Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/203

Rh kangaroo. But I expect some lucky day to be at a nobler hunt than this—a bull chase—as a wild bull was caught and killed the other day. The meat, (sold at 1s. 6d. per lb.), produced nearly 50l.; and a great sensation has been created by a rumour that thirty-six head of wild cattle has been seen. I doubt the truth of the report. Really this kangaroo-hunting is very important to the settlers in their present circumstances. Some of my friends have had fresh meat of this animal for three months together, when it would have required three casks of pork, at 10l. each, to have supplied their establishment during the same period. Thus have their dogs saved them 30l.

9th.—I have been preparing a statement of expenditure upon my grant, for the purpose of getting the fee-simple of it confirmed to me: the amount required is 675l.. The account has been submitted to two magistrates for approval, and has been drawn up according to a prescribed form. My expenditure amounts to 1306l. 13s.; the items are, buildings, 300l.; tillage 96l.; enclosures, 59l. 3s.: drains, 10l.; garden, 20l.; clearing, 206l.; and under the head of "miscellaneous," live stock, 245l. 10s.; crops, 210l.; machines, tools, implements, and iron work, 100l.; tent used at first settling, 10l.; wells, 10l.; improvement of pasture by manure, 30l.; wharf, 10l.—total, 1306l. 13s. I cleared to-day, with a good American axe, eleven hundred yards of a vista