The Land Animals That We Saw Here Were Only A Sort Of Raccoons,
Different From Those Of The West Indies,
Chiefly as to their legs,
for these have very short forelegs, but go jumping upon them as the
others do
(And like them are very good meat), and a sort of guanos,
of the same shape and size with other guanos described, but
differing from them in three remarkable particulars; for these had a
larger and uglier head, and had no tail, and at the rump, instead of
the tail there, they had a stump of a tail, which appeared like
another head, but not really such, being without mouth or eyes; yet
this creature seemed by this means to have a head at each end, and,
which may be reckoned a fourth difference, the legs also seemed all
four of them to be fore-legs, being all alike in shape and length,
and seeming by the joints and bending to be made as if they were to
go indifferently either head or tail foremost. They were speckled
black and yellow like toads, and had scales or knobs on their backs
like those of crocodiles, plated on to the skin, or stuck into it,
as part of the skin. They are very slow in motion, and when a man
comes nigh them they will stand still and hiss, not endeavouring to
get away. Their livers are also spotted black and yellow; and the
body, when opened, hath a very unsavoury smell. I did never see
such ugly creatures anywhere but here. The guanos I have observed
to be very good meat, and I have often eaten of them with pleasure;
but though I have eaten of snakes, crocodiles, and alligators, and
many creatures that look frightfully enough, and there are but few I
should have been afraid to eat of if pressed by hunger, yet I think
my stomach would scarce have served to venture upon these New
Holland guanos, both the looks and the smell of them being so
offensive.
The sea-fish that we saw here (for here was no river, land or pond
of fresh water to be seen) are chiefly sharks. There are abundance
of them in this particular sound, that I therefore gave it the name
of Shark's Bay. Here are also skates, thornbacks, and other fish of
the ray kind (one sort especially like the sea-devil), and gar-fish,
bonetas, etc. Of shell-fish we got here mussels, periwinkles,
limpets, oysters, both of the pearl kind and also eating oysters, as
well the common sort as long oysters, besides cockles, etc. The
shore was lined thick with many other sorts of very strange and
beautiful shells for variety of colour and shape, most finely
spotted with red, black, or yellow, etc., such as I have not seen
anywhere but at this place. I brought away a great many of them,
but lost all except a very few, and those not of the best.
There are also some green turtle weighing about two hundred pounds.
Of these we caught two, which the water ebbing had left behind a
ledge of rock which they could not creep over. These served all my
company two days, and they were indifferent sweet meat. Of the
sharks we caught a great many, which our men ate very savourily.
Among them we caught one which was eleven feet long. The space
between its two eyes was twenty inches, and eighteen inches from one
corner of his mouth to the other. Its maw was like a leather sack,
very thick, and so tough that a sharp knife could scarce cut it, in
which we found the head and bones of a hippopotamus, the hairy lips
of which were still sound and not putrified, and the jaw was also
firm, out of which we plucked a great many teeth, two of them eight
inches long and as big as a man's thumb, small at one end, and a
little crooked, the rest not above half so long. The maw was full
of jelly, which stank extremely. However, I saved for awhile the
teeth and the shark's jaw. The flesh of it was divided among my
men, and they took care that no waste should be made of it.
It was the 7th of August when we came into Shark's Bay, in which we
anchored at three several places, and stayed at the first of them
(on the west side of the bay) till the 11th, during which time we
searched about, as I said, for fresh water, digging wells, but to no
purpose. However, we cut good store of firewood at this first
anchoring-place, and my company were all here very well refreshed
with raccoons, turtle, shark, and other fish, and some fowls, so
that we were now all much brisker than when we came in hither. Yet
still I was for standing farther into the bay, partly because I had
a mind to increase my stock of fresh water, which was begun to be
low, and partly for the sake of discovering this part of the coast.
I was invited to go further by seeing from this anchoring-place all
open before me, which therefore I designed to search before I left
the bay. So on the 11th about noon I steered further in, with an
easy sail, because we had but shallow water. We kept, therefore,
good looking out for fear of shoals, sometimes shortening, sometimes
deepening the water. About two in the afternoon we saw the land
ahead that makes the south of the bay, and before night we had again
sholdings from that shore, and therefore shortened sail and stood
off and on all night, under two topsails, continually sounding,
having never more than ten fathom, and seldom less than seven. The
water deepened and sholdened so very gently, that in heaving the
lead five or six times we should scarce have a foot difference.
When we came into seven fathom either way, we presently went about.
From this south part of the bay we could not see the land from
whence we came in the afternoon; and this land we found to be an
island of three or four leagues long; but it appearing barren, I did
not strive to go nearer it, and the rather because the winds would
not permit us to do it without much trouble, and at the openings the
water was generally shoal:
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