Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-10-13
h3ngarOOs.

Ircf. kgassiz once remarked that.
willie the whole of the Western Hemis-
plere, stretching from the Arctic to the
antarctic Pole and including tine two
'aSt continents of North and South
America, is utterly free from the pres
! ence Of any quadruped, either indigo
mons or imported, which breeds with
sush rapidity and fecundity as to consti-
tue itself pest, the island continent of
Australia is already infested with two
animal Acknowledgements and rab.
| lits-which threaten to maintain no un-
| "lual struggle with man for the survival
| )f the fittest.
! Waterhousc tells us that the kangaroo
;is rtlniinating marsupial animal, Of
which the largest species is nearly as
tall as a man. "The fore-legs are very
short and useless in walking, but en-
ploycd for digging or bringing food to
the mouth" What amount of green
food he and his congeners, the wallaby,
the paddymelon, and the kangaroo rat,
are capable Of consuming let those hap
less settlers whom these voracious pests
have eaten out of their stations, sand
ruined stock, lCck and BARREL" declare
for themselves. The kangaroo loves q
hot climate, and it is in tOrrid Queens
land that he thrives with unparalleled
productivenesS. So countless were the
numbers of his swarming armies . few
years since in the northern portion of
Queensland that all the large squatters
found it necessary to lay out + 100 mile
III fencing, go as TO protect their sheep
and cattle runs from the marsupial
pests. a small run would require fifty
miles of this fencing, and big run
three or four times that quantity, so
tina: very heavy tax WAS thus imposed
upon the squatters. Many who could
not face the outlay were driven ont by
the invading quadrupcds, which in
these cases had no difficulty in winning
the battle. When, however, the fence
has been finished, no slight additional
expense has to be incurred in keeping it
in repair. The marsupials, big and lit
tie, swarm along its outward edge, and
are always on the alert to find out a
weak spot ard to push their way into
the inclosed sanctuary. Having once
got inside, they will, If undisturbed for
few hours, do an incredible amount of
damage.
Hundreds of miles of good pasture
have been eaten as bare as bone by
the unproductive consumption of these
useless brutes. 1t is impossible to de-
scribe the marvellous rapidity of their
increase. Some naturalists maintain
that it is due TO the wholesale destruc-
;ion of the dingo, or native dog, by
which the kangarooS are kept down, but
which is also dangerous enemy to the
squatters' sheep. and has, therefore, to
be got rid of by bits of flesh with a
strychnine pill introduced into them,
which are scattered about on the edges
of the runs. Every stranger who draws
near IL 0uaapsland with some biz bore
guns and an unlimited amount of
cartridges, with from one to two ounces
of u shot IN them, will find swarming
armies of kangaroos and wallaby
awaiting him, and the heartiest welcome
from the squatterS, whom he helps to
get rid OF their worst enemy.
Kangaroo-driving, rs described by
London contemporary, entails far
earlier hours than the ordinary field
sports of civalization. Breakfast at
half-past six or seven in the morning,
and gallop it may be of ten or twice
ten miles, to the rendezvous, will
enable the "new chum," or stranger
from foreign lands, to take stock of the
company constituting the field. He
finds, rs q rule, about thirty horsemen
at the appointed tryst, of whom half
are white men, with guns in their
hands, and the other fifteen are black
natives, mounted on capital horses,
which they sit and manage to perfec-
ton. The beaters, with the masters of
the station to marshal and keep them In
order, are spread out at distances of a
quarter of a mile from each other in
half moon extending over three or four
miles. The guns are sent ahead some
six or eight miles, and take up their
station in line at points for which tho
kangaroos, when started are accus-
toned to make. The marksmen lie down
behind bushes or among some logs or
trees, nor have they long to wait before
the ''thud," "thud'' of an sold man"
kangaroo, leading the van of the mob
which follows hiru, strikes forcibly upon
the listening ear.
The usual practice of experienced
hunters is to allow the first few kanga-
roos to break through the line without
being shot at, and when once the lead
ers have passed ahead nothing will de-
ter the rest from following. Then the
deadly fusillade opens, the shot being
poured into the hindquarters of the
quarry. Three and half drachms of
powder and an ounce and half of
heavy shot make havoc with the game,
which keeps bounding along on each
side Of the shooters until their guns be-
come fairly too hot to hold. At last the
first mob is exhausted, and stiffness
takes possession of the woods for
quarter of an hour or so, broken only
by an occasional cry of dying kanga-
roo. Presently the second mob begins
to heave in sight, and again there is rare
work for the busy guns. At last an un.
earthly storm of shouts, screams and
yells rings through the bush, and the
blacks, cracking their stock whips,
which make noise like the discharge
of pistol, and brandishing their gaudy
red and yellow handkerchefs. burst up
on the view just ahead of the beaters
comes a struggling array of wallabies,
and it is impossible for the shooters to
thrust in their cartridges fast enough.
The sport goes on again just in the same
way for week, at the end of which the
bag may be some 1900 kangaroos and
about third of that number of walla-
bies. If ever indiscriminate and whole
sale slaughter be justifiable, it must be
in such case, for if the kangaroos
were not kept down they would make
the land uninha bitable by the squatter.
N. Y. Hour.