THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
17 
kanpjaroo. Well ! it was a beautiful evening in the summer time, 
and it was a lovely walk through a primeval bush. I got to Enoch's 
Point about 9 o'clock — or may be a little before — and got ray 
letters. By the time I had got to the scene of my adventure, it 
was as dark as it would be, but the stars were shining, and you all 
know, that after you have been out for a time on that sort of a 
night you can see pretty plainly. I had got back about four miles — 
I must tell you the road lay along the river — when I could see some- 
thing close to the edge, I thought it was a kangaroo, so I set the 
dogs on it, they ran a little way towards it and then ran back, 
making a sort of whining growl, as all dogs do when they are not 
sure what anything is. I then ran forward to this thing, but it 
tumbled into the water, swam across, and got out of sight. It 
looked much the shape of a boy swimming, only that it had more of 
its back above the water. Of course, in the dark, I could not see it 
distinctly. These are the only two occasions I have seen this, what- 
•ever it is ; but others, of whose veracity I can vouch, have seen 
something similar. 
Wben I was teaching in Haddon, near Ballarat, I used to often 
go out fishing and shooting on Mr. Philip Russell's station. Part 
of Lake Burrumbeet is on his run, and connected with the lake by 
drains are large dams which go by the names of No. 1 dam. No. 2 
dam, etc. One day as I was shooting I met two men who had been 
fishing from about 5 p.m. the day before, and they said that just as 
it was getting dusk, as they were fishing at the mouth of a creek 
running into the lake, an animal like a retriever d<»g put its head 
out of the water and looked at them, they were both so frightened 
that they ran away from the creek and left their fishing rods until 
the time I saw them. If you remember the animal seen by the 
man when he capsized the boat on Corangamite, was also 
described as being like a retriever dog. Again, some little time 
after, a gentleman, Mr. McVitty, who afterwards stood for 
Grenville, told me one day when he met me down at Burrumbeet, 
that he had had a curious experience a little before he saw me He 
and another gentleman had driven in a buggy down to No. I dam, 
and Mr. McVitty got out of his buggy, went through a fence, and 
into an old enclosure covered with long grass and scrub to see if 
there were any game on the dam. He did not take his gun but 
crept through the scrub till he came in sight of the water. When 
he got sight of it — but when he was some distance from it — he saw 
the water splashed about as if ducks or some other birds were 
causing the commotion. He crept closer when he saw a large 
animal like a big curly dog, rolling about, diving, coming up again, 
and as it seemed playing about. He went back quietly for his gun 
and loaded with heavy shot. Just as he got back an' I was going to 
fire, he stepped on a stick, which broke, and' nearly threw him down. 
The animal went down like a flash, and although he waited for some 
