4thly. A Large Party Of Men Go Out Early In The Morning, Generally Armed With Barbed Spears, And Take Their Stations Upon Ground That Has Been Previously Fixed Upon In A Large Semicircle.

The women and children, with a few men, then beat up, and fire the country for a considerable extent,

Driving the game before them in the direction of the persons who are lying in wait, and who gradually contract the space they had been spread over, until they meet the other party, and then closing their ranks in a ring upon the devoted animals, with wild cries and shouts they drive them back to the centre as they attempt to escape, until, at last, in the conflict, many of them are slaughtered. At other times, the ground is so selected as to enable them to drive the game over a precipice, or into a river, where it is easily taken. Netting the kangaroo does not require so large a party; it is done by simply setting a strong net (mugn-ko) across the path, which the animal is accustomed to frequent, and keeping it in its place by long sticks, with a fork upon the top. A few natives then shew themselves in a direction opposite to that of the net, and the kangaroo being alarmed, takes to his usual path, gets entangled in the meshes, and is soon despatched by persons who have been lying in wait to pounce upon him.

Pitfalls are also dug to catch the kangaroo around the springs, or pools of water they are accustomed to frequent. These are covered lightly over with small sticks, boughs, etc. and the animal going to drink, hops upon them, and falls into the pit without being able to get out again. I have only known this method of taking the kangaroo practised in Western Australia, between Swan River and King George's Sound,

The emu is taken similarly to the kangaroo. It is speared in the first, third, and fourth methods I have described. It is also netted like the kangaroo, indeed with the same net, only that the places selected for setting it are near the entrance to creeks, ravines, flats bounded by steep banks, and any other place where the ground is such as to hold out the hope, that by driving up the game it may be compelled, by surrounding scouts, to pass the place where the net is set. When caught the old men hasten up, and clasping the bird firmly round the neck with their arms, hold it or throw it on the ground, whilst others come to their assistance and despatch it. This is, however, a dangerous feat, and I have known a native severely wounded in attempting it; a kick from an emu would break a person's leg, though the natives generally keep so close to the bird as to prevent it from doing them much harm.

The emu is frequently netted by night through a peculiarity in the habits of the bird, that is well-known to the natives, and which is, that it generally comes back every night to sleep on one spot for a long time together. Having ascertained where the sleeping place is, the natives set the net at some little distance away, and then supplying themselves with fire-sticks, form a line from each end of the net, diverging in the distance. The party may now be considered as forming two sides of a triangle, with the net at the apex and the game about the middle of the base; as soon as the sides are formed, other natives arrange themselves in a line at the base, and put the bird up. The emu finding only one course free from fire-sticks, viz. that towards the net or apex of the triangle, takes that direction, and becomes ensnared.

Opossums are of various kinds and sizes. They inhabit the hollows of trees, or sometimes the tops, where they make a house for themselves with boughs. They are also found in the holes of rocks. They are hunted both in the day-time and by moon-light. During the day the native, as he passes along, examines minutely the bark of the trees, to see whether any marks have been left by the claws of the animal in climbing on the previous night. If he finds any he is sure that an opossum is concealed, either in that tree or one adjoining. The way he distinguishes whether the marks are recently made or otherwise is, by examining the appearance of the bark where the wound is, if fresh it is white, has rough edges, or has grains of sand adhering to it; if otherwise it is dry and brown, and free from loose particles. Having ascertained that an opossum has recently been there, he then ascends the tree to look for it; this, if the tree be in a leaning position, or has a rough bark, is not difficult to him, and he rarely requires any other aid than his hands and feet; but if the bark be smooth, and the tree straight, or of very large dimensions, he requires the assistance of his stone hatchet, or of a strong sharp-pointed stick, flattened on one side near the point (called in the Adelaide dialect, "Wadna," in that of Moorunde "Ngakko,"); with this instrument a notch is made in the bark about two feet above the ground. In this the small toes of the left foot are placed, the left arm is employed in clasping the trunk of the tree, and the right in cutting another notch for the right foot, about two feet above the first; but a little to one side of it, the wadna or ngakko is now stuck firmly in the bark above, and serves to enable him to raise the body whilst gaining the second notch, into which the ball of the great toe of the right foot is placed, and the implement liberated to make a third step on the left side, and so on successively until the tree is ascended.

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