Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-04-08
ABOUT THE KANGAROO.
THE STRANGE ANIMAL FOUND
IN AUSTRALIA.
The Wa'leroo, the wallaby and the Pad
dymelon - X ,ngaroos of Many
Sizes, Including One rs
Large as "a Mouse.

.
of both in certain districts. writes the
Melbourne correspondent of the Bos-
ton Journal, but they are many miles
away from the railroads. as rule.
and are seen only by those who have
occasion to visit remote stations.
and to explore the alternate stretches
OF plain and bush" which constitute
the .back flocks, as the interior por-
lions of the country are styled in
colonial phraseology.
When the early settlers entered the
country they found the marsupial
tribe swarming in countless millions
all over it and when they sought pas
turage for their flocks discovered that
the ungenerous soil would not furnish
grass enough for kangaroos and sheep
together. A war of determination of
the original pasturers upon the land
was therefore inaugurated and waged
with such deadly effect that at pres
ent kangaroo is in most districts
quite as conspicuous by his absence
as the buffalo on the plains of America.
The old squatters relate extraordi-
nary tales of the former abundance
of these strange creatures-how the
eye could not range in any direction
without seeing hundreds OF them;
how they entered the 'paddocks"
and grazed in the midst of the sheep,
and how. when the grass grew scant
and the flocks were on the verge OF
starvation drives" were organized,
in which thousands of the kangaroos
were killed and the sparse pasturaee
was eased. Wantou as seems the
wholesale slaughter OF these animals,
it was, from the squatter's point of
view, a stern and imperative necessity.
The only regret of pastoralists in the
premises is that they did not then
know the fortune that they lost by
allowing the carcasses slain to lie and
rot where they had fallen; for there
was no suspicion then that Kangaroo
leather was of any value, or that u
demand would spring up for it that
should make the skin of one of these
animals worth more than that of the
sheep whose protection was bought
by their slaughter. So important
has the trade in Kangaroo hides now
become that the question Of how the
animals that furnish them shall be
preserved has taken the place of
devising measures for their extinc-
ton.
The term kangaroo, which is
used generally in most of the world to
describe any animal that has a pouch
for carrying its young and a long tail,
and that proceeds by jumping OH its
hind legs is of limited applicability in
Australia. The kangaroo is differ
entiated by many exact particulars
from his COUSINS the 'wallaroo " the
'wallaby," and the 'paddymelon''
all of which strangely named animals
appear to be uninitiated only as small
er individuals of the kangaroos i'm
mediate family. Generally speaking.
the kangaroo is larger than the wal
LARGO. the wallaroo than the wallaoy,
and the wallaby than Che paddymelon
while tapering off from this last
mentioned animal are found other
species which include the kangaroo
rat and end ia the diminutive kan
CARGO mouse" which is the image of
the full-grown kangaroo proper when
seen through an inverted opera glass.
All these species are subdivided. so
that we have the great Kangaroo, -
the "blue flyer" and many others in
the first group bush" and .rock'
wallabies. and paddymelons. black
gray and brown.
All these are easily domestica ted
except perhaps the larger represent
atives of the kangaroo species proper
which, as they grow to be 8 and z
feet in height are rather too cumber-
some to make desirable pets. Many
stations had one or more of the small
err varieties of kangaroos domesticated
upon them, in company with cocka-
toos and parrots. magpies and
laughing jackasses, and. now and
then. stately and generally ill-na-
tured emu. The mission station of
Ramahyuk had one in the pers on of
Joey, quaint creature who was al
ways under foot and amused himself
by frantic faces with nothing around
the enclosure formed by the mission
buildings. There is something UNI
canny about the whole breed of Kan
garoos AS they sit up to watch you
in the center of the broad. dry plains
they look like strange an
cient images left to brood
over desolation by vanished
and forgotten race and under
the shade of the solemn mimosas and
whispering sheakes. whittier they re-
resort in hot noontides resemble in
their immobility the idols of long
extinct worship Even in captivity
and after long acquaintance they main
tain this eerie quality. l shall never
forget the start that this same Joey"
gave me one morning. l had got up
before daybrcak to go platypus shoot
ing along the banks Of the river. and
as | opened the door that led from my
room TO the veranda, ] saw dimly in
the mornings ray ghostly shape
that stood confronting me with staring
eyes upon the very Threshold. In
the instant that preceded my recogni-
tion OF tho tame kangaroo must con-
fess that felt my scalp move as II
the hair upon It were about to stand
upright, SO strange was the attitude