Kangaroo Hunting.
Kangarooing in Tasman's Peninsula is essentially a pedestrian sport. I
am aware that in an open country, and especially in New South Wales,
where the chase is followed on horseback, my assertion may seem like
rank heresy.
I have pursued the sport both mounted and on foot, and if a horse
enables you occasionally, on comparatively unincumbered ground, to see
something more of the run, you must still have pedestrians to hunt the
dogs. After all, decide this point as you will, we esteem it the
poorest variety of the chase. Some excitement must necessarily attend
it, but too much is left to the imagination, and too little of either
the game or the dogs is given to the eye.
It is rarely, except when on horseback, that one has the good fortune
to be in at the death, or to see the kangaroo pulled down.
The ground is usually hilly, the scrub thick, and the grass high. It
is needless to say that on the present occasion we were all on foot.
Forestier's Peninsula is no place for a horse, except the traveller be
jogging along the rugged and little frequented track which leads to
Hobart Town, by a most circuitous route.
Away then we strode, skirting the shore pretty closely, until we came
to a valley which had been partially cleared by one of those extensive
bush conflagrations which are of annual occurrence.
The forest is fired in several places every summer, with a view to
keeping down the scrub, and giving a chance of growth to the grass and
the larger forest trees.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142