Kanguru!
James Cook describes his first sight of a beloved Australian icon.
1770
King George III 1760-1820
James Cook describes his first sight of a beloved Australian icon.
1770
King George III 1760-1820
James Cook captained ‘Endeavour’ on a round trip to New Zealand and Australia from 1768 to 1771. Between June and August 1770, the ship lay at the mouth of the Endeavour (Wabalumbaal) River in north Queensland, undergoing repairs. Cook kept a meticulous journal, in which he described some of the animals he saw.
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I SAW myself this morning, a little way from the ship, one of the animals before spoke of; it was of a light mouse colour and the full size of a greyhound, and shaped in every respect like one, with a long tail, which it carried like a greyhound; in short, I should have taken it for a wild dog but for its walking or running, in which it jumped like a hare or deer.
Another of them was seen today by some of our people, who saw the first; they described them as having very small legs, and the print of the feet like that of a goat;* but this I could not see myself because the ground the one I saw was upon was too hard, and the length of the grass hindered my seeing its legs.
Besides the animals which I have before mentioned, called by the natives kanguru, here are wolves, possums, an animal like a rat, and snakes, both of the venomous and other sorts.*
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See Footprints of the Eastern Grey kangaroo. Presumably, the ‘very small legs’ were the fore legs, the hind legs being concealed by long grass as they were when Cook saw his kangaroo.
The wolf may have been a Dingo. See also Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula).
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
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