The First Description of a Kangaroo

Abstract

I HAVE just read in NATURE of February 26 (p, 715) a letter by Mr. W. B. Alexander concerning the discovery of Australia and the first description of a kangaroo. It is stated there that the, first discovery of this animal was made, not by Sir Joseph Banks on Captain Cook's first voyage in 1770, but by Pelsart in 1629. Mav I be allowed to point out that a description of a kangaroo is to be found at a much earlier date, viz., in the “Decades” of Peter Martyr, published shortly after 1500. Unfortunately this book is not accessible to me at present, so I must only point to numerous publications of Mr. Edward A. Petherick, of the Federal. Government Library, Melbourne, concerning the discovery of Australia, who claims this honour for Amerigo Vespucci. According to Mr. Petherick, Peter Martyr states that in 1499 a southern coast was discovered: (probably by Vespucci) in which trees grew of such magnitude that sixteen men standing around one could scarcely encompass it (this would correspond to south-west, Australia, between King George's Sound and Cape Leeu-win). Amongst these big trees was found a monstrous beast, with the head of a fox, the, hands of a man, the tail of a monkey, and that wonderful provision of nature, a bag in which to carry its young. The beast so described was caught alive with its young, but during the long voyage both died. The carcase of the dam was taken to the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella in the year 1500. This description is not as detailed as that by Pelsart; nevertheless it cannot easily be doubted that it refers to a kangaroo, which seems to have been known for the first time so far back as the end of the fifteenth century.