tea-tree
bark. Now, of all shapes to drive a Limerick hook-maker to despair,
none, one would think, could have been invented better than this, for
the odds are certainly ten to one against its penetrating any portion
of a fish, even though he should have gorged it. The material of which
these quaint hooks are made is tortoise or turtle shell, for both
tortoises and turtles abound on this coast, the former frequenting the
fresh-water creeks and lagoons, and the latter the sea. Whether they
were cut out of the solid, or whether a strip was soaked, bent, and
then dried in the sun until it became firmly set in the required shape,
I never could ascertain, but most probably the former plan was adopted.

The whole island seemed to teem with game, and had we been able to
fire, we should speedily have made a good bag, but this we dared not
do, so I made a mental resolve to return at some future time and make
amends for this enforced restraint. At nearly every step, we put up
some bird or beast strange to European eyes.

I have no doubt it is known to most of my readers that Australia is
destitute of 'Ferae' proper, and that elephants, lions, tigers, etc.,
are unknown. They will also know that the kangaroos are marsupial
animals; that is to say, the females have a peculiar pouch for their
young, which are born in a far less advanced state than the young of
other animals. But perhaps it is not so generally known that, with two
or three exceptions, such as the dingo or native dog, the platypus, and
several species of bats, the 'whole' of the animals on the continent
are marsupial. The brains of this species are very small, and they
sadly lack intelligence, in which respect they exhibit a wonderful
affinity to the aboriginals who live by their capture.

[ILLUSTRATION--GROUP OF KANGAROOS.]

Of kangaroos there are more than thirty different kinds, but the
English are now so well acquainted with this curious animal that it
needs no description. There are two things about it, however, that I
may with propriety here point out--viz., the use of the pouch, and the
various ways in which the kangaroo is serviceable to the settler. The
average size of the ordinary female kangaroo is about six feet,
counting from the nose to the tip of the tail; and, marvellous though
it may appear, the young kangaroo, at its birth, is but little over an
inch in length, having a vague kind of shape, certainly, but otherwise
soft, semi-transparent