Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/200

 and paracoots; and with hooks and lines we caught some rock-fish and old-wives. Of shellfish, here were oysters both of the common kind for eating, and of the pearl kind: and also wilks, conches, mussels, limpets, periwinkles, etc., and I gathered a few strange shells; chiefly a sort not large, and thick-set all about with rays or spikes growing in rows.

And thus having ranged about a considerable time upon this coast without finding any good fresh water, or any convenient place to clean the ship, as I had hoped for: and it being moreover the height of the dry season, and my men growing scorbutic for want of refreshments, so that I had little encouragement to search further, I resolved to leave this coast and accordingly in the beginning of September set sail towards Timor.