The Portland daily press., 1895-04-08
HUNTING THE KANGAROO.
A Dangerous and Exciting Sport for
Hunters in Australian Wilds.

|
is Difficult to Secure Tits Offensive
Powers When Cornered by the Hunter.
| common disappointment among
travellers in Australia and through the
colonies is that they have seen no kanga-
roos in real flesh and blood. Indeed,
there are large mum bers of people who
have lived in Melbourne and the outside
little cities and towns for some years
who have never seen a kangaroo. The
coat OF arms of Australia bears the figure
of kangaroo, the headings of scores of
newspapers have the representation of a
kangaroo in their makeup, and there
are thousands of picture and photo
graphs all over the country of kangaroos
in all manner of attitudes and of all
sizes; but the real beast is not seen in
it's wild state outside of the "bush, /"
many miles remote from the abodes of
civilization and the lines of railroad
travel
There are thousands of the marsupials
in the back fiosck" and the bush" !"
as the interior plains and forests of A us
tralia are known, says writer in the
New York Tribune. Forty-fve and fifty
years ago there were literally countless
armies OF kangaroos all over the island.
The early settlers. who came here to be-
come shepherds, found that it was i'm
possible to keep their flock with the kan
garoos swarming over the Country. The
latter deyoured the pasturage for the
sheep, and in consequence thousands of
lambs and ewes starved to death. The
| coionlsts Joined together in common war
! upon the kangaroos. They were trapped,
shot, dubbed, poisoned and speared by
tie hundreds of thousands for over
twenty years. In 1850 alone it is reported
| over half million were put to death.
A club of English sheep ranchers kept
for some years over forty hunters and
trappers constantly employed in destroy
| ing kangaroos. Ihe carcasses were
thrown i'll great rayinas or pits and al
lowed to rot, while in rHother localities
great piles of the bodies of the animals
were made and then cremated. The KAN
garoo skins, now SO valuable, were never
saved. So useful has kanagroo leather
now become, and such fortunes are made
lin shipping the hides to America and
England, that the Australian lawmakers
are giving great attention to laws that
shall preserve the marsupials instead of
devising measures for wholesale ex-
tinction.
Successfully to shoot kangaroos it is
necessary to gos,about1 so miles out of Mel
bourne In the hush.n Some little hunt
ing may be done on the common prop
ertyn land. but so jealously is the hunt
ing OF animals now guarded by the
wealthy and influential landowners that
the only satisfactory shooting OF this
kind is to be done under permission of
the oyerseers or landlord. Kanagroos
are usually found in the open or amid
struggling bush, where it is difficult to
get at them, an where the hunter may
think himself lucky if he gets more than
one in q day. One of the best forms of
sport in Australia is found in shooting
bush wallabies or paddymeleons. Paddy
mleons are small kangaroos standing
about three feet high, and furnish the
sportsman an opportunity to display
all his skill in shooting by the quiokHess
of their movements and the difficult
nature OF the country in which they are
| found. The hunter has but to stand
quiet moment and listen to become
assured that the woods are fairly alive
| with these strange creatures. Although
seeing nothing, he hears all but a
CHASTITY -tap-tapping, as the hopping
| bodies strike the thick, elastic turf Now
| and then glimpse is eau sht of a shadow
like animal passing across narrow
opening in the separted liIes of trees;
the hunter fires smartly; the smoke hangs
in an impenetrable veil against the earth;
he hears beyond it a struggle, and, fore
ing his way through the saplings,s finds
his game sprawling on the moss-a slen-
der, graceful animal, suggesting at once
the deer and the rat, kangaroo in
miniature.
The term Kangaroo" which is used
generally in most parts OF the world to
describe any animal that has a pouch
for carrying its young, and long tail,
and that proceeds by jumping on it's
hind legs. is of.limited applioa bility In
Australia. The kangaroo is differen-
tiated by many exact particulars from
b hls h :, cousins, s the swallaroo," the
which strangely named animals appear
to the uninitiated only a smaller indi-
vidual of the kangaroo's immediate
family. Generally speaking the kanga-
roo is larger than the wallaroo, the wal
LARGO than the wallaby and the wallaby
than the paddymelon. while tapering
off from this last mentioned animal are
found other species, which include the
kangaroo rat" and end in the dlminu-
tive "kangaro mouse" which is the i'm
age of the full grown kangaroo proper
when seen through an inverted opera |
glass. All these species are further sub
divided, SO that there are the "great red /
Kangaroo" the Dlue Hre," ana many |
others in the first group, "bush" and |
rock"wallabies and paddymeleons, black.
gray and brown.
All these are easily domesticated. ex
cept, perhaps, the larger representatives
of the kangaroo species proper, which,
as they grow to be six and even seven |
feet in Eheight, are too cumbersome to
make desira BILE pets. Many stations had |
one or more of the smaller varieties of |
kangaroos domesticated upon them, |
company with cockatoos andparrots, mag |
pies and laughing iackasses, and now and
then stately and generally ill-natured |
mau. The mission station at Ramahyuk
had one in the person OF Jacky, funny |
little fellow Of year old who was al
ways under foot, and amused himself by
frantic races with nothing round the
inclosure formed by the mission build
ings. There is something uncanny about
the whole breed of kangaroos. AS they
sit up TO watch you in the center of The
broad, dry plains, they look like strange
ancient images, left to brood over desc
lation by vanished and forgotten race,
and under the shade of the solemn
mimosas and whispering sheakes, Whlth-
er Ghey resort in hot noOntideS. resem Bile