3. The animals peculiar to Australia are even more strange than its plants. Of all the useful animals belonging to other countries, not a single representative was found here. All our domestic animals, however, have been introduced, and thrive remarkably well. One, indeed, the rabbit, has thriven so well as to form a serious pest. So rapidly do these animals multiply here that the colonists are obliged to incur much expense in the effort to keep down their numbers. Of the quadrupeds found elsewhere Australia only possessed, when first discovered, some species of rats and mice and a sort of wild dog, or dingo. Most of the native animals are pouched, like the kangaroo. 4. Dingoes cannot be trained for the service of man. They are always ready to prey upon his flocks. So great a pest are these animals, in certain parts, that each man on a sheep-station is expected to carry strychnine, in order to poison the carcase of any dead animal he may chance to find in his wanderings, with the view of destroying the dingoes that may happen to feed upon it. These animals destroy far more than they devour. On entering a sheepfold they bite and kill without stint or stay. There is, however, one drawback to their wholesale destruction, as they are the natural enemies of the kangaroo. Since the dingoes have become scarce, the kangaroo has multiplied greatly. In some districts droves of these animals are still seen, eating up every blade of grass and starving the sheep off the land. 5. As the native productions of Australia are of little service to man, it is not surprising to find the natives a low order of savages. There is no bond of union between them. They consist of many tribes, always ready to go to war with each other. It is supposed that about 50,000 survive, but through intemperance, wars and diseases, their numbers are gradually dwindling. They have already almost disappeared from the more settled parts, but as such a large proportion of Australia is uninhabitable by white men, they will probably long linger in the more remote quarters of the continent. 6. Like all wandering savages, their senses are remarkably acute, and their skill and cunning in hunting and snaring beasts and birds can hardly be surpassed. Advantage is taken of this fact by the Australians, who employ them to track out fugitives, when offenders against the law have to be pursued, or when cattle have strayed.