that, when forced by its neceflities to go abroad in quell. o f food,
it fell a quiet facrifice to the rapacity of the hawks.
Several fnakes with -venemous fangs were found h ere; but, no
perfon having been bitten by them, the degree o f their power was
unknown.
The water o f the ifland was thought to have been injurious to
the health of the people o f the Sydney-cove. It was fuppofed to
contain arfenic, which was highly probable from an experiment
that was made with the metallic particles, which were taken to be
tin. A large fume o f what bore many marks o f arfenic arofe from
the crucible during the time o f fmelting it. Water was very fcarce
while thefe people were upon the ifland; but, owing to fome im-
ufual falls o f rain, feveral little runs and fwamps were found by
Mr. Bafs ; and a low piece of ground where they had depofited
their dead was now a pond of an excellent quality.
Although he had feen but few o f the low iflands o f Furneaux,
yet Mr. Bafs had not any doubt but that this account o f Prefer-
vation-Ifland would in general anfwer for the defcription o f any of
them.
He next proceeds to defcribe what little he law o f Cape Barren
Ifland, which he underftood, from the people o f the Nautilus fnow,
who had been there fealing, was an e x ad fpecimen o f thole o f the
higher kind, fo far as they had obferved o f them.
Cape Barren IJland, which takes its name from the cape fo called
by Captain Furneaux, is a fmall ifland when compared with that
lying to the northward of it. From what was feen o f it in the
Hoop, it could only be conjectured that thefe two were feparate
iflands ; but Mr. Bifhop had palled in the Nautilus through the
channel that divides them.
.Mr. Bafs did not land upon the large ifland, and it is only o f the
fouthern end o f Cape Barren Ifland that he could fpeak from his
own particular obfer-vation.
This
*53
. This ifland is one o f thofe o f the higher kind that confift: o f both
high and low land. The high part is compofed o f granite, in
many places almoft bare, in others poorly clothed with moderate
fized gum trees, which draw their fupport through fome fmall
quantity of vegetable earth lodged by the broken blocks and fragments
o f the ftone, and fome draggling brulh-wood Ihooting up
round the trees, and completing the_ appearance o f a continued vegetation.
The bafe o f the low part is granite; its: furface chiefly fand; its
produce, variety o f brulh, with fome few fmall gum trees, and a
fpecies o f fir, that grows tall .and ftraight to ' the height o f 20 or
25 feet. There are within the body o f the brulh feveral clear
fpots, where' the ground is partly rocky or fandy, partly wet and
fpongy. Thefe are fomewhat enlivened, by beautiful flowering
heath, and low Ihrubs, but have upon the whole a dark fom-
brous afpedr, too much refembling'the barren heaths o f Hamp-
Ihire.
A grafs tree grows here, fimilar in every refped to that about
Port Jackfon, except that no reed, neither living nor dead, could
be found to belong to it. It is certain, however, that there mud
be a reed, or a flowering part o f fome kind. In the brulhes, where
the fandy foil is fomewhat ameliorated by the decay o f vegetation,
a few tufts o f indifferent grafs might be feen; but the greater part
of it was the coarfe wiry fort that grows in halfocks.
It is Angular, that a place wherein food feemed to be fo fcarce
Ihould yet be fo thickly inhabited by the fmall brulh kangooroo, and
a new quadruped, which was alfo a grafs-eater.
This animal, being a new one, appears to deferve a particular
defcription. The Wom-bat (or, as it is called by the natives o f
Port Jackfon, the Womb ackb) is a fquat, thick, lhort-legged, and ra- •
ther inadive quadruped, with great appearance o f ftumpy ftrength,
and fomewhat bigger than a large turnfpit dog. Its figure and
VOL. ii. x move