Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/175

 bay, nor between them, I returned to the west entrance, going out by the same way I came in at, only on the east instead of the west side of the small shoal to be seen in the plan; in which channel we had 10, 12, and 13 fathom water, still deepening upon us till we were out at sea. The day before we came out I sent a boat ashore to the most northerly of the 2 islands, which is the least of them, catching many small fish in the meanwhile with hook and line. The boat's crew returning told me that the isle produces nothing but a sort of green, short, hard, prickly grass, affording neither wood nor fresh water; and that a sea broke between the 2 islands, a sign that the water was shallow. They saw a large turtle and many skates and thornbacks, but caught none.

It was August the 14th when I sailed out of this bay or sound, the mouth of which lies, as I said, in 25 degrees 5 minutes, designing to coast along to the north-east till I might commodiously put in at some other part of New Holland. In passing out we saw 3 water-serpents swimming about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots. They were each about 4 foot long, and about the bigness of a man's wrist, and were the first I saw on this coast, which abounds with several