Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/325

Rh shooting, and we landed without any more inconvenience than a walk of a few yards over a rugged coral-reef in shallow water. The island does not in any part exceed fifty feet in height, and its shape may be described as a roughly equilateral triangle, each side measuring rather more than a mile in length, and with a long projection from the north-eastern angle. The soil consists almost entirely of clean white calcareous sand, on a base of coralline limestone, which crops out here and there in wide stretches covered with loose blocks, and contains many recent corals and shells in very good preservation. Along the shore this limestone is broken into miniature cliffs eight or ten feet high, curiously undercut by the action of the waves. Much of the island is covered with tolerably dense but low brushwood, with white sand-drifts showing here and there, and a small cairn with a weather-beaten pole on the highest point marks the visit of some former surveyor, possibly of Capt. Stokes himself.

Scarcely two minutes had passed after we landed before the report of a gun was heard, and a "Wallaby" was its victim. Before sunset no fewer than thirty-five of these animals were shot, and any number could have been obtained if wanted. Indeed, they might have been literally said to swarm among the low brushwood, and I was continually meeting with them. They evinced very few signs of alarm, and went off at quite a leisurely pace, and with more of a running than a leaping action. This species is the Halmaturus houtmanni of Gray, discovered during the visit of H.M.S. 'Beagle'; it is peculiar to the Houtman's Abrolhos (though closely allied to a West Australian form), and appears even to be confined to this and the adjacent West Wallaby Island, not being found in the more southern islands. It is about the size of a large hare, standing, when erect, nearly two feet high, and weighing from seven to ten pounds; the fur is rather long and soft, and of a general dark brown colour, a little paler on the under parts. These Wallabies, with others shot on the following day, were served out as fresh meat to the ship's company, but except at first were not much appreciated; the flesh was tender, but very dark in colour, and flavoured with the strong-scented herbage on which the animal subsists. We found they made very tolerable soup.

I rambled about the island until sunset, finding the vegetation