THE KANGAROO. 
277 
strike it with his spear, seldom quitting his lurking 
place without an ample remuneration for his con- 
finement. 4thly. A large party of men go out early 
in the morning, generally armed with barbed spears, 
and take their stations upon ground that has been 
previously fixed upon in a large semicircle. The 
women and children, with a few men, then beat up> 
and fire the country for a considerable extent, 
driving the game before them in the direction of the 
persons who are lying in wait, and who gradually 
contract the space they had been spread over, until 
they meet the other party, and then closing their 
ranks in a ring upon the devoted animals, with wild 
cries and shouts they drive them back to the centre 
as they attempt to escape, until, at last, in the con- 
flict, many of them are slaughtered. At other times, 
the ground is so selected as to enable them to drive 
the game over a precipice, or into a river, where it is 
easily taken. Netting the kangaroo does not require 
so large a party ; it is done by simply setting a strong 
net (mugn-ko) across the path, which the animal is 
accustomed to frequent, and keeping it in its place 
by long sticks, with a fork upon the top. A few 
natives then shew themselves in a direction oppo- 
site to that of the net, and the kangaroo being 
alarmed, takes to his usual path, gets entangled in 
the meshes, and is soon despatched by persons who 
have been lying in wait to pounce upon him. 
Pitfalls are also dug to catch the kangaroo around 
the springs, or pools of water they are accustomed 
