Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/227

 Rh, I went out with the youngest Mr. Burgess to look for a kangaroo and had a fine chase after one; the dogs killed it within 200 yards of us, in a stream of water; my puppy barked and bit, and pulled, and did what he could; but it was the first he had seen killed, and we could not expect more at his coup d'essai. He promises well; we carried the kangaroo on our backs, turn about, for seven miles; this was a matter of some toil, for it weighed eighty pounds: however, I shall have some days' fresh provisions. On our way home, I shot a duck on the wing, and found that it had a nest with ten eggs. As it was not mortally wounded, I brought duck and eggs with me, and have her now sitting in a cage.

2nd.—A day of high wind, from N.E., with occasional heavy showers of rain, faint thunder and lightning; yet my little team ploughed from breakfast till dinner-time one third of an acre.

Do you recollect my having mentioned, some time ago, the murder of an outsettler on the Canning River by the natives? One of these, called Ya-gan, identified (on oath by a boy who escaped) as the principal actor, who took the spears from his companions and deliberately drove them one by one into the deceased (who had become entangled in a hedge while trying to escape), has been taken. The Government offered a reward for the apprehension of this Ya-gan, and some days ago he and two others, almost equally concerned, were seized