The Kangaroo Hunters; Or, Adventures in the Bush

Author of "Esperanza," "The Castaways," "The Young Exiles," etc., etc.

"Light and limber, upwards driven, On the hoar crag quivering; Or through gorges thunder-riven, Leaps she with her airy spring! But behind her still, the foe-- Near, and near the deadly bow!"

SCHILLER, translated by Bulwer.

Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.

PREFACE.

The rapid spread of education creates a continual demand for new books, of a character to gratify the taste of the young, and at the same time to satisfy the scruples of their instructors. The restless, inquiring spirit of youth craves, from its first development, food for the imagination, and even the simplest nursery rhymes owe their principal charm to their wonderful improbability. To these succeed the ever-interesting tales of Fairies and Enchanters; and the ardent boy only forsakes Ali Baba and Sindbad for the familiar and lifelike fictions of "Robinson Crusoe," and the hundred pleasant tales on the "Robinson Crusoe" model which have succeeded that popular romance.

It is the nature of man to soar above the common prose of every-day life in his recreations; from the weary school-boy, who relieves his mind, after arithmetical calculations and pages of syntax, by fanciful adventures amidst scenes of novelty and peril, and returns to his labors refreshed, to the over-tasked man of study or science, who wades through his days and nights of toil, cheered by the prospect of a holiday of voyaging or travelling over new scenes.

This spirit of inquiry has usually the happiest influence on the character of the young and old, and leads them--

"To know The works of God, thereby to glorify The great Work-Master."

In this belief, we are encouraged to continue to supply the young with books which do not profess to be true, though they are composed of truths. They are doubtless romantic, but cannot mislead the judgment or corrupt the taste; their aim being to describe the marvellous works of creation, and to lead the devout mind to say with the divine poet,--

"Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite Thy power; what thought can measure thee, or tongue Relate thee?"

A. B.

RICHMOND, October, 1858.

CONTENTS.