The latest news from Australia let us know of the loss, with all hands, of the english ship Dunbar, which ran aground one mile away from Port Jackson, in the night of 20th to 21st of August 1857, during a hurricane that had been lasting since the 18th.
Here are some details about this shipwreck, from which only one crew member of the Dunbar escaped, out of one hundred and twenty people, including both crew and passengers, who were on board at the time of the disaster.
The Dunbar, 1,321 tons, had left Plymouth under Captain …Read more »
Tags: Australia, L'Illustration, scenes, sea, shipwreck, tempest
KANGAR00 s. Mamm. Kind of marsupial, which includes several species of quadrupeds living in Australia and the nearby islands, remarkable by the volume of their tail, which they use for leaping, and by the amazing length of their lower limbs. Kangaroos feed on plants, grazing like ruminants and like them, according to Owen, they sometimes chew twice the food contained in their first stomach; they vary in height, from that of a man to that of a hare; when grazing, they put their forefeet on the ground, but otherwise they rest on the tripod formed by their hindlegs and their tail, with the upper part of the body slightly bent forward. They are the only marsupials not to be nocturnal. The largest and best known species is the large kanguroo (macropus giganteus, Shaw), discovered in 1770 on the coast of New South Wales during Cook’s first travel; an adult male owned by the British museum, measures 175 cm (5′9″) from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail; the latter being 4′3″ long; the female kangaroo is …Read more »
Tags: animals, Australia, mammals, marsupials, Trousset encyclopedia, zoology