THE STORY OF THE KANGAROO. 
373 
mals alive on board ship, which he had captured in New Guinea, writes that 
the tree-kangaroo “is as yet a tyro in the art of climbing, performing this 
operation in the slowest and most awkward manner. Our pets, for instance, 
would take a full minute or more in ascending the back of a chair, but their 
hold is most secure ; and if we wished to pull them off, we had considerable 
difficulty in doing so, so tightly do they cling.” 
The natural walking position of this animal is on all four legs, although 
it constantly sits up on the hinder legs, or even stands on a tripod composed 
of its feet and tail, in order to look out over the tops of the luxuriant grass 
A HERD OF KANGAROOS. 
among which it lives. The leaping movements are required for haste or es¬ 
cape, the length of each leap being about fifteen feet. 
Of course this swiftness would soon leave its pursuers behind, but the 
Australian is able to break one of its limbs, or strike it insensible to 1 the ground 
with his boomerang, the most wonderful weapon that uncivilized man ever 
produced. This extraordinary missile is a flat, curved piece of wood, which 
the Australian natives can wield with wonderful skill, making it describe 
circles in the air, or rush at an object, and then return to its owner’s feet; 
