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This creature is fairly represented in America by the Coyote of Mexico, and the Barking Wolf of the prairies; and in Asia, upon the steppes of Tartary, by the Corsac. Even in Australia, where new mammalia have turned up in such odd and fantastic forms, the wolf has his congener in that curious creature known as the Tasmanian wolf.
As he approached the hut, he heard the screams of women and the voice of a blackfellow, who was hammering on the door with his waddy. He was a tame blackfellow who had been educated at the Missionary Station. He could write English, say prayers, sing hymns, read the Bible, and was therefore named Parson Bedford by the Derviners, after the Tasmanian Missionary.
Many of them are now rarely to be found near the settlements, but one kind is pretty certain to be found at all times and seasons the Tasmanian devil. This ugly beast is a terror to any neighborhood. An English hunter described it by saying that it was more bear than wildcat, and more wildcat than bear and bear-cat it is frequently called.
It is distant three miles and a half from the nearest point of Flinders, where is situated the settlement of Tasmanian natives. A tide of from half to one knot sets through between, and the flood-stream comes from the northward. The outline of Hummock Island is so remarkable that it cannot fail of being recognised. The north-west part of Flinders Island has a bold rugged outline.
You may rob this lady's coco-patch, steal her canoes, burn down her house, and slay her family scatheless; but one thing you must not do: you must not lay a hand upon her sleeping-mat, or your belly will swell, and you can only be cured by the lady or her husband. Here is the report of an eye-witness, Tasmanian born, educated, a man who has made money certainly no fool.
The English immigrant lives in the same climate as the Australian or Tasmanian, but he has not become like those races; nor will a thousand years, in most respects, make him like them. The Papuan and the Malay, as Mr. Wallace finds, live now, and have lived for ages, side by side in the same tropical regions, with every sort of diversity.
Bonwick’s account of the work of Tasmanian women may be taken as typical “In addition to the necessary duty of looking after the children, the women had to provide all the food for the household excepting that derived from the chase of the kangaroo. In addition to this, they carried, on their frequent tramps, the household stuffs in native baskets of their own manufacture.”
These remarks are based on the assumption that the electors vote on strictly party lines, which a reference to Tasmanian returns will show is not usually the case. Few will be disposed to agree that a knowledge of the successful candidates is a matter of small moment.
Be this as it may, the remark, with our present scanty matcrials, is, at best, but a suggestion a suggestion, however, which would account for the physical appearance of the Tasmanian being more New Caledonian than Australian. The chief point of resemblance between the Louisiade and the New Caledonian is taken from the numerals.
I have headed this letter 'Literature and Art,'so that I am morally bound to say something about the latter, although there is next to nothing to say. Australia has not yet produced any artist of note. Perhaps the best is Mr. E. C. Dowling, and he is a Tasmanian. Resident in Victoria is a M. Louis Buyelot, a landscape artist of considerable merit.
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