Kangaroo skin

“ When the jump, for which the kangaroo is famous, is made, it is by muscular contraction of the great hind-legs, and with this effort they droop the head and shoulders, and balance them by the long tail, which during the jump is held horizontally backward.
When full grown the coat of the kangaroo is silky on the head, shoulders, and tail, and woolly on the body. The skin, especially of the legs and haunches, is thick and tough, and makes good leather. The avidity with which these animals are hunted in Australia will soon make them as scarce as bison have become from the same reckless slaughter ”

“ Instances are on record of a despairing kangaroo dashing through the dogs on the approach of a dismounted hunter, and severely wounding him. The common practice when the animal is brought to bay is to ride up and pistol him. But, however he may be killed, his useful qualities have by no means departed with his breath. His skin, properly cured, will make good door-mats, boots, saddle-cloths, stock-whips, gaiters, and numberless other useful articles. His long and heavy tail is much valued for the soup it yields ”

“ After ripping up the belly, he thrust in his arm, and drawing out the liver and a handful of coagulated blood, he invited the dogs to partake of it. The carcass being gutted, some dry fern is thrust in, the tail is drawn through the fore legs, and secured with a bit of whipcord, and then the game is suspended over the shoulder—no insignificant weight either. If the kangaroo be very heavy, the hind quarters only are carried, but the skin being of some value, it is not needlessly destroyed. ”

“ Such is the general structure of an adult kangaroo. At birth it is strangely different from what it ultimately becomes.
It is customary to speak of the human infant as exceptionally helpless at birth and after it, but it is at once capable of vigorous sucking, and very early learns to seek the nipple. The great kangaroo, standing some six feet high, is at birth scarcely more than an inch long, with delicate naked skin, and looking like part of an earthworm. But, in such feeble and imperfectly developed condition, the young-kangaroo cannot actively suck. ”

“ The hunting of the kangaroo is conducted on several distinct lines, the method of its pursuit being varied, according to whether the animal is required for the primary object of food, for the commercial value of its skin, as a matter of pure sport, or to accomplish its wholesale destruction in consequence of its encroachments on the pasturage required for sheep- and cattle-grazing. ”

“ The natives always cut it up in the same manner. The tail is sliced much as we carve a round of beef, while the body is cut into thin slices as far as the ribs, each slice having its own proportion of meat, blubber, and skin. The blubber is esteemed higher than any other portion of the animal, though even the tough skin can be rendered tolerably palatable by careful cooking.
Of all Australian animals, the kangaroo is most in favor, both on account of the excellent quality of the flesh, and the quantity which a single kangaroo will furnish. ”

“ In the wild state they are sometimes killed by the natives, who eat their flesh, but of the skin no use is made [6] . Upon finding a litter of young, the natives generally carry away one or two to rear. In this case it often occurs that the mother will trace and attack them; and being of a large size, and very strong, they are rather formidable. But, in general, they will stand and look for a few moments, and leisurely retire.
The mode in which they hunt the kangaroo is in small parties, or singly. ”

“ His country lying a little north of a line, mid-distant from the pole and equator, the climate of its low-lying lands is necessarily mild and very agreeable, so that bodily covering of any kind, though prized after habituation to it, was easily dispensed with, and the skin of the kangaroo, so fastened over one shoulder as not to impede the free use of the arms, was enough for the female and her infant, the adult male going generally quite naked. ”

“ Around its neck it has a large, loose skin which it is able to raise into a Queen Elizabeth ruff. Unlike all other lizards, this animal assumes in sitting the same posture as a kangaroo, and when startled it makes, like them, long jumps five to six feet high before it begins to run. ”

“ The originality pleases him for a little while, and then he gets doubtful of his choice, and makes a wretched compromise—the kangaroo is compromise all over—settling [Pg 467] down for the rest of his life to a tint midway between the light and the dark. If he lived a little longer he would probably experiment in blue. As it is, he sometimes makes an attempt in pink—with powder. Only the male kangaroo uses this cosmetic, and where he finds it and how he keeps it is a mystery; he doesn't put it on his face—he devotes it entirely to the complexion of his chest and stomach. ”

“ It is only because the pouch hangs under her very nose that she remembers she has a family at all. All the kangaroo's strength seems to have settled down into the hind legs and the tail, leaving the other parts comparatively weak, and the head superlatively useless, except as an attachment for the mouth. One would imagine that in the period which has elapsed since the Creation the feeblest-minded of animals would have had time to arrive at some final choice in the matter of coat-colour; but the kangaroo hasn't. He never makes up his mind about anything; he begins life in a pale-grey colour ”

“ By a sort of happy exaggeration he described it as "a monstrous animal, as tall as a grenadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping along at the rate of five hops to the mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of the pouch to see what is passing." Though not an aggressive animal, the kangaroo when at bay is one of the most formidable of opponents. This element of danger it is, probably, which lends so much zest to a kangaroo hunt. ”

“ When the animal is attacked, it uses its tail as a powerful instrument of defence, and also scratches violently with its hind feet. It generally sits upright, but brings its fore feet to the ground when it is grazing. It lives entirely on vegetable substances. The most curious part of the Kangaroo is the pouch which the female has in front for carrying her young. ”

“ But no; the remarkably large tail, the strong, active motions, the thick fur, the bright and gentle expression of the eyes, the erect posture of the kangaroo, unite to make it a very attractive animal. The kangaroo does not go on all fours except when it lowers itself for grazing; it holds itself up; its fore-paws hang before it like arms at rest and it moves by rapid leaps. When standing quietly, it supports itself upon its long, strong tail as well as upon the hind-legs. ”

“ The animal’s head is small, with rather pointed ears, and large but placid eyes; it has a thin and gracefully proportioned neck; so that a startling discrepancy is observable between the fore and the posterior parts of the animal, though the general effect is neither ungraceful nor unpleasing. It should be noticed that the kangaroo never folds his tail between his legs, which, I may add, are extraordinarily strong. ”

“ Of course, parrots, cockatoos and "sich-like," abound in the bush, to the horror of the small gardeners and cultivators, as what they do not eat they ruin by destroying the young shoots.
Kangaroos are extremely numerous in the scrub. They are the size of a large greyhound, and of a mouse colour. The natives call them "kanguru." The tail is of great strength. There are several varieties of them. The largest is the Great Kangaroo, of a greyish-brown colour, generally four or five feet high and the tail three. Some kangaroos are nearly white, others resemble the hare in colour. ”

“ Some move on the hind-feet alone, others on all fours; some live on the ground, others in trees, others again are able to fly. Most of them feed on grass, but some of them live on fruits, roots, and leaves; others again on meat and insects; while there are also marsupials that eat honey.
Ever since Captain Cook’s sailors in 1770 came and told him that they had seen the very devil hopping away on his hind legs in the form of an animal, the kangaroo has been inseparably associated with our ideas of Australia, the land of the kangaroo. ”

“ The development of organs and their force of action are constantly in ratio to the employment of those organs.
The kangaroo, a large animal carrying its young for safety in a natural pouch, stands erect and never uses its fore legs in walking. It leaps forward in prodigious bounds, propelled by the muscular power of its tail, which has grown and developed beyond even the hind legs in strength; while the fore legs have dwindled to insignificant size and importance. ”

“ They are, indeed, unlike any other creatures, and form the supreme development of the terrestrial and herbivorous section of the marsupial type, being admirably adapted to their environment, and occupying in Australia the place held in other countries by cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, and hares. For there are kangaroos of all sizes, ranging from the gigantic species, with its 6 foot stature, forming the subject of the present notice, down to the diminutive kangaroo-rats, no larger than rabbits. ”

“ If possible they keep the wind in their face, and when one is observed they take off their cloak, and when the animal stoops or turns his hack upon them they hastily advance, keeping a bush between, them for concealment. As they approach their prey, they move very lightly in a stooping posture, and only at the time when the noise of the, wind prevents their footsteps being heard. Should the kangaroo turn, round and observe them, they instantly stop and remain perfectly motionless until he resumes his feeding. ”

“ There are a few species, however, in which the body is in better proportion. In the Tree Kangaroos of New Guinea, for instance, the tail is very bushy, and the fore-legs almost as long as the hind ones.
The Great Kangaroo inhabits New South Wales, and Southern and Western Australia. It lives on low grassy hills and plains in the open parts of the country, feeding upon the low bushes and herbage, and sheltering itself in the high grass during the heat of the day. ”

“ The largest of the kangaroos are the red and the gray varieties, which are found all over Australia. Horses and dogs are bred for the sport of hunting them. The dogs are a cross between the greyhound and the deerhound, fleet of foot and very fierce. When brought to bay, the big kangaroo is dangerous and will attack a dog or a man. With its back against a tree it waits for its enemy. A dog that comes too near is grasped in the kangaroo’s forearms, hugged tightly to its breast, and disembowelled with a rip of one of its clawed feet. ”

“ The natives have likewise died off since the settlement of the country; and with their natural enemies removed, the kangaroos, which live wholly on grass, have increased till they have become a nuisance. A kangaroo eats as much as a sheep, and when a drove is undisturbed its numbers multiply with a rapidity that dismays the squatter on whose land it has made its home. ”

“ It may, however, be necessary to observe that the teats are several inches long and capable of great dilatation. And here I beg leave to correct an error which crept into my former publication wherein I asserted that, "the teats of the kangaroo never exceed two in number." They sometimes, though rarely, amount to four. There is great reason to believe that they are slow of growth and live many years. This animal has a clavicle, or collar-bone, similar to that of the human body. The general colour of the kangaroo is very like that of the ass, but varieties exist. ”

“ There is an increasing demand in the United States for kangaroo leather, as you are doubtless aware. Kangaroo flesh is put into tin cans for the market, but by far the greater part of the meat obtained from a single drive is left on the ground.
“Mr. Syme tells us that when the aboriginals used to hunt the kangaroos, they killed them with the boomerang or the spear. In hunting with the boomerang, they would creep up very slowly until within range, and whenever they threw the weapon, it was generally with fatal effect. ”

“ Tasmania once swarmed with kangaroos, but the hunters here, as upon the mainland, have nearly obliterated the species. Full-grown males sometimes measure six feet when standing upright, and weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds. The sharp claws of the short fore-feet are powerful weapons, and if brought to bay by the dogs when hunted, the male kangaroo will sometimes turn upon his pursuers and with his claws disembowel the largest dog. ”

“ The demand for its leather, which is so pleasant for summer shoes, has brought the kangaroo into imminent danger of extinction; and the Australians are contemplating measures for restricting the slaughter of the animal. ”

“ The female kangaroo is surely a wonder, and seems to be built on plans and specifications different from any other animal, cause she has got a fur-lined pouch on her stomach, just like a vest, that she carries her young in. ”

“ The kangaroo leaps only on its hinder legs, but its bounds surpass those of any other animal in length. It presses its fore limbs tightly against the chest, stretches the tail straight out backwards, thrusts the long and slender hind legs against the ground with all the force of the powerful thigh muscles, and darts like an arrow through the air in a low curve. The leaps follow in immediate succession, and each is at least nine feet, but the larger species cover, not infrequently, from twenty to thirty-three feet at a bound, the height of each leap being from six to ten feet. ”