on the plains; and when the volcanoes, now cold and smokeless, sent forth clouds of ashes and pillars of fire.
FIG. 14.
The native dog is not a decayed European species, but one entirely and exclusively Australian.[1] Fig. 14 shows him as he usually appears.
Climbing Trees.
The natives are compelled by their necessities to ascend trees very frequently, either for the purpose of catching animals, or for honey, or for bark for their canoes or willams; and they are very expert and nimble in climbing to a great height, whether the tree be straight or crooked, or of large or small dimensions. The clumsy attitudes of a European who attempts to climb a pole or a tree would excite the merriment of the Australian natives. They not only do their business well, but, as a rule, do it gracefully.
The common method of climbing trees is well known. The native takes his tomahawk and cuts a notch in the bark of the tree about three and a half or four and a half feet from the ground. He puts the great toe of one foot into this, and, raising himself as high as he can, and grasping the tree with one arm, he cuts another notch a stage higher, and thus ascends. He works very rapidly; and it is rare indeed that a black misses his hold and falls to the ground. In the basin of the River Yarra, and in the Western Port district,
- ↑ Grey mentions having seen a dog in North-Western Australia altogether different in appearance from the dingo or Canis Australiensis. It resembled the Malay dog common to the island of Timor. Grey never saw one wild—only domesticated and in the vicinity of the natives.—North-West and Western Australia, vol. I., p. 239.
