―208―

For the Literary Magazine.

marvellous stories.

IGNORANCE, they say, is the
mother of credulity; but I think

this maxim is a false one. It is the
characteristic of human nature to
discredit what is opposite to our
own observation or experience.—
Whether this observation and ex-
perience be narrow or extensive,
we are equally disposed to deny
credit to that which contradicts it.
Perhaps it is the natural conse-
quence of enlarged knowledge to
produce credulity, or a disposition
to admit, if not the truth, yet, at
least, the likelihood or possibility of
facts, not enforced by the strongest
testimony, though such facts do not
coincide with our own experience.
The more we know, the larger are
the limits of possibility. Every new
fact or appearance is, of course, not
coincident with previous knowledge,
and seems to allow us to conjecture
the possibility or existence of things,
as remote from the fact just known,
as this fact is from what was previ-
ously known.

Should a traveller in unknown
countries, half a century ago, have
related, on his return, that, in this
remote region, he met with an ani-
mal, whose fore legs were not one-
fifth part, in length or size, of the
hind ones. Suppose him to say, that
the strength this animal has, in its
hind quarters, is very great: in its
endeavours to escape when sur-
prized, it springs from its hind legs,
and leaps at each bound about six
or eight yards, but does not appear
in running to let its fore feet come
near the ground; indeed they are
so very short, that it is not possible
that the animal can use them in
running: they have vast strength
also in their tail; it is, no doubt, a
principal part of their defence, when
attacked; for with it they can
strike with prodigious force, I be-
lieve with sufficient power to break
the leg of a man; nor is it impro-
bable that this great strength in the
tail may assist them in making those
astonishing springs.

The opossum (which, before the
discovery of America would have
been thought a natural impossibility)
is also very numerous here, but it is
not exactly like the American opos-

―209―

sum; it partakes a good deal of
the moka, in the strength of its tail,
and make of its fore legs, which are
very short in proportion to its hind
ones; like the opossum it has the
pouch, or false belly, for the safety
of its young in time of danger, and
its colour is nearly the same, but the
fur is thicker and finer. There are
several other animals of a smaller
size, down as low as the field rat,
which, in some part or other, par-
take of the moka and opossum. I
have caught many rats with this
pouch for carrying their young when
pursued, and the legs, claws, and
tail of this rat are exactly like those
of the moka. It was wonderful to
see what a vast variety of fish are
caught, which, in some part or other,
partake of the shark: it is no un-
common thing to see a skate's head
and shoulders to the hind part of a
shark, or a shark's head to the body
of a large mullet, and sometimes to
to the flat body of a sting-ray.

With respect to the feathered
tribe, the parrot prevails; I have
shot birds with the head, neck, and
bill of a parrot, and with the same
variety of the most beautiful plu-
mage on these parts for which that
bird here is distinguished, and a
tail and body of a different make
and colour, with long, straight, and
delicately made feet and legs, which
is the very reverse of any bird of
the parrot kind formerly known. I
have also seen a bird with the legs
and feet of a parrot, the head and
neck made and coloured like the
common sea-gull, and the wings and
tail of a hawk. I have likewise seen
trees bearing three different kinds
of leaves, and frequently have found
others bearing the leaf of the gum
tree, with the gum exuding from it,
and covered with bark of a very
different kind.

There are a great variety of birds
in this country; all those of the
parrot tribe are clothed with the
most beautiful plumage that can be
conceived; it would require an able
pencil to give a stranger an idea
of them, for it is impossible by words
to describe them. The common

crow is found here, but the sound
of their voice and manner of croak-
ing are very different from those in
Europe. Here are a great variety
of smaller birds, but I have not
found one with a pleasing note. I
have seen several large birds, which
I supposed, when I first saw them,
to be the ostrich, as they could not
fly when pursued, but ran so ex-
ceedingly fast, that a very strong
and fleet greyhound could not come
near them: it was, when standing,
seven feet two inches from its feet
to the upper part of its head. The
only difference which I could per-
ceive between this bird and the os-
trich was in its bill, which appears
to me to be narrower at the point;
and it has three toes, which, I am
told, is not the case with the ostrich.
It has one characteristic, by which it
may be known, and which may be
thought very extraordinary; this
is that two distinct feathers grew
out from every quill. The ants are
of various sizes, from the smallest
known in Europe, to the size of
nearly an inch long. Some are
black, some white, and some of the
largest sort, reddish. Those of this
kind are really a formidable little
animal; if you tread near the nest,
which is generally under ground,
with various little passages, or out-
lets, and have disturbed them, they
will sally forth in vast numbers, at-
tack their disturbers with asto-
nishing courage, and even pursue
them to a considerable distance;
and their bite is attended, for a
time, with a most acute pain. Some
build their nests against a tree, to
the size of a large bee-hive; an
other sort raises mounts on the
ground, of clay, to the height of four
feet. In speaking of the spider, it
would be improper to be silent on
the industry of this little creature:
I call them little, although, if com-
pared with our common spider, they
are very large; they spread their
web in the woods between trees,
generally to a distance of twelve or
fourteen yards, and weave them so
very strong, that it requires consi-
derable force to break them. I have

―210―

seen the silk of which the web is
composed wound off into a ball, and
think it equal to any I ever saw in
the same state from the silk worm.
I have found upon bushes, on which
the web has been hanging in clusters,
a thin shell, something like that
wherein the silk worm prepares its
silk, and, on opening them, I have
seen a quantity of this silk within,
in which a spider was found wrap-
ped up.

When speaking of birds, I should
have mentioned the black swan
which is found in some parts of the
west coast of this country; the
extremities of their wings are
white, and all the rest of the plumage
black. I have seen one which
answered the above description as
to colour, but the bill was a pale
pink, or crimson; it was about the
size of a common white swan, and
was good meat.

Here we will suppose the travel-
ler to end, though indeed the pa-
tience and attention of his hearers
must have ended long ago. These
stories would be classed with fic-
tions, no less absurd than impudent,
and their authors would speedily be
consigned to contempt and oblivion.
And yet such are almost literally
the representations made of the ani-
mals of New Holland, by the Eng-
lish governors of the colony in that
region, and which are supported by
such evidence as the ignorant would
probably reject, though the wise and
knowing cannot but admit it. Change
the word moka into kangaroo, and
the original of the strangest of these
pictures is familiar, by hearsay at
least, to most readers.