When hunting the kangaroo, the native Australian rivals in energy and perseverance, in skill and keenness of eye, the Red Indian tracking the wild animals of the Brazilian forest. His glance roves from side to side, in a vigilant, uneasy manner. As soon as he sees a kangaroo, he checks his pace and stands immovable, like one transfixed; while his wives, who are at some distance behind him, fall to the ground as if they had been shot. Looking about a hundred yards to the right of the native, you will see a kangaroo erect upon its hind legs and supported by its tail; it is reared to its utmost height, so that its head is between five and six feet above the ground; its short fore-paws hang by its sides, its ears are pointed: it is listeningas carefully as the native; and you see a little head peering out⑩from the pouch,to inquire what has alarmed its mother. Thenative moves not: you cannot tell whether it is a human being or the charred trunk of a burned tree which is before you, and for several minutes the whole group preserve their relative position. At length the kangaroo becomes re?ssured, drops upon its fore- paws, gives an awkward leap or two, and goes on feeding.
Meantime the native advances stealthily and by slow stages, with his arm raised in the attitude of throwing his spear, until he is within reach of his prey. At last the whistling spear penetrates the devoted animal: then the wood rings with shouts; women and children all join pell-mell in the chase. After a time the exhausted animal turns on its pursuers, places its back against a tree, and prepares to seize and rend any one who may approach too near. The wily native keeps clear of its murderous embrace, and kills it by throwing spears into its breast from the distance of a few yards.
As the land within the tropics is remarkable for the greatness of its physical aspects, so the tropical oceans are pre?minentfor the violence of their storms. In the Indian and Chinese Seas these convulsions of nature generally take place at the change of the monsoons; in the West Indies, at the beginning and at the end of the rainy seasons. The tornado which devastated the Island of Guadeloupe in July 1846, blew down buildings constructed of solid stone, and tore the guns of a battery from their carriages. Another, which raged some years ago in the Mauritius, demolished a church and drove thirty-two vessels on the strand. A few days later, a fleet of crippled vessels, the victims of the recent hurricane, might have been seen making their way into the harbour of Port Louis-some dismasted, others kept afloat with difficulty, firing guns of distress or giving other signs of their helpless condition.
Such are the terrible effects of the tornadoes and cyclones of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans; but the storms of the misnamed Pacific are no less furious, and frequently overwhelm the coral islands and palm-groves of Polynesia with destruction. A hurricane which, in April 1845, burst over Pitcairn Island, washed all the fertile mould from the rocks, and, uprooting three hundred cocoa-nut trees, cast them into the sea. Every fishing-boat on the island was destroyed, and thousands of fruit-bearing bananas were swept away.
Though the tropical storms are thus frequently a scourge,they are often productive of no less signal benefits. Many a murderous epidemic has suddenly ceased after one of these natural convulsions; and myriads of insects, the destroyers of the planter"s hopes, are swept away by the fierce tornado. Besides, if the equatorial hurricanes are much more furious than our storms, a more luxurious vegetation effaces their vestiges in a shorter time. Thus Nature teaches us that a preponderance of good is frequently concealed behind the paroxysms of her apparently unbridled rage.
- Adapted from HARTWIG
WORDS
antelope, a ruminant animal. awkward, clumsy. characterize, distinguish.
circumference, measurement around.
complicated, involved. concentrate, attract. constitute, form. cyclones, rotatory storms. devastated, desolated.
diameter, measurement through. dismounted, unhorsed. distinguishable, discernible. elevated, held aloft.
encounter, meet with. epidemic, infectious disease. estuaries, river-mouths. exhausted, tired-out. familiarity, friendliness. fertility, fruitfulness. fluctnates, moves about. gazelle, a kind of antelope. humanity, the human race. hurricane, violent storm.