Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/222

 of their ever suffering from famine—Exaggerated statements respecting the miserable condition of the Aborigines of New South Wales—Comparison between them and other savage races, in several respects advantageous to the former—Customs of the natives of the MacLeay river—Their Cawarra ceremonies different from those of the generality of the Aborigines—Description of the Cawarra—Accounts of some fights between different tribes of the MacLeay river—Their cruelty and treachery towards the whites—Their civilization almost hopeless—Their wonderful intelligence.

Australia is singularly deficient in large quadrupeds, and does not possess any of those animals which afford the exciting pleasure of the chase in other countries; yet I think the Australian sport of kangaroo-hunting possesses, at any rate, equal attraction to coursing the hare in England. For instead of being a weak, helpless animal, like the hare, the kangaroo, although quite as timid and inoffensive, is capable of contending vigorously with his pursuers, when driven to desperation, and from the tremendous bounds he makes over all obstacles in his way, he gives, if hunted in a thickly wooded mountainous country, plenty of work both to horses and dogs.

The varieties of kangaroos in New Holland are extremely numerous, those most frequently met with on the north-eastern part of the territory, are, the large Forest-kangaroo, (Macropus major,) the Wallabi, (Halmaturus Ualabatus), the Pademella, or brush-kangaroo, (Halmaturus thetis), the silver Wallabi, (Halmatmiis elegans,) the black Wallaroo,