The upper part of a mastodon gives one an idea of the tremendous size and strength the animal must have had. The casts of the fish-eating reptiles and saurians are marvellous. Any one going through the museum and noting the productions of Western Australia, past and present—other than gold, which many people seem to think is the only thing the colony can produce—will be considerably surprised.
The marsupials are, I think, of especial interest, and of these there is a large and varied collection. These marsupials or pouched animals, from the tiny crescent wallaby, no larger than a very small rabbit, the pretty little kangaroo-rat, and the funny spectacled wallaby, to the rufus or red kangaroo, and the great old-man grey kangaroo, taller than a big man, and possessed of enormous strength and vitality, are, according to Mr. Woodward, the curator of the museum, characteristic only of the Australian region, the only kind of animal at all like them in the world being the American opossum. Some opossums, however, have no pouch, but carry their young on their backs. The kangaroos, as I think all Australians know, always carry the little Joeys snug in their pouch. And during my travels I have often seen them peeping out of their snug home. Many different kinds of pretty opossums come next, ranging from the pigmy flying opossum, little ring-tail opossum, and the odd little rabbit bandicoot to the pussy-looking black, grey, or white opossum, whose skin and fur make such warm and comfortable rugs for cold places, but are not often wanted in the mild climate of Western Australia. One tiny little mouse-coloured kangaroo-rat, found only in the south of the colony, is very pretty, and makes a dear little pet; these animals feed on the nectar of flowers, and when tamed, on bread and honey; they sleep all day curled up into a ball, but are very lively at night. Sleepless persons desiring a companion may be glad to note this. The Myrmecobius fasciatus, or banded ant-eater, from Coolgardie, is a most remarkable-looking creature, as, indeed, its Latin name indicates.
The splendid collection of Western Australian birds is really surprising; after seeing it one wonders how some people could say that there are no birds in Australia. The typical black swan, white swan, and pelican from the Swan River; the handsome bittern from Herdsman’s Lake, near Perth; the giant petrel from Fremantle; enormous emus from the Murchison, are all to be seen here, the last named with some dear little striped fluffy young ones, the size of goslings. I have often seen these birds when travelling on the Murchison myself. The ossifrag, a gigantic black-necked stork from Derby, in the far north; the Australian egret, so often plundered for ladies’ hats; magnificent sea-eagles; a most interesting nest of the sparrow-hawk made of twigs and gum-leaves, and containing four young ones, over whom the mother mounts guard; cockatoos, parrots innumerable, with most lovely plumage; and last, but not least, the graceful native companion from Broome. These are only a few of the birds belonging to the colony of Western Australia, but I have not space to mention more of them.
The nests of the trap-door spider are very peculiar; they look like a piece of ordinary clay, but when the door is opened a perfectly hollowed-out room is seen within, where the spider and his prey almost exemplify the old rhyme of childhood’s days. Some of the moths are very handsome, notably the diuran and the podacanthus, the first named being very large and of a lovely heliotrope colour. From these insects to a whale is a big jump, and the skeleton of the whale stranded at the Vasse in 1897 and secured by Mr. E. C. B. Locke, M.L.A., for the Museum, is one of the largest of its species, if not the largest; it is nearly 80 feet in length, and when in the flesh it must have measured 86 feet. The head alone weighs a ton or more, and the whole skeleton is prodigious. Coming back from viewing the whale, my attention was drawn to the first two sovereigns struck off in the Perth Mint, which repose on a velvet bed, and are, it appears, of much interest to the rising generation, for three boys were looking at them with great attention. The models of all the great and wonderful diamonds ever found in the world, some very ancient Greek coins, and famous French medals, work of noted French medallists also a cast of the celebrated Moabite stone, the original of which is in the British Museum, are near here; the last named is of great interest, being inscribed in three languages—Egyptian hieroglyphics, Semitic, and Greek; it was discovered in 1799 in the little town of Rosetta, on the Nile. It was the deciphering of this stone in the Greek language that gave the clue to Egyptian hieroglyphics. There are also copies of many of the great works of art in London and Paris, so that, although separated by so many thousands of miles, Perth still keeps touch with the old world.
The relics from the wrecks of the Batavia in 1629, and of the Zeewyk, wrecked in 1727 at the Abrolhos Islands (the story of which I will tell later on), are the most interesting things to be seen in the museum. They consist of silver and copper coins, rosary beads, clay tobacco pipes, copper kettles and stewpans, knives, spoons, scissors, fish-hooks and sinkers, tumblers and wine-glasses, some of most delicate glass, enormous greenish-looking liquor bottles, and some round ones, capable, I should think, of holding gallons, cannon-balls and bullets, said to have been manufactured by the mutineers on the islands, and two complete but rather gruesome skeletons tell a silent and sorrowful tale of the past.
The wonderful shells and corals from these islands made me no longer wonder that the Dutchmen in 1629 named them “Abros vos olhos,” or “Keep your eyes open”; they must have named them not only for the dangers of the coast but for the marvellous things to be seen there.
CITY OF PERTH