1836.] ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 441 
dened, profligate men were ceasing from their daily labours, 
like the slaves from Africa, yet without their holy claim+foy 
‘compassion. . 
Early on the next morning, Mr. Archer, the joint superin- 
tendent, had the kindness to take me out kangaroo-hunting. We 
continued riding the greater part of the day, but had very bad 
sport, not seeing a kangaroo, or even a wild dog. The grey- 
hounds pursued a kangaroo rat into a hollow tree, out of which 
we dragged it: it is an animal as large as a rabbit, but with the 
figure of a kangaroo. A few years since this country abounded 
with wild animals; but now the emu is banished to a long dis- 
tance, and the kangaroo is become scarce; to both the English 
- greyhound has been highly destructive. It may be long before 
these animals are altogether exterminated, but their doom is fixed. 
The aborigines are always anxious to borrow the dogs from the 
farm-houses: the use of them, the offal when an animal is killed, 
and some milk from the cows, are the peace-offerings of the 
settlers, who push farther and farther towards the interior. The 
thoughtless aboriginal, blinded by these trifling advantages, is 
delighted at the approach of the white man, who seems predes- 
tined to inherit the country of his children. : 
Although having poor sport, we enjoyed a pleasant ride. The 
woodland is generally so open that a person on horseback can 
gallop through it. It is traversed by a few flat-bottomed valleys, 
which are greefi and free from trees: in such spots the scenery 
was pretty like that of a park. In the whole country I scarcely 
saw a place without the marks of a fire; whether these had been 
more or less recent—whether the stumps were more or less black, 
was the greatest change which varied the uniformity, so weari- 
some to the traveller’s eye. In these woods there are not many 
birds; I saw, however, some large flocks of the white cockatoo 
feeding in a corn-field, and a few most beautiful parrots; crows 
like our jackdaws were not uncommon, and another bird some- 
thing like the magpie. In the dusk of the evening I took a stroll 
along a chain of ponds, which in this dry country represented 
the course of a river, and had the good fortune to see several of 
the famous Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. They were diving and 
playing about the surface of the water, but showed so little of 
their bodies, that they might easily have been mistaken for water- 
