56 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY; 
creature the more mythical it seemed to become. One day the blacks — 
showed him traces of boongary on the trunk of a tree—these made 
him certain that there was such an animal, and he resolved not to — 
give up till he had a specimen in his possession. By bribes, such © 
as tobacco and food, by persuasion, for he knew something of their 
language, and sometimes by threats, this enthusiastic foreigner 
induced the blacks to accompany him, but they always deserted 
him, when he penetrated territory beyond their own tribal bounds, 
so he had continually to seek fresh boongary hunters. One evening 
while he and his sable companions were reclining in the shade, there 
was suddenly a shout from the camp of the natives. His men rose, 
turned their faces toward the mountain and shouted ‘‘ Boongary, 
boongary.” A few black men were seen coming out of the woods © 
and down the green slope with rapid steps, One of them had a dark 
animal on his back, with him was a tall powerful man named Nilgora 
who was followed by his dingo. The animal was thrown on the 
ground at the feet of Carl Lumholtz, but none of the blacks spoke a 
word. They simply stood waiting for presents from him. At last 
he had a boongary which he had been seeking so long; he at once 
saw that it was a tree-kangaroo, a fine one but not so large as he had 
expected to find. He skinned the animal and put some arsenic on 
the skin, which he laid away to dry in the roof of hishut. To Nilgora 
he gave a shirt, to the nan who had carried the boongary, a hand- 
kerchief, and to all food, nor did he omit to distribute tobacco. Tree- 
kangaroos were known to exist in New Guinea, but none had been 
obtained on the Australian continent by white men prior to the 
event recorded above. This handsome marsupial was scientifically 
named and described by Professor Collett in 1884. 
Dismay.—The blacks were to have a dance that night, the tribe 
that was to give it had their camp furthest away, while the other 
tribes, who were simply spectators, had made their cainps near his. 
His men had gone to witness the dance, and Lumholtz happy over 
his day’s success decided to go thither and amuse himself ; bat dark- 
ness having already set in, the dancing was postponed until the moon 
was up. e visited several parts, conversed with the natives and 
coaxed information out of them. It amused him to make these visits, 
but his thoughts were chiefly occupied with the great event of the 
day. Inthe camp there were several dingoes, and although the 
boongary skin was carefully put away, he did not feel particularly 
safe in regard to it. He therefore returned to look after his 
treasure; on his return imagine his dismay to find that it 
was gone. He at once called the blacks, among whom the news 
spread like wildfire. In a short time one of them 
came running with a torn skin, which he had found outside the 
camp. The whole head, a part of the tail, and legs were eaten. 
One of the dingoes had stolen the skin and abused it in this 
manner. Having no better place to put it, he laid it back again in 
the same part of the roof, and then, sad and dejected in spirits, 
sauntered down to the natives again. Every one tried to convince 
him that it was not Ais dog that was the culprit. 


