Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/309

Recherche's Archipelago.]

spear sticking in it with which it had probably been killed by the natives. The stench of this ravenous monster was great, even before it was dead and when the stomach was opened, it became intolerable.

On the 13th, the wind blew fresh from the eastward; and as we could not sail with the ship, lieutenant Fowler and Mr. Thistle went over to Mondrain Island, the largest we had yet seen in the archipelago. An observation of the latitude and a set of angles were there taken, and they brought back some seals of a reddish fur, and a few small kanguroos of a species different from any I had before seen. The island was covered with brush wood; but some of the party, either from accident or design, set it on fire; and the wind being fresh, there was a general blaze in the evening, all over the island.

Very little other stone was seen about Lucky Bay than granite; and all the surrounding hills, as well as the islands visited, were composed of varieties of the same substance; and some specimens from Mondrain Island contained garnets. In many places the surface of the rocks was scaling off in layers, and in the steep parts great lumps had fallen off, and some caverns were formed in the cliffs. This propensity to decomposition was more remarkable in the high peak of Cape Le Grand, about five miles to the westward, to which Mr. Brown made an excursion. He found a perforation at the top forming an arch of great width and height, and above it, at the very summit of the peak, were loose pieces of granite of considerable size.

There did not appear to be any Indians at this time in the neighbourhood of Lucky Bay; but from their fire places, it was judged that they had not quitted it long since. Geese and ducks were found here, and not being very shy, some of them were killed by the shore parties. The goose was also found upon the islands; and is the same bird spoken of in the Introduction, page cxxxv, as