一
親愛的小文：
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。
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 tis. This is because the bridge of land that once ected Australia with Asia disappeared about 50 million years ago. From then on, most of Australias animal life developed indepely）
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？
Koala means 「no drink」, and the abinal 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）um trees. With oddly arranged fihe first two oppose the other three-a koala gs to a bran a sanctuary at Waikerie. Phascolarctos ereous faced extin by fur hunters until the 1920s, when servation laws began to protect the tis dozens of marsupial species.
Koala也叫袋鼠熊（kangaroo bear）。
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）。
美國有俗語「袋鼠法庭」kangaroo court, U.S. Informal. an unauthorized or unofficial court, usually self stituted, as a mock court by prisoners in a jail or a frontier court：…shot down over North Korea in 1952 and o 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 o up by inmates of a prison to levy fines and punishment on other inmates who violate the 「code」. Such anizations, usually very informal in nature, exist in most large prisons and are even enced by some wardens as a useful deviaintaining order. The name probably i the time when Australia, land of the kangaroo, was the penal y 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 iraps.）
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。
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。
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。
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。
澳洲是脫離英國而獨立的國家，所以受英國影響很重，連國旗裡面都有英國旗。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 la Botany Bay, south of Sydney, in 1770. He claimed Australias entire east coast freat Britain.）
首都堪培拉（berra），有一千五百萬以上的樹，它的議會大廈（Parliament House），尤其漂亮。
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。
澳洲南部有兩個有名的島：
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 hylaus, means 「pouched dog」. The female has a pouch which opens backwards and tains 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 inplete, almost embryonic state 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 of dry leaves and grass until they are old enough to hunt for themselves