REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
149 
about seven or eight chains long, and about two chains broad in its 
widest part. It consisted of wire netting run out from the dividing 
fence in a V shape. The overseer had placed a row of wire netting 
above a three-rail fence on one side, and a double row of wire netting 
on the other, to make it about six feet high on both sides. Mr. Wilkie 
thought that the kangaroos would easily jump that height, but the man 
asked: “Did you ever see a kangaroo jump a six foot fence? There’s 
not one in the country could do it.” The other thought differently, and, 
as he wished to make doubly sure of bagging a fine lot, to please him the 
overseer had another width of wire netting run all round, and then all 
were satisfied that no kangaroo could negotiate nine feet, however 
frightened it might be. The race was buttressed at frequent intervals 
by saplings, and a sliding gate was placed midway down to secure the 
number required as soon as they were caught. 
It was a glorious day, and the country was as fine as any to be found 
in all Victoria. Mounts Sturgeon and Rouse rose splendidly in the 
distance, and the undulating and heavily timbered country at their feet 
was sufficiently wild to try the capabilities of the best horsemen and 
horsewomen of the district. The marsupials were known to be congre- 
gated in a spot perhaps three or four miles from the race. The hunters 
rode out wide and gradually rounded them up. Everybody used stock- 
whips, and the cracking of these, with the constant shouting as the horses 
flew over fences, ditches, logs and every conceivable obstacle, made the 
country for miles around echo with one ceaseless roll of sound. Those 
who were waiting at the race first saw the old man kangaroo, i.e., the 
leader of the mob, bounding towards the danger zone with wonderful 
strides of perhaps twenty feet each time. Then came one confused 
jumble of the lesser kangaroos as they wildly followed their leader, and 
around them all were the ladies and gentlemen on horseback endeavor- 
ing to keep them in a straight path for the race. About three-quarters 
of a mile from “home” the stockmen joined the hunting party, and then 
the cracking of the whips was like a regiment of soldiers firing a feu de 
joie. Between ninety and one hundred kangaroos were in the flying 
mob, and Mr. Wilkie considers it to have been one of the finest sights he 
has ever witnessed, as they bounded towards the race in mighty, majestic 
waves. Some of the terrified creatures defied both whips and horse- 
men and broke bounds. They went with such tremendous leaps that 
perforce they had to be let go whither they would. Perhaps seventy 
came straight on, and as soon as thirty or forty were safely inside the 
enclosure the gate was drawn. The prisoners, checked in their bound- 
ing, made a quick run around the race and found they were shut in on 
every side. Then, almost without hesitation, one of them took that 
