68 NATURE'S REALM. 
During the day we had three drives similar 
to this, but none quite equal in results. The 
first drive had wrought wholesale slaughter. 
The breech-loaders had naturally given the 
best account of the foe. Some of the gun bar- 
rels became too hot to touch. One expert at 
the work, never moving from his appointed 
stand, had fired fifty cartridges, and shot forty- 
three marsupials. The lowest number killed 
by a gun was eight. How around each tree 
the empty cartridges lay strewed; how all 
along the ridge the smell of gunpowder and 
wreaths of smoke pervaded the air ; how black 
fellows and boys with sharp knives whipped off 
the scalps of the slain, carefully leaving the 
ears attached, and strung them together ; how 
the begrimed barrels were cleaned out, per- 
spiring faces mopped, and incidents exchanged 
over happy pipes, as we lay prone upon the 
ground for a brief spell previous to starting 
afresh, let the reader imagine for himself. 
Of the kangaroo tribes which fell that day 
there numbered g21, and of animals wounded 
to die in lingering pain or to recover as best 
they could, there must have been a great 
quantity. The B. B. shot scatters wide with 
most guns, and out of a flying group of half a 
dozen, probably not one would escape without 
a pellet. The number of animals driven before 
our beaters was incredibly great, and I was 
not at all surprised to hear afterward that upon 
another station in the same district 23,000 
kangaroos were shot during one year. Upon 
the day with which we have been concerning 
ourselves some of the rarer species were found 
amongst the slain. It is said that in Australia 
there are between twenty and thirty kinds ot 
kangaroo. The varieties which we secured 
were, first, the common kangaroo, and the 
largest, which was what the colonials term an 
“old man” kangaroo, was much above the 
average. Sitting upright he would have been 
nearly six feet high, and his big tapering tail 
could not have weighed less than fourteen 
pounds. Secondly, came the smaller wallabies, 
of which there were three kinds, namely—the 
common scrub wallaby, the rock wallaby, 
which is darker in color and more handsome, 
and there was one black wallaby, so scarce that 
it was next day despatched to one of the other 
colonies for preservation in a museum. 
Thirdly, we had a few paddy-melons, a still 
smaller variety than the wallaby; fourthly, a 
brace of kangaroo rats ; and lastly one walla-- 
roo. 
Touching the rats, they must have been ac- 
cidentally shot; as their scalps do not bring a 
bonus, and they are no bigger than a wild 
rabbit, no one would think of knowingly wast- 
ing a shot uponthem. The wallaroo is quite 
another affair. This is the most valuable 
example ofthe order Marsupialia. Itinhabits. 
mountainous districts and is seldom found. 
The fur is a rich dark brown, and fetches a 
high price. The specimen amongst our spoik 
must have wandered from its native haunts in 
error, and Billy Barlow was not wrong in 
applying to him the term ‘‘ boomer,” which, all 
through the colonies, signifies something 
preternaturally large. Thus a polite youth 
will inform a friend who has drawn a very long 
bow, not that he has told a wicked falsehood,, 
but a down-right boomer. 
It seemed a pity to leave so many carcasses: 
lying on the ground to be the food of carrion 
birds, voracious ants, and prowling dingoes, 
but in a country where the scarcity of labor is 
a huge difficulty meeting the colonist at every 
turn, it would not pay even to remove the 
skins. Yet the fur, chosen at the right time of 
year, makes a most serviceable rug, and the 
most comfortable boots I have ever worn were 
made of kangaroo leather. The meat is held 
of little account. Wallaby haunch jugged, or 
the whiter paddy-melon curried, make a wel- 
come change to salt beef from the harness 
cask ; and the tail of the large kangaroo has a 
certain fame for soup, although one hears more 
about it at home than in the land of the 
marsupials. Some day, no doubt, the hun- 
dreds of thousands of skins that may be 
secured every year will find their value. At 
present they are virtual)y wasted, though the 
value of the leather is slowly becoming better 
known. 
The reader may now form some idea of a 
days’ sport at the Antipodes. Not the least 
pleasant feature was our halt for luncheon. 
The spot selected was a thick scrub into which 
even the fierce sun which made the glass 
