Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/158

122 of large dimensions, a crack would sometimes inspire the idea of danger of incarceration, in the trunk of a rotten tree. The silence of the forest was only disturbed by a solitary Black Cockatoo and a parrot, and by the occasional creaking of boughs rubbing one against another. Near the Guide River, I measured two Myrtles of 32 and 45 feet round: these and many others appeared to be about 150 feet high. Few Myrtles exceed 30 feet in circumference, and they often diminish suddenly at about 10 feet from the ground, losing nearly as much in circumference.

12th. Part of the day was occupied in Natural History observations.—In the borders of the forest, which has here several trees from 35 to 40 feet in circumference, there are tree-ferns of unusual vigour: some of them have 32 old, and 26 new fronds, of 9 feet long: the most common number is 8 old and 4 new, exclusive of the dead ones. In some of the denser parts of the forest, the Celery-topped Pine occurs, and attains a stature adapted for masts: its fruit is somewhat like that of the Yew.—A laurel-like shrub of great beauty, with clusters of white blossoms, half an inch across, Anopterus glandulosus, grows by the sides of the Emu River, in shady places.

The Brush Kangaroo is common here, as well as in other parts of the Island: it is easily domesticated: one at the Hampshire Hills that is half-grown, embraces the hand that rubs its breast; it rambles away and returns at pleasure, feeds chiefly in the evening, and has a voice like a deer, but more complaining.—Dogs that have become wild, have multiplied greatly in this part of the Island, and are very destructive to sheep. The animal, called in this country the Hyena and the Tiger, but which differs greatly from both, also kills sheep: it is the size of a large dog, has a wolf-like head, is striped across the back, and carries its young in a pouch. This animal is said sometimes to have carried off the children of the natives, when left alone by the fire. One is said to have faced a man on horseback, on the Emu Bay Road, probably having had its young ones in the bush, too large for its pouch. Another animal of the same tribe, but black, with a few irregular white spots, having