water with them. They often spoke of the places they had seen as being very pleasant.
I never saw or heard of any native dogs on the Island of Kangaroo; and from the very great number of kangaroos, do not believe there are any. Some of the kangaroos which I killed on the Island weighed 120lbs.
Our men used to go to hunt them at sunrise, when they leave the woods to feed on the grassy plains. I have known as many as fifteen taken by my men in one morning. We never touched any part but the hind quarters.
GEORGE SUTHERLAND,
Commander of the Brig Governor Macquarrie
In a course of interrogatories put to Captain
Sutherland by a Committee appointed to examine into the
evidence as to the soil, &c., he further stated that the
kangaroos were larger and fatter than any he had seen
on the main land; and that during his stay on the Island,
he and his men killed 1500 of them. From having
cultivated land in Van Diemen's Land, he was able to form
a tolerable judgment as to the character of the soil, and
he thought the land of Kangaroo Island superior to
that of Van Diemen's Land; the soil of the Island is a
deep loam on a bed of blue clay. The climate is better
also; it is milder, and the rains are more regular.
There was no ice during his stay there, which included the whole winter.
The prevailing winds in winter are westerly. Kangaroo Island five or six days' sail from Circular Head, the establishment of the Van Diemen's Land Company; and a vessel calling at the Island from England would not be delayed more than five or six days. The wind would be fair if she kept along the coast. Nepean Bay can be entered at all times, and the
