited by 

 the less sagacious breed. 



If we are to credit the report of the same author, the 

 flesh of the Emeu is " truly exquisite, and intermediate, 

 as it were, between that of a turkey and a sucking-pig." 

 But some allowance must be made for the circumstances 

 in which he first partook of it, when he and his com- 

 panions, abandoned by their captain, and without any 

 means of procuring subsistence, had no other prospect 

 than that of perishing by starvation, until relieved by 

 the generosity of the fishermen. The English colonists 

 do not appear to have quite so high an opinion of its 

 merits; they compare it to beef, which it resembles, 

 according to Mr. Cunningham, " both in appearance 

 and taste, and is good and sweet eating : nothing indeed 

 can be more delicate than the flesh of the young ones." 

 " There is but little," he says, " fit for culinary use upon 

 any part of the Emeu except the hind-quarters, which 

 are of such dimensions that the shouldering of the two 

 hind-legs homewards for a mile distance, once proved 



