Flinders.
1798.
not plentiful, but some were taken with hook and line from the rocks.
Speckled yellow snakes, of three or four feet in length, were found upon Preservation Island, and exist, no doubt, upon the larger isles. They sometimes get into the burrows of the sooty petrel, and probably destroy the young. I saw one dragged out by a sailor who expected to have taken a bird; but, being quick in his movements, he was not bitten. These snakes possess the venomous fangs; but no person experienced the degree of virulence in their poison.
The schooner was ready to sail on Feb. 25; and the wind from the westward being fresh and favourable, we left Hamilton's Road to return to Port Jackson. It was still a matter of doubt whether the land to the south of the islands were, or were not, a part of Van Diemen's Land; and I therefore requested of Mr. Reed to make a stretch that way. At noon our latitude was 40° 44⅔′, and the peak of Cape Barren bore N. 13° E.; an island which had been visited by the Sydney-Cove's people, and was represented to be a breeding place for swans, bore from N 68° W. to west, five or six miles, and there were some smaller islets behind it. The land lying two or three miles more to the south is sandy and low in front, but ascends in gently rising hills as it retreats into the country. Its general appearance was very different from that of Furneaux's Islands, the lower hills being covered with green grass, interspersed with clumps of wood, and the back land well clothed with timber trees.
We stretched on until the land was seen beyond 40° 50′; and then veered to the northward. In this latitude, captain Furneaux says, "the land trenches away to the westward;"[1] and as he traced the coast from the south end of the country to this part, there could no longer be a doubt that it was joined to the land discovered by Tasman in 1642. The smokes which had constantly been seen rising from it shewed that there were inhabitants; and this, combined with the
- ↑ Cook's Second Voyage, Vol. I. page 114.
