當然這個kangaroo court是來自有kangaroo的地方才對。澳洲有袋鼠，澳洲以前又是英國的天然監獄，所以kangaroo court的觀念（idea）是從澳洲來的。

澳洲平均每個人有十四頭羊（澳洲旁邊的紐西蘭（New Zealand）每人有二十頭），而中國人平均十個人分不到一頭，這太不公平了！（In Australia, there are about 14 sheep for every person. In New Zealand, there are about 20 sheep for every person. Some states in the western United States also have more sheep than people.）

爸 爸

羊奶可以造乾酪（cheese）和「牛」油，可以從羊身上得到羊毛。

塔斯曼尼亞有台灣兩倍大，你看台灣多小！島上原有一種大牙齒的土人，現在已絕種了。

一九七五年六月八日

澳洲「得天獨厚」to be particularly favored by nature （said of a land rich in natural resources or a gifted person）卻是從不公平來的。澳洲有「白澳政策」，限制有色人種到他們那兒去。但白種人又少，所以將來問題一定很多，不是鐵蒺藜（barbed-wire fence）攔得住的。澳洲人自己也說：「Weve got a big, empty country here, and we have to fill it up. You Know,『populate or perish』」

一個是塔斯曼尼亞（Tasmania）島，也曾是英國關prisoners的地方，用了五十年。島上有一種塔斯曼尼亞狼，母的也有袋鼠一樣的袋，不過是裝在背上，不在肚皮上。The Tasmanian wolfs genus name, Thylacinus, means 「pouched dog」. The female has a pouch which opens backwards and contains four teats. The pouch is large enough to hold four pups, although the usual number of young in a litter is two. The period of gestation is not known, but it is probably a little less than one month. The young are born hairless and blind in an incomplete, almost embryonic https://ｒead.９9cｓｗ.ｃoｍstate of development. They are carried in the pouch for three months-the duration of their semi embryonic life. The cubs are then deposited in a nest of dry leaves and grass until they are old enough to hunt for themselves.

人會仰泳（backstroke），但水獺卻更神氣，它會仰吃，它在水裡「仰面朝天」地吃，這才叫「仰不愧天」（to feel no shame before God）呢！

一

Koala也叫袋鼠熊（kangaroo bear）。

水獺還是一個會用工具的傢伙（a tool user），它吃蛤蜊（clam），會朝石頭上敲，你說它多聰明！

英國本來把political prisoners朝美國送的，美國獨立以後，英國要找個地方送prisoners，於是選中澳洲，自一七八七年起，英國在八十年間，送了十六萬八千prisoners到澳洲，當時路上很苦，要走四個月。一七八八年初，prisoners在現在悉尼地方，建了settlement，悉尼就是Sydney，Sydney是當時英國內政大臣的名字，大概是為了拍馬屁，才這麼叫的。

首都堪培拉（Canberra），有一千五百萬以上的樹，它的議會大廈（Parliament House），尤其漂亮。

澳洲是脫離英國而獨立的國家，所以受英國影響很重，連國旗裏面都有英國旗。馬路上走，也靠左走，英國就是靠左的（最早宣布澳洲是英國的人是科克船長Captain James Cook，他是發現Hawaii的探險家。五十一歲的時候，在Hawaii被土人殺了。）（Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay, south of Sydney, in 1770. He claimed Australias entire east coast for Great Britain.）

丹麥建築師Utzon設計了Sydney Opera House，後面就是Harbour Bridge，這座橋重五萬噸。

悉尼人口不過二○○萬，世界最大的船也可以開到港里去，是世界上最好的港口之一，也是澳洲最老資格的城市。

爸 爸

澳洲南部有兩個有名的島：

在澳洲東北海岸外面，有一二五○英里長的珊瑚礁（大堡礁，The Great Barrier Reef），有聲有光，景象離奇，非常好看。好看是好看，可是船很難走，科克船長的船曾在這一帶三次遇險。The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australias most popular tread.99csw.comourist attractions. It is the largest coral reef in the world, stretching for about 1250 miles along the coast of Queensland. The reef has thousands of islands and underwater coral formations. The sandy beaches of the islands and the interesting sea life of the reef mark it an ideal spot for skin diving. 珊瑚礁中有一島叫「綠島」（Green Island），真巧，台灣也有一個綠島！

亞洲人口平均每方英里（persons to the square mile）一二二人；澳洲人口平均每方英里四人。

水獺是OTTER，is a fur-bearing animal that spends much of its time in the water. Otters are related to the weasels and are carnivorous（flesh-eating）mammals. They live on all continents except Australia. They are divided into two groups, river otters and sea otters.

墨爾本（Melbourne）的名字是一個英國首相的名字，也是拍馬屁來的。它的植物園、美術館，都很有名，有三座大學。本來是首都，一九二七年遷都到堪培拉去了。

二

鴨嘴獸只有澳洲有，水獺卻只有澳洲沒有。

親愛的小文：

羊毛出在羊身上（literally）Without a sheep, there can be no wool.—The benefit comes, after all, from a price one has paid. Whatever is the expense, somebody is going to pay for it.做衣服，其他還可吃羊肉、用羊皮、做肥皂、做網球拍……羊的用處多極了！（Sheep yield wool, meat, and leather. They also furnish the raw materials for many byproducts, such as glue, tallow, suet, soap, fertilizer, cosmetics, and the catgut used in stringing tennis rackets.）

一九七五年八月十七日

過分的不公read.99csw.com平，沒有的人就會叫，這叫「不平則鳴」。（Those who are discriminated again will complain.）

澳洲的羊，佔世界第一位。佔全世界六分之一。（Long famous as a land of sheep, Australia is the worlds leading producer and exporter of wool and mutton and is a major producer and exporter of beef and wheat. Australia is also a highly industrialized country. Large deposits of coal and iron have become the basis for an iron and steel industry, white an expanding economy provides a large domestic market for a wide range of goods and services.）

親愛的小文：

澳洲的政策是錯誤的、自私的（wrong and selfish），這叫「狗佔馬槽」（dog in a manger describes a person who keeps others from using something that he himself cannot use. It comes from Aesops fable of a dog that crawled into a manger of hay and prevented a horse from eating, even though dogs do not eat hay.），也叫「佔著毛坑不拉屎」，這種人只希望「不惹睡狗」（Let sleeping dogs lie, means to leave a situation undisturbed.）「維持現狀」「相安無事」。但這怎麼行呢？「每條狗都有得意的一天。」（Every dogs has his day, is an expression used when something pleasant happens to a person, especially one who has been having bad luck.）別的狗會睡醒，澳洲雖然是down-under（在世界另一邊），別的窮狗還是會咬到它的。

袋鼠（kangaroo）也只有澳洲有。袋鼠前面兩隻手，很會打拳（boxing），後面兩腳，很能跳，大尾巴在跳的時候可幫忙保持平衡（balance）。

每隻水獺的皮，可賣到二千五百美金，就是台灣十萬塊。全世界都不準殺它，所以它的皮就特別read.99csw.com值錢。人死了，臭皮沒人要，但許多動物死了，皮卻成了「千金裘」，這真是「豹死留皮」啊！

澳洲本來跟亞洲連在一起，但在五千萬年以前分開了，所以它自己成為一個特別的地方，老是有些全世界只有它有別人沒有的怪東西，鴨嘴獸就是其中之一。（Australia has many kinds of strange animals not found on other continents. This is because the bridge of land that once connected Australia with Asia disappeared about 50 million years ago. From then on, most of Australias animal life developed independently）

Koala means 「no drink」, and the aboriginal word well describes the gentle marsupial that draws moisture only from its food, the leaves of certain eucalyptus,（油加里樹，也叫桉樹，是常綠喬木，長得很快）or gum trees. With oddly arranged fingers-the first two oppose the other three-a koala clings to a branch in a sanctuary at Waikerie. Phascolarctos cinereous faced extinction by fur hunters until the 1920s, when conservation laws began to protect the continents dozens of marsupial species.

另外一種只有澳洲有的小動物，就是koala，爸爸有一封信專門跟你談過它，你記得嗎？

另一個島是袋鼠島（Kangaroo Island），島的北邊，就面對阿得雷德（Adelaide）城。它是澳洲考第三的大城。（Adelaide, South Australias capital, is a well planned city, rich in parks and gardens. It is near the great Gulf St. Vincent, 90 miles long, 45 miles across.）

豹死留皮（literally）A leopard leaves behind its skin when it dies. A man has a reputation to leave to poshｔtpｓ://read•９9cｓｗ.ｃoｍterity when he dies.

你這次信封上寫的中文很有進步。

美國有俗語「袋鼠法庭」kangaroo court, U.S. Informal. an unauthorized or unofficial court, usually self constituted, as a mock court by prisoners in a jail or a frontier court：…shot down over North Korea in 1952 and condemned to prison by a Red kangaroo court.（Newsweek），類似中文所說的「私設公堂」。以前在Kangaroo州，法官巡迴各地辦案，由這跑到那，很像袋鼠跳來跳去，所以叫袋鼠法庭。（Kangaroo court：A kangaroo court is an illegal mock or sham court, usually one set up by inmates of a prison to levy fines and punishment on other inmates who violate the 「code」. Such organizations, usually very informal in nature, exist in most large prisons and are even encouraged by some wardens as a useful device for maintaining order. The name probably originated at the time when Australia, land of the kangaroo, was the penal colony for the British Empire. The term has occasionally-and inaccurately-been applied to the kind of roadside justice of the peace court which exists only to collect fines from motorists caught in speed traps.）

澳洲比台灣大二二二倍，但人口比台灣還少！

羊有綿羊（sheep）和山羊（goat）兩種，山羊（billy goat）有鬍子，還有羊騷味（goaty odor）。

一個半世紀前，科學家剛聽說有一種下蛋的哺乳動物（egg-laying mammal），他們都不相信，說胡扯（a hoax），沒想到世界上真有這麼一種動物，就是「鴨嘴獸」（platypus）。鴨嘴獸只在澳洲（Australia）東海岸才有，澳洲也叫澳大利亞，是一個國家。