y could be seen between them and
the subjects usually met with of this kind.

Admitting them, however, as petrifications, it is certain that there must
once have existed a pond in which the petrifying water was contained; but
the ground in their neighbourhood retained no positive traces of any such
receptacle. There were, indeed, near them, some few lumps or banks
consisting of sand, and a little vegetable earth which was held together
by dead roots of small trees, and elevated above the rest of the ground,
to the height of five, six, or eight feet; but the relative position of
these with each other was so confused and irregular, that nothing but the
necessity of a once existing reservoir could ever lead any one to
conjecture that these might have been parts of its bank. Mr. Bass,
however, rather concluded that this must have been the case, and that the
remainder of the bank had been torn away, and the pond itself annihilated
by some violent effort of an unknown power.

Notwithstanding the narrow limits of the island, abundance of small
kangaroos were found to inhabit its brushy parts; but so many had been
destroyed by the people of the _Sydney Cove_, that they had now
become scarce.

The sooty petrel had appropriated a certain grassy part of the island to
herself, and retained her position with a degree of obstinacy not easily
to be overcome. For although it so happened, that the storehouse for the
wrecked cargo was erected upon the spot, and the people for more than a
year drew the favourite part of their food from these birds, and were
besides continually walking over their habitations, yet at the end of
that time the returning flights in the evening were as numerous as they
had been observed to be upon their first arrival.

When Mr. Hamilton, the commander of the _Sydney Cove_, quitted the
house, he left two hens sitting upon their eggs, some breeding pigeons,
and a bag of rice; but no traces were now to be discovered either of the
birds or their food. It is probable, that so long as this little colony
continued within doors, it did well; but that, when forced by its
necessities to go abroad in quest of food, it fell a quiet sacrifice to
the rapacity of the hawks.

Several snakes with venomous fangs were found here; but, no person having
been bitten by them, the degree of their power was unknown.

The water of the island was thought to have been injurious to the health
of the people of the _Sydney Cove_. It wa