Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 462 pages of information about Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1.

Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 462 pages of information about Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1.

If not very far in the hole the native puts in his arm, and draws it out by the tail, striking its head violently against the tree to prevent its biting him, as soon as it is clear of the orifice; if the hole be deep, the furthest point to which the animal can recede is ascertained, and an opening made near it with whatever implement he may be using.  If the whole trunk of the tree, or a large portion of it be hollow, a fire is made in the lower opening, which soon drives out the game.

When opossums are hunted by moonlight, the native dog is useful in scenting them along the ground where they sometimes feed, and in guiding the native to the tree they have ascended, when alarmed at his approach.  They are then either knocked down with sticks or the tree is ascended as in the day time.

Flying squirrels are procured in the same way as opossums.  The sloth, which is an animal as large as a good sized monkey, is also caught among the branches of the larger scrub-trees, among which it hides itself; but it is never found in holes.

Wallabies are of many kinds, and are killed in various ways.  By hunting with bwirris, by nets, by digging out of the ground; the larger sorts, as rock wallabies, by spearing, and several kinds by making runs, into which they are driven.  In hunting with bwirris (a short heavy stick with a knob at one end) a party of natives go out into the scrub and beat the bushes in line, if any game gets up, the native who sees it, gives a peculiar “whir-rr” as a signal for the others to look out, and the animal is at once chased and bwirris thrown at him in all directions, the peculiar sound of the “whir-rr” always guiding them to the direction he has taken.  It rarely happens that an animal escapes if the party of natives be at all numerous.

In netting the wallabies, a party of seven or eight men go in advance, with each a net of from twenty to forty feet long, and when they arrive near the runs, usually made use of by these animals, a favourable spot is selected, and the nets set generally in a line and nearly together, each native concealing himself near his own net.  The women and children who, in the mean time had been making a considerable circuit, now begin to beat amongst the bushes with the wind, shouting and driving the wallabies before them towards the nets, where they are caught and killed.

Other species of the wallabie burrow in the ground like rabbits, and are dug out.  The large rock-wallabies are speared by the natives creeping upon them stealthily among the rugged rocks which they frequent, on the summits of precipitous heights which have craggy or overhanging cliffs.

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Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.