Australia -- Description and travel; New Zealand -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
labour, an important point for work that has to be so largely delegated.
The life is healthy and interesting, and on up-to-date runs like the
ones seen, looked exceedingly pleasant. The young fellows come as a rule
from families of good class and generally have means of their own--a
combination which should make the life history of the Jackaroo not
unrewarding to the student of the fauna of these parts. His own point of
view would have been worth obtaining, but being young he was modest and
said little. He rode buck-jumpers for the Prince. He buck-jumped rather
specially well, as might be expected of a Jackaroo. His name is a
felicity that will outlive much topography. One wonders who invented it.
The Prince on several occasions shared in the sport of kangaroo chasing,
which leaves fox-hunting standing. On one occasion he rode all day
guided by sons of his hosts through vast paddocks fenced with wire, over
an even carpet of young green grass, which was then just springing up
after floods following three years of drought, and took many a jump over
fallen trunks of trees killed by systematic ringing to make way for
fodder raising. On the way thirty or forty kangaroos were seen and five
of them were chased over formidable obstacles which the "old men"--the
male kangaroos--cleared with extraordinary ease in their long hopping
stride, at a pace that took greyhounds all they could do to overtake.
These kangaroos eat sometimes by no means an inconsiderable amount of
pasture needed for the sheep, and some years ago were being so
extensively shot down that they were in danger of being exterminated. A
close season was introduced and now they are increasing to the extent,
in some localities, of again becoming troublesome. They are much the
colour of the tree trunks, and until startled are easily overlooked in
the bush. They are off with most wonderful grace and agility the moment
they are disturbed and can even clear the high barbed wire fences by
which the runs are bounded provided they approach at a right angle. When
running parallel to the fence they cannot get the necessary foothold for
a big enough spring. This is sometimes taken advantage of by the rider,
who, being of course unable to put his horse over so formidable an
obstacle, endeavours to head off the kangaroo in such manner that it may
reach the fence at a slanting angle. In this case the chase continues
alongside instead of being finished by the kangaroo's escape over the
fence. When overtaken by dogs, which are often used in the chase, the
kangaroo makes a gallant fight for life, and many a hound has been
ripped open and killed by a well-directed kick from its powerful hind
feet, before it can be shot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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