CHAPTER XI.

NATURAL HISTORY-CLIMATE-ABORIGINES.

DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS-NEW KANGAROO-NEW DOMES

TIC DOG-CHECKS ON INCREASE OF ANIMALS-INFLUENCE OF MAN ON THEIR HABITS-TRACES OF AN ANIMAL WITH A DIVIDED HOOF-BIRDS-EMUS-ALLIGATORS.-CLIMATE -PROOFS OF ITS SALUBRITY-THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS. ABORIGINES, THEIR HABITS AND MANNERSINDIVIDUALS OF AN ALIEN RACE--SIMILARITY OF CUS

TOMS WITH OTHER AUSTRALIAN TRIBES-CAVES-DRAW

INGS-TOMBS.

Natural History.-North Western Australia seems to be peculiarly prolific in birds, reptiles, and insects, who dwell here nearly unmolested, mutually preying upon each other, and thus, by a wise provision, setting the necessary check to their own multiplication.

Of quadrupeds there are but few species, and of these the individuals, considered in proportion to the surface they roam over, are rare. The only species I observed, during a residence of five months, were four of kangaroos, viz. the large Macropus giganteus? of Shaw, two smaller kinds, one of which is the Petrogale brachyotis of Gould, and a kangaroo rat, which last is always seen amongst the rocks on the sea coast. One species of opossum, a flying squirrel (Petaurista), two kinds of dog, of which one is new, rats, and a field-mouse. Of these

NEW KANGAROO AND DOG.

239

the kangaroos are alone numerous, and only in particular spots. I shot a female kangaroo of the Petrogale brachyotis, near Hanover Bay, and by the preservation of the skin and other parts, enabled Mr. Gould to identify it as a new species.

This graceful little animal is excessively wild and shy in its habits, frequenting, in the day-time, the highest and most inaccessible rocks, and only descending into the valleys to feed early in the morning and late in the evening. When disturbed in the day-time, amongst the roughest and most precipitous rocks, it bounds along from one to the other with the greatest apparent facility, and is so watchful and wary in its habits, that it is by no means easy to get a shot at it. One very surprising thing is, how it can support the temperature to which it is exposed in the situations it always frequents amongst the burning sandstone rocks, the mercury there during the heat of the day being frequently at 136°. I have never seen these animals in the plains or lowlands, and believe that they frequent mountains alone.

The new species of dog differs totally from the Dingo or Canis Australiensis. I never saw one nearer than from twenty to thirty yards, and was unable to procure a specimen. Its colour is the same as that of the Australian dog, in parts, however, having a blackish tinge. The muzzle is narrow, long, thin, and tapers much, resembling that of a greyhound, whilst in general form it approaches the English lurcher. Some of the party, who went

to Timor, stated it to resemble precisely the Malay dog common to that island, and considered it to be of the same breed; which I think not improbable, as I cannot state that I ever saw one wild, or unless in the vicinity of natives; in company with whom they were generally observed in a domesticated state. On the other hand the Canis Australiensis was common in some parts in a state of nature: of these I saw several myself, and from the descriptions given, by other individuals of the party, of dogs they had observed, I recognised their identity with the same species. We heard them also repeatedly howling during the night, and, although they never attacked our sheep or goats, many portions of dead animals were carried off by them. I saw but two flying squirrels, and know not to which species of Petaurista they are to be referred.

Both mice and rats are common, the former precisely resembling in appearance the English fieldmouse. The rats on one occasion eat up a live pet parrakeet, leaving the bones gnawed and strewed about; and, on another, when I had shot a crane (Ardea scolopacea), intending it for breakfast, they in the night devoured nearly the whole of it.

The multiplication of kangaroos, opossums, rats, &c. may be checked by various causes; but man, I imagine, is the most deadly enemy they have to contend with. The numerous remains of these animals that I have seen about the native fires, attest the number destroyed. In all those caves, in which I found native paintings, were representations either of kan

CHECKS TO THEIR MULTIPLICATION.

241

garoo hunts, or of men bringing down these animals dead on their shoulders; and many a hollow tree bore witness of its having been smoked, in order to drive forth to certain death the trembling opossum or bandicoot rat, which had taken refuge in it.

A convincing proof of the dread in which man is held by the various kinds of kangaroos is given by their extreme shyness. I never, but on two or three occasions, got within shot of the larger kangaroos, as they were always so wary; and although I, at different times, wounded two, I never could succeed in actually capturing either. Now when the detached party, sent forward just before we commenced our return to Hanover Bay, crossed a range of mountains, on which were neither traces of the natives or their fires, they found the direct reverse of this to be the case, and were all surprised at the tameness of the kangaroos, compared with those they had previously seen.

In the same way, when I entered a new district, the birds merely flew up into a lofty tree, without attempting to go further away, and it was not until I had shot for a day or two in the neighbourhood of a place, that the birds there became at all wild.

The native dog, doubtless, being dependent for subsistence upon the game he can procure, must contribute to thin the numbers of the lesser animals, who also, together, perhaps, with the rapacious dog himself, frequently fall a prey to the various snakes that inhabit the country; as was evinced in the event narrated on the 16th of March, of the destruction,

242 TRACE OF ANIMAL WITH DIVIDED HOOF.

by Mr. Lushington, of the boa, with a small kangaroo compressed in its folds.

The manner, too, in which I have seen the rapacious birds of prey soar over plains where the small kangaroos abound, convinces me that they also bear their part in the destruction of this harmless race.

I have already alluded to the paucity of quadrupeds, both in species and in number, but I have still to record the remarkable fact of the existence, in these parts, of a large quadruped, with a divided hoof: this animal I have never seen, but twice came upon its traces. On one occasion, I followed its track for above a mile and a half, and at last altogether lost it in rocky ground. The footmarks exceeded in size those of a buffalo, and it was apparently much larger, for, where it had passed through brushwood, shrubs of considerable size in its way had been broken down, and from the openings there left, I could form some comparative estimate of its bulk. These tracks were first seen by a man of the name of Mustard, who had joined me at the Cape, and who had there been on the frontier during the Caffre war; he told me that he had seen the spur of a buffalo, imagining that they were here as plentiful as in Africa. I conceived, at the time, that he had made some mistake, and paid no attention to him until I afterwards twice saw the same traces myself.

To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found; indeed, in no other