506 GREAT KANGUROO. 
has yet presented to our view (the Platypus alone 
excepted), the Kanguroo must be considered as 
the most extraordinary: its size, general con- 
formation, teeth, and other particulars, conspir- 
ing to render it a most interesting object to every 
naturalist. 
The first discovery of this remarkable quadru- 
ped, which had till then remained concealed in a 
distant corner of the globe, and surveyed only by 
the eyes of savages, was in the year 1770, when 
our celebrated navigator Captain Cook was sta- 
tioned for a short time on that part of the coast 
of New Holland which is now called New South 
Wales. 
On Friday, June the twenty-second (says 
Captain Cook), a party who were engaged in 
shooting pigeons for the use of the sick of the 
ship, saw an animal which they described to be 
' as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, of 
a mouse-colour, and extremely swift.'" The fol- 
lowing day the same kind of animal was again 
seen by a great many other people. On the 
twenty-fourth it was seen by Captain Cook him- 
self, who, walking at a little distance from the 
shore, observed a quadruped, which he thought 
bore some resemblance to a greyhound, and was 
of a light mouse-colour, with a long tail, and 
which he should have taken for a kind of wild 
dog, had not its extraordinary manner of leap- 
ing, instead of running, convinced him of the 
contrary, Mr. Banks also obtained a transient 
