A Kangaroo Hunt 



the routine of station life, and partly with 

 an eye to securing a few skins of the 

 great sulphur-crested cockatoo. These 

 lovely birds rarely venture down upon 

 the open plains, but are usually to be 

 found in abundance in the sombre euca- 

 lyptus forests upon the hills. Mount 

 Cole is one of the loftiest spurs of the 

 great dividing range of southern Australia ; 

 and, although its highest point is only 

 four thousand feet above the sea-level, 

 its commanding position upon the great 

 plains of the Wimera and Fiery Creek 

 lends it a certain imposing grandeur. It 

 is clothed from base to summit with a 

 great forest of giant eucalyptus, which 

 was, not many years since, the refuge for 

 countless thousands of kangaroos. But 

 it is scarcely necessary to state that these 

 animals are very rarely seen here of late 

 years; and it was certainly with no an- 

 ticipation of kangaroo hunting that we 

 set off from the " station " that frosty 

 June morning. Indeed, when R. put a 

 small rifle into the trap, just before start- 

 ing, it was with a joke and a smile that 

 showed the entirely perfunctory nature of 

 the operation. There were a couple of 

 good breech-loading guns, however, and 

 a liberal supply of No. 3, No. 6, and No. 



