Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/447

Rh eats as much as a sheep, and when a drove is undisturbed its numbers multiply with a rapidity that dismays the squatter on whose land it has made its home.

"Our host gave us the foregoing information while we were riding to the place where we were to enjoy the sensation of hunting the kangaroo. He furthermore told us that it was no uncommon thing for them to kill several hundred kangaroos in a single drive, but it could not be called sport. He said a drive wasn't a hunt, and I asked him to explain the difference, which he did.

"The necessity of killing off the kangaroos to prevent their utter destruction of all the grass in the country was forced upon the settlers by the rapid increase of the animals. The Government passed a law giving a bounty for the scalps of kangaroos; and none too soon, as in some parts of the country the droves fairly blackened the plains for many miles, and literally starved the sheep out of the country. The bounty on the scalps, added to the value of the meat and skins, partly paid for the trouble, which required a muster of all the squatters and their employés for a considerable distance around.

"A drive, or battue, is managed in this way: A yard with a high