The Kangaroo Hunters; Or, Adventures in the Bush

"Then observe, papa," said Gerald, "how indignant it is at our impertinent remarks. See how it spreads its broad frill, and shows its sharp teeth, as if it wished to bite us. Must I knock it down?"

"Truly, Gerald," answered Mr. Mayburn, "my curiosity would overcome the feelings of humanity, and I should be tempted to desire to obtain the creature; but I see Arthur shakes his head at the suggestion. And, after all, we have no right to slaughter the unoffending animal."

Baldabella, on whose ears Mr. Mayburn's words fell in vain, looked with glittering eyes on the reptile, and raising her spear said in her new language, "Baldabella eat him." But the lizard, with an instinct of danger, ran swiftly up the tree, assisted by its hooked claws, and escaped the blow. When far above any fear of attack, it again calmly sat down, looking down on the baffled woman with a frightful sarcastic grin.

"There now!" said Ruth, "didn't I tell ye she were uncanny? She heard all 'at were said, as sure as we're here." For Ruth's conviction of its supernatural rank was not to be shaken by Mr. Mayburn's scientific demonstration.

After satisfying their curiosity in looking at the frilled lizard, Arthur called on his forces to resume their march. Before them now lay rich green hills, rising gradually above each other, and intersected by clear streams, flowing into the river they had left. These hills were the first steps to mountains which rose, high and rugged, even to the clouds. The hills, though tedious, would not be very difficult to ascend; but how to pass the mountains they could not yet judge.

The mountain-range ran, as far as the eye could reach, from north-east to south-west, and completely intercepted them in the road they desired to pursue. To pass them, if possible, must therefore be their aim; or a vast deal of time must be lost in making a circuitous course.

"We will ascend the hills, at all events," said Arthur, "and look round us. We may, perhaps, find some natural pass. We might even try a kangaroo-path, which must be found, for, see what herds of the animals are bounding along under the lofty trees on the hills."

"Oh, do let us have a kangaroo-hunt, Arthur!" exclaimed Hugh. "We are hungry, and kangaroo meat would fill us; and therefore, papa, we have a right to kill and eat."

"Let's see ye set about it," said Wilkins. "They're sharper fellows nor ye think on, them kangaroos, my lad. They're a match for most folks, barrin' ye have dogs, or follow them up till they fall tired, and that'll maybe, not be for half a day. I ken a good deal of kangaroo-hunting; but I'se not clear that them there chaps is so shy as down-country beasts; ye see, they'll niver like have clapped eyes atop on a man, and they'll not ken man's crafty ways."

"To the disgrace of human nature," said Mr. Mayburn, "what Wilkins suggests is true: wherever he is recognized by the brute creation, they instinctively

'Shun the hateful sight of man.'"

"Well, sir," said Gerald, "that is, I suppose, because the ignoble fears the noble – the coward the brave."

"And you may add, Gerald, the slave his tyrant," continued Mr. Mayburn. "It is ever thus with

'Man, proud man!

Dressed in a little brief authority.'"

"But, papa," said Hugh, "we are in need of food, and you must allow that it is more humane to destroy one kangaroo than a dozen cockatoos or pheasants."

"I agree with Hugh, papa," said Margaret. "We will, if possible, content ourselves to-day with taking one life."

Armed with spears and throwing-sticks, bows and arrows, and one boomerang which Baldabella had found, and which no one but herself could yet use, the hunters preceded Mr. Mayburn and Margaret. By the directions of the experienced Wilkins, they spread along in a line, to guard the foot of the hill; for he said the animal always took a downward course when it was alarmed, for, as its fore-feet never touch the ground in its greatest speed, it has more time in a descent to draw up the hind legs, to make the immense spring, than it could have with an ascent before it.

No sooner had the timid animals seen the strange forms of the hunters than they started off with such incredible speed, that no one unacquainted with their habits could have believed that their flight was a series of jumps, and that their fore-feet never touched the ground. In their confusion, some of the animals tried to penetrate the rank of the hunters, while some fled to the right or to the left. The spears and arrows showered amongst them, and more than one beast carried off the weapon sticking in him. But it was the boomerang of Baldabella which, after complicated and mysterious evolutions, struck and stunned a large animal, which Wilkins presently despatched with his knife.

Arthur then recalled the hunters, saying, "We will have no more slaughter. This large animal will supply us with as much meat as we can consume while it remains fresh, and it would be wanton to slay more."

The rear rank then joined them. The body of the kangaroo, suspended on a long pole, was shouldered by Wilkins and Jack, and the march was resumed. They ascended and descended several hills, till night and fatigue compelled them to rest in a little hollow, where a cooking-fire was made, and they supped with great enjoyment on venison steaks; and, like the early inhabitants of the world, before luxury and artificial wants had enervated them, they slept beneath the canopy of heaven, among the everlasting hills.

"Get up, Arthur," cried Hugh, early next morning. "Get up, and come to see our mountain-pass. Gerald discovered it, and therefore we propose to name it the 'Pass of Erin.'"

CHAPTER XVII

The Dangerous Pass. – The Coupled Travellers. – The Mountain Labyrinth. – The Emancipation of Ruth's Chickens. – A Combat à l'outrance. – The Ornithorhyncus. – The Forest in the Mountains. – Singing Birds. – The Laughing Jackass

Arthur was soon alert, and followed the boys, who led him up the side of the next high hill and along the ridge for about three hundred yards to the south west, and then pointed out to him a narrow rent or gorge in the mountain, lying far below the hill on which they stood; but from this hill a gradual ascent, formed by fallen rocks, made a rude path to a narrow shelf or terrace which they now saw far above them, and which ran along the precipitous side of the rocky wall. Arthur shuddered as he said, "Is that narrow terrace passable, do you think, Gerald?"

"Oh, yes," answered he; "Hugh and I had a run along it before we woke you, and it is not half so bad as it looks. We shall manage very well if we go 'goose-walk;' but I think it would not be safe for two abreast. To be sure, it is rather confusing to look down into the depths below; but we must give them all a caution, and I think it would be better to blindfold Ruth."

"There is nothing for us but to try it," said Arthur. "Let us return to breakfast before we set out."

"Yes, we might as well reduce the bulk of the kangaroo," said Hugh, "for it will be awkward to carry it along our pass."

But when the plan was fully arranged, it was judged expedient to cut up the kangaroo, and only carry away sufficient for another day's consumption. Even the useful skin was reluctantly abandoned, as Arthur knew well they must have no unnecessary encumbrance. Ruth could not, however, be persuaded to leave her pet fowls, but resolutely set out with her basket on her arm.

Then, after beseeching a blessing on their perilous journey, they marched forward, and gradually ascending the hills, they reached the narrow path that skirted the mountain. This natural shelving was scattered over with loose stones, and occasionally broken away till a ledge of only about five or six feet was left for them; but the creeping plants that covered the rock enabled the timid to grasp a kind of support on one hand, as they moved cautiously along the unequal and perilous path. Below this terrace yawned a deep gully, that formed the bed of a stream, which at all seasons washed its sides. This stream was now shallow, and moved sluggishly; but rugged crags, and torn-up trees, lying in the bed, showed that raging torrents must pour into it after the rainy season.

From the interstices of the bush-covered rocks sprang the gray-leaved gum-tree, the elegant casuarina, and a bright-leaved tree resembling the box, but lofty and strong. Among these trees parrots and cockatoos chattered incessantly, and on the gum-trees hundreds of little active opossums sported with all the playfulness of monkeys; and Mr. Mayburn was so interested in watching them hang from the branches, suspended by their curved tail, to rifle the nests of the birds, or feed on the numerous insects round them, that Arthur, in alarm, stepped back to hold his father by the arm.

"I tell you what we must do, Arthur," said Gerald; "we must be linked in couples, as the travellers on the Alps are; then, if one makes a false step, there's a chance for his mate to draw him up."

"No bad plan, Gerald," answered Arthur; "but we must take care to couple with judgment. The prudent or brave must take charge of the rash or the timid. I will take papa; Jack, his unlucky sister; Hugh, Margaret, or, more correctly, Margaret must take Hugh; Wilkins will take charge of nurse; and you, the neglected proposer of this wise measure, cannot profit by it, unless you will submit to be guided by Baldabella, who seems to trip along with her lively burden unapprehensive of danger."

Hugh preferred to walk unfettered; and Arthur had no fears for the native woman, whose firm and steady step showed that she had been accustomed to such rough and scrambling paths.

Arthur, who was the first of the line, now became uneasy, as, on looking before him, he remarked that, as far as the eye could reach, there appeared to be no termination to the mountain wilderness. He could have fancied that a labyrinth of broken, precipitous, lofty, and interminable rocks shut them completely from the world. It was a bewildering prospect, and even the strong heart of Arthur almost failed him, and his head whirled at the sight of such stupendous and uncertain difficulties.

A scream from Ruth recalled him to his immediate duties, and on turning round he saw her much-valued basket of poultry bound down the precipice over the bushes, till it rested on a lower ledge, some hundreds of feet beneath them, where it flew open, and the fowls, uninjured by their involuntary flight, fluttered from their prison, and began calmly to peck about for food; while the little bantam cock proclaimed his liberty by shaking his plumes and uttering his conceited hoarse crow.

"They are settlers now, Ruth," cried Gerald, laughing; "the first colonists – regular squatters. How astonished future travellers will be when they make the curious discovery: a species of bird remarkably like Gallus Barndoorii. What grand names they will bestow on them! and write long papers, and puzzle ornithologists."

But the patriarch of this new species was not allowed to squat among the aborigines with impunity; his triumphant notes were answered by a crow of defiance in a less familiar tone from a splendid cock pheasant, which pounced down on the new comer with a furious peck, that the true-trained English bird, notwithstanding his foreign ancestry, could not brook. The brave little bantam retaliated boldly, and a furious combat ensued, causing even the English hens to raise their heads from their pleasant feast, and appear somewhat interested in the event; while Ruth shrieked, "He'll kill him! Jack, honey! throw a stone at him! drive him off! Chuck! chuck!"

But though Ruth's familiar cry failed to separate the combatants à l'outrance, the pleased hens recognized the well-known call, and responded to it by fluttering and scrambling up the mountain side, to partake of the scattered grain; and in the fulness of their feast, they were easily captured, and stowed in separate bags and pouches, till a new dwelling could be made for them.

Then the little feathered hero below, having vanquished and left his antagonist for dead, perched for a moment on the pinnacle of a shattered rock, and crowed triumphantly, as if to defy the whole race of native birds; after which demonstration, he leisurely followed his female friends up the steep, to share their feast and their captivity.

Notwithstanding the alarm and delay caused by this accident, there was something amusing about it that was not without its beneficial effects. Ruth continued to lament the loss of her basket; but Jack scolded her seriously for her foolish fears and awkwardness, which were the sole cause of the loss. He declared the fowls were absolute pests, and wholly useless in a region where birds and eggs dropped into your hands; but his remonstrances having produced tears of penitence and promises of amendment, he relented, and promised to make for her a coop, or cage, of cane, which would be easier to carry than the basket, and afford more air to the unfortunate prisoners.

After wandering for two days along their frequently dangerous, and always difficult, aerial pathway, resting only when they came to some rocky hollow, they began to pine for a less-hazardous road; and they now perceived that, with the usual caprice of Australian rivers, the stream in the narrow bed below them had disappeared, though slender rills continually fell from the mountains, but subsided into bogs, or formed pools below. They therefore resolved, if they could safely accomplish it, to descend to the bed of the river; and endeavor to extricate themselves from the rocky maze in which they seemed hopelessly involved.

After another day's travelling, they fancied the descent appeared more practicable than it had yet been since they set out on the shelving terrace, and it was decided to make the trial. The first step would decidedly be the most difficult. About twelve feet below them another shelf of rock projected, wider than that on which they now stood; but how to reach it was a puzzling question, for the descent was perpendicular, and quite overgrown with thorny bushes.

"If you will help me, Master Hugh," said Jack, "I think we may manage it. We must just cut down the bushes into steps like for them that feel timid."

Employment was the grand need of the active boys, and to clear a passage as low as they could reach, and then step down on the bushes to work below, was a pleasant amusement. The stone axes were now found to be perfectly serviceable, and they soon cut six clearances, each two feet deep, graduating like a staircase, of which the matted brush formed the steps, which reached to the lower terrace; and down the staircase the agitated females were, one after another, assisted, and safely placed on the broad shelf.

This was a decided victory, and they now saw, to their great satisfaction, that the lower descent sloped so much, from accumulated rocks and drift-wood, that by clearing the way with the axes, they easily reached the comparative security of the muddy bed of the vanished river. They looked round on the immense walls which inclosed them with some dismay; then Gerald said, —

"Now, Meggie, we only want the great rains to come on, and then we shall have some notion of the situation of sinful man in the Deluge."

"I trust, my dear boy," said Mr. Mayburn, "that you do not allude to that fearful judgment with levity. And surely, Arthur, we are not near the time of the terrific tropical rains."

"Usually, papa, I believe the heaviest autumnal periodical rains are in February and March," said Arthur. "We are now in the midst of summer; still I must confess I have read of continued rains, even at this season; but I trust we shall be in a safer locality before such trying weather comes on. We are certainly progressing in the way we wish to go; but the immense extent of the mountain-range is extraordinary. Fortunately, we are not in a desert, we are surrounded by plenty, and as far as we have yet penetrated, ferocious animals seem unknown; and more, ferocious man rarely encountered. I only fear for your strength, dear papa, and for that of dear Meggie."

"Fear not for us, Arthur," answered Margaret; "you know I am naturally strong; and God has given renewed life and health to dear papa. His delight in these new and varied scenes of Nature makes every toil light to him. Observe him now, pausing and contemplating something at yon large pond; let us join him. Now, papa! what is the new discovery?"

"Wonderful, my children," said he. "Behold this marvellous new creature. Undoubtedly it must be the Ornithorhyncus paradoxus, the duck-billed Platypus, which I should have recognized, from the numerous sketches I have seen; and my warmest hopes are fulfilled in the happiness of really looking on the rare animal in its native wilds."

"Is't a duck, think ye, Miss Marget?" asked Ruth, with a kind of awe.

"Has a duck four legs, Ruth?" asked Gerald. "Has it fur on its back, and a broad finny tail? No, Ruth, this is not a strange fowl, but a strange beast."

"Nevertheless," said Mr. Mayburn, "there are irreconcilable circumstances in such a decision. This animal, if we rank it among the mammalia, belongs to no order yet named, but stands alone. Quadruped it is, certainly; web-footed, certainly; ovo-viviparous, certainly, as the eggs are hatched before birth, and the young then suckled, like the mammalia. Feeding on worms and grubs, like the duck; sleeping rolled up, like the hedgehog; playful as the monkey, and harmless as the dove; – we cannot but look with astonishment and admiration on this remarkable caprice of Nature."

"They're ugly beasts, that I'll say," was Jenny's remark, "and not half so good as a duck for such as us; but I'se warrant them poor heathens eat 'em as we would a roast goose."

Leaving the platypus, which they now saw at every pool as they proceeded, they walked on till the ravine gradually became wider, but the mountain-line still spread on each side. Soon after, the pools disappeared, and rich grass supplied their place. Wild and wonderful was now their daily journey, for before them lay immense untrodden forests, inclosed between lofty cliffs, which rose to the clouds, and the travellers felt inspired with awe as they looked round on the majesty of Nature.

Yet the softer features of loveliness were not absent; every step was on some beautiful, usually some quite new, plant, and the lofty forest trees were of species now first seen, and were garlanded round with flowering creepers of the most brilliant dyes; while the rich perfume of the jasmine, and the heliotrope-like odor of the golden-blossomed acacia filled the air. Bright orchidæ, unnamed and unknown, masses of ferns of unexampled beauty, were scattered round this vast conservatory of nature; and amidst all this profusion, thousands of birds whistled, chattered, warbled, and uttered the startling foreign notes which assure you that you are in a strange land.

There was the sweet-voiced bell-bird, a pretty little creature, whose notes ring with a silver sound; there was the pert pied bird, which might seem really a magpie, if it were not tailless, which has a low flute-like song, swelling like the organ; whence it is named by the colonists the organ-magpie; and as each strain of these warblers died away, the loud, hoarse, derisive notes of a curious bird, resembling none of the known species of the world, seemed to ridicule the musical performers.

"No doubt, papa," said Hugh, "this must be the 'laughing jackass,' of which we have read an account. Do you hear the regular 'Ha! ha! ha!' from which he derives his name, and which sounds so strangely when mingled with the notes of the warblers? But now he has roused all the cockatoos and parrots, who are screaming their jargon above all other sounds."

"Just listen, Hugh," said Gerald, "those jackass birds are surely blowing a penny trumpet. Did you ever hear such a noise – laughing, braying, trumpeting? you might fancy you were at a country fair. How Ruth does stare! I say, Ruth, what do you think of them?"

"Will they be Christians, Master Gerald?" asked the trembling girl.

"Hopeless heathens, Ruth," answered the wild boy; "feathered donkeys, flying punches, instinctive mocking-birds, repeating sounds which they have never heard. See, papa, there is one of the jolly fellows, perched on yon gum-tree. What a monstrous beak he has!"

"I contemplate the bird with great interest, my boy," answered Mr. Mayburn. "It has been classed with the Halcyons by naturalists, and named Dacelo gigantea; yet, in its social habits, and flexible and apt organs of voice, it seems rather to resemble the jay. It is somewhat remarkable that amidst the gorgeously-attired birds that surround it, this rarely-gifted bird wears a garb so simple and unadorned. You observe that it frequents the gum-tree, and its sombre plumage, assimilating so happily with the gray foliage of the tree, is at once a protection and a distinction. How rejoiced I should be, my dear boy, if we could make a complete collection of these rare creatures; but the difficulties of transporting them safely in our journey are insurmountable."

"Wait, sir," replied Gerald, "till we catch our quaggas; then Jack will make us a wagon, which we can convert into a menagerie, filled with curious animals, and drawn by our own beasts."

"The quagga is not a native of Australia, Gerald," replied Mr. Mayburn; "nor does the country, happily, produce any of the large and fierce quadrupeds. We must not dare to think of any vehicle for travelling; yet many hundred miles separate us from the useful animals of our dear friends the Deverells; and my heart fails me when I reflect on the improbability of our ever reaching them."

Margaret sighed as she said, "And I too, dear papa, cannot help many idle wishes that we were come to open plains, and more direct paths. These lovely wilds of Nature, forests and mountains, are very charming; but they seem too romantic and unreal to be satisfactory. If we were to keep a journal, and publish it hereafter, we should, I fear, be ridiculed for inventing fairy tales."

"In truth, Margaret," answered her father, "fairy tales were not originally mere inventions of the imagination. They were the offspring of the experience of observing travellers over lovely untrodden wilds like these. And what are the miraculous transformations they describe but such as might really happen – the ingenious contrivances of man when destitute of all the resources of civilized life? Has not Jack transformed a flint-stone into an axe? and have we not cups and plates which were once the abodes of the shell-fish? Difficulties originate miraculous efforts, and man is indebted to the good fairies, Necessity and Ingenuity, for many of his comforts."

"Very true, dear papa," said Arthur; "and the fairy Necessity now calls on us peremptorily to escape from these forests, where I have twice during this day heard the coo-ee of the natives, though at a considerable distance before us. I have been for some time anxiously examining the south side of the gorge for any outlet which may enable us to turn away from their haunts."

They had been making their way for some hours along the southern extremity of the forest, still hemmed in by the high rocks, when Gerald, creeping into a narrow cleft, declared that he had found a tunnel, and called on Hugh to assist him in exploring it. Fearful that they should bewilder themselves in the recesses of the mountains, Arthur proposed that all the party should enter the opening, which was a cavern of great height and space, where they might remain till he and his brothers penetrated further into the rocks. They lighted some dry branches for torches, and set out, satisfied that the rest would be in safety in this secure retreat.

The boys found this tunnel descend gradually: sometimes it was narrow and low, sometimes wide and encumbered with fallen fragments of rock; still, it was airy, and they were able to pass on, till they concluded they must have walked half a mile. They were then so desponding that they thought of turning back, but at length a glimmering of light satisfied them that there must be another outlet, and they took courage to proceed, till they reached a matted thicket of brushwood through which they forced their way, and then had the pleasure of seeing the sky above their heads, though they were still in a very narrow gully. It seemed to be the dry bed of a rivulet, choked up with stones and torn-up bushes. Before them rose another line of bush-covered mountains, but not so lofty or precipitous as those they had left behind.