亲爱的小文：
一个半世纪前，科学家刚听说有一种下蛋的哺乳动物（egg-laying mammal），他们都不相信，说胡扯（a hoax），没想到世界上真有这么一种动物，就是“鸭嘴兽”（platypus）。鸭嘴兽只在澳洲（Australia）东海岸才有，澳洲也叫澳大利亚，是世界上最小的洲，也是一个国家。
澳洲本来跟亚洲连在一起，但在五千万年以前分开了，所以它自己成为一个特别的地方，老是有些全世界只有它有别人没有的怪东西，鸭嘴兽就是其中之一（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 Australia’s animal life developed independently.）。
另外一种只有澳洲有的小动物，就是koala，爸爸有一封信专门跟你谈过它，你记得吗？
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，（油加里树，也叫桉树，是常绿乔木，长得很快）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 cinereus faced extinction by fur hunters until the 1920’s，when conservation laws began to protect the continent’s dozens of marsupial speies.
Koala也叫袋鼠熊（kangaroo bear）。
袋鼠（kangaroo）也只有澳洲有。袋鼠前面两只手，很会打拳（boxing），后面两脚，很能跳，大尾巴在跳的时候可帮忙保持平衡（balance）。
美国有俗语“袋鼠法庭”Kangaroo court，U.S. Informal. an unauthorized or unofficial court，usually selfconstituted，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），类似中文所说的“私设公堂”。
以前在Kansas州，法官巡回各地办案，由这跑到那，很像袋鼠跳来跳去，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.）。
当然这个kangaroo court是来自有kangaroo的地方才对。澳洲有袋鼠，澳洲以前又是英国的天然监狱，所以kangaroo court的观念（idea）是从澳洲来的。
英国本来把political prisoners朝美国送的，美国独立以后，英国要找个地方送prisoners，于是选中澳洲，自1787年起，英国在八十年间，送了十六万八千prisoners到澳洲，当时路上很苦，要走四个月。1788年初，prisoners在现在悉尼地方，建了settlement，悉尼就是Sydney，Sydney是当时英国内政大臣的名字，大概是为了拍马屁，才这么叫的。
悉尼人口不过二百万，世界最大的船也可以开到港里去，是世界上最好的港口之一，也是澳洲最老资格的城市。
丹麦建筑师Utzon设计了Sydney Opera House，后面就是Harbour Bridge，这座桥重五万吨。
澳洲是脱离英国而独立的国家，所以受英国影响很重，连国旗里面都有英国旗。马路上走，也靠左走，英国就是靠左的（最早宣布澳洲是英国的人是科克船长Captain James Cook，他是发现Hawaii的探险家。五十一岁的时候，在Hawaii被土人杀了）。Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay，south of Sydney，in 1770. He claimed Australia’s entire east coast for Great Britain.
首都堪培拉（Canberra），有一千五百万棵以上的树，它的议会大厦（Parliament House），尤其漂亮。
墨尔本（Melbourne）的名字是一个英国首相的名字，也是拍马屁来的。它的植物园、美术馆，都很有名，有三座大学。本来是首都，1927年迁都到堪培拉去了。
澳洲南部有两个有名的岛：
一个是塔斯马尼亚（Tasmania）岛，也曾是英国关prisoners的地方，用了50年。岛上有一种塔斯马尼亚狼，母的也有袋鼠一样的袋，不过是装在背上，不在肚皮上。
The Tasmanian wolf’s 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 state of development.They are carried in the pouch for three months-the duration of their semiembryonic life. The cubs are then deposited in a nest of dry leaves and grass until they are old enough to hunt for themselves.
