476 WILD ANIMALS. 



nailed flat ridges and furrows, thus affording a floor for the 

 ■kangaroo's feet, and a resting-place, about 3 ft. long, for his tail. 

 It is fitted up with simple wheels in the centre, like those of a 

 horse chaff-cutting machine, and it is fixed on an incline. The 

 kangaroo is kept fast to a framework of post and rails, stuffed 

 with hay and bagging, to prevent his legs and back from being 

 bruised. An opening is left in the rear to give his tail full play. 

 By continually springing up he sets the machine in motion. The 

 animal works at about half a horse-power, and turns a grinding- 

 stone, chaff-cutter, bean-mill, turnip-cutter, and a washing-machine, 

 and all at the same time. This simple contrivance also lifts water 

 for irrigating the garden.' 



"I do not believe this unique creature was ever so utilized before, 

 and I record him as the latest recruit enlisted from the animal 

 creation into the industrial service of man. The mechanical 

 genius must be considerable which can discipline and control to 

 the required purposes the tremendous jumping power of an ' old- 

 man ' kangaroo." 



Although these animals have only been known to man for a 

 little over a hundred years, and when the first settlers reached the 

 Eldorado of Oceana kangaroos were found to be existing there in 

 millions, yet Australians now talk of the race being a doomed one, 

 and state that in many places where once they were plentiful they 

 have already been exterminated. For this, however, they assign a 

 reason which to them is a good and sufficient one. Formerly 

 the squatters grumbled fearfully about the loss they sustained by 

 the kangaroos eating up the grass necessary for their cattle. It 

 was shown that one of these animals eat as much grass as a sheep, 

 and destroyed as much again as it eat, for it exhibited such a 

 discerning appetite, that instead of cropping it as it came, the 

 creature picked out the best and sweetest herbage in a most knowing 

 manner. A few hundred kangaroos would in consequence very soon 

 spoil a considerable extent of pasturage by eliminating the most 

 nourishing parts. 



There is no doubt they existed in certain districts in very large 

 numbers : some idea of this fact can be gleaned from the figures 

 occasionally given in the public prints. In 1863 one squatter was 



