and the other round, and covered with stringy fibres: Both sorts
are very small, but sweet; and we never could find the plants that
produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been newly
dug up: It is probable that the drought had destroyed the leaves, and we
could not, like the Indians, discover them by the stalks.

Most of the fruits of this country, such as they are, have been
mentioned already. We found one in the southern part of the country
resembling a cherry, except that the stone was soft; and another not
unlike a pine-apple in appearance, but of a very disagreeable taste,
which is well known in the East Indies, and is called by the Dutch _Pyn
Appel Boomen_.

Of the quadrupeds, I have already mentioned the dog, and particularly
described the kangaroo, and the animal of the opossum kind, resembling
the phalanger of Buffon; to which I can add only one more, resembling a
pole-cat, which the natives call _Quoll_: The back is brown, spotted
with white, and the belly white unmixed. Several of our people said they
had seen wolves; but perhaps, if we had not seen tracks that favoured
the account, we might have thought them little more worthy of credit
than he who reported that he had seen the devil.

Of batts, which hold a middle place between the beasts and the birds, we
saw many kinds, particularly one which, as I have observed already, was
larger than a partridge: We were not fortunate enough to take one either
alive or dead, but it was supposed to be the same as Buffon has
described by the name of _Rouset_ or _Rouget_.

The sea and other water-fowl of this country, are gulls, shags, soland
geese, or gannets, of two sorts, boobies, noddies, curlieus, ducks,
pelicans of an enormous size, and many others. The land-birds, are
crows, parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, and other birds of the same kind,
of exquisite beauty; pigeons, doves, quails, bustards, herons, cranes,
hawks, and eagles. The pigeons flew in numerous flocks, so that,
notwithstanding their extreme shyness, our people frequently killed ten
or twelve of them in a day: These birds are very beautiful, and crested
very differently from any we had seen before.

Among other reptiles, here are serpents of various kinds, some noxious,
and some harmless; scorpions, centipieds, and lizards. The insects are
but few. The principal are the musquito and the ant. Of the ant there
are several sorts; some are as green as a leaf, and live upon trees,
wh