of the rain falls during winter. In the present season (1920) a rainfall of 12½ inches was registered at the homestead up to the middle of October.
The whole of Dirk Hartog Island appears to be of limestone formation, and, where the rock is exposed, fossil shells, closely allied, to species now living in the adjacent seas, are numerous. The surface soil is, as a rule, white sand; but in places this becomes ferruginous, without, however, showing any appreciable differences in the local vegetation. Of true trees there are none, and the great family of eucalypts is very sparingly represented by occasional small patches of mallee. A species of mulga (Acacia), however, occurs in thickets, and attains a size sufficient for supplying fenceposts, the wood being very durable, but not remarkable for straightness. These tree-like bushes are locally known as "wanyu," and grow, as a rule, near or upon limestone outcrops. Other bushes are extremely numerous and of many varieties, and the majority are edible by stock. Herbaceous plants, too, are fairly plentiful, but more in evidence during the winter and early spring. Not a few introduced European plants are present, but the most conspicuous native species include several of the Hibisci, everlastings, Tricheninm, soft spinifex (Triodia), and Spinifex longifolius. Dirk Hartog has been a sheep station for over 40 years, but, as burning-off has not been much resorted to vegetation on the island probably presents much the same appearance as when the early Dutch navigators first viewed it.
In general appearance the surface growth on Peron Peninsula resembles that on Dirk Hartog, but the soil is much more highly coloured, and in the neighbourhood of Denham red sand prevails; outcrops of rock, too, are infrequent. Peron, however, has an advantage over Dirk Hartog in possessing saltwater creeks, one of which, known as the "Big Lagoon," runs some distance inland, and on its shores are extensive tracts of mangrove and samphire.
Dirk Hartog takes its name from the Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog, who arrived there in the ship Eendraght (360 tons) in 1616). Some doubt has recently been cast on the authenticity of his voyage, which has been alluded to as mythical. Be that as it may, a plate, erected (at Cape Inscription) and inscribed with the date, 25th October, 1616, and the name of the ship, Eendraght, of Amsterdam, was found and removed to Batavia by Van Vlaming, captain of the Geelvink, in 1697. Van Vlaming replaced this plate with a new one, on which he copied the inscription of Dirk Hartogs' original plate, and, in addition, the record of his own landing on the island. In the "Encyclopedia of Western Australia" (ed. J. S. Battye) is given a photographic reproduction of the plate removed by Van Vlaming, which was subsequently re-discovered in 1902 at the State Museum of Amsterdam, Holland. In 1801, Capt. Hamelin, in the Naturaliste, saw Vlaming's plate, which had fallen down. He replaced it and erected a new plate, recording his own landing. The posts which
