118 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



but fortunately very few of them are venomous, and I have 

 never heard of a white man dying from the effects of a bite, but 

 I believe there are occasional instances amongst the blacks. 

 These vary in size from three or four inches to as long as 

 eighteen feet, and at one place on a fiat where I was for a time 

 living I used to dig them out of the rat holes every morning. 

 With the natives snakes form a portion of their regular food, 

 and they generally pound the flesh between two stones after it 

 is cooked. I have often eaten snake, but cannot say I like it. 

 It is white, and rather tough, with no particular flavour that I 

 can liken it to. Perhaps the native method may make it more 

 palatable, but I have never tried it. Iguanas are also plentiful, 

 some being very large, the largest I ever saw being about 

 eighteen feet long. This was on an occasion when I was out 

 sheep-hunting with a companion, and we had hobbled the 

 horses, and whilst I was preparing our meal of damper my 

 companion was giving the horses a drink at a small waterhole, 

 when he suddenly gave a most terrific shriek, and, starting up 

 to see what was the matter, I was confronted by this monster 

 iguana, who raised himself on his legs to his full height, some 

 fifteen or eighteen inches, and commenced making tracks, but 

 not until I had had a shot at him, which, however, took no 

 effect, and as we had at once to give our attention to the horses, 

 which had received a considerable fright, he had time to get 

 into the thick scrub, where, of course, further pursuit was almost 

 impossible. 



Kangaroo and wallaby are, of course, very common. The 

 native methods of capture are to gradually work up to them 

 from leeward, and when close enough spear them ; and some- 

 times they will be found asleep, when their fate is quickly 

 sealed. Occasionally they will put up a shade, to which a 

 kangaroo will get into the habit of regularly using, and when 

 he has done this the native will have no trouble in securing 

 him. 



Emus are also common enough, and to capture them the 

 natives will sometimes build a yard round a waterhole, with one 

 entrance, and when the birds come to water they are easily 

 speared. 



The animal that us^d to interest me the most was the cat — 

 not the native, but the domestic one. It is an impossibility to 

 keep them long about a place, as they instinctively take to the 

 bush, and become not only very wild, but with each succeding 

 generation increase greatly in size, and I can assure you they 

 are animals you have to be very careful in tackling. Once 

 when I was out riding after kangaroo one of these monster cats 

 suddenly jumped out of a tree right in front of my horse, and 

 so fierce did he look that I got out of his road as quickly as 

 possible. I was once a spectator of a contest between a 



