he dust the lordly mansion, whilst industry, in the
wilds of Australia, can rear a comfortable dwelling on the very spot
where once stood the hut of the out-settler.

Scattered round the shores of New Holland at various distances are many
small islands and rocks, the prevailing appearance of which is that of
extreme barrenness. On many of these it would seem that no human beings
had ever set their feet before the Europeans, and especially the
English, explored those coasts. In several parts the natives were
without any means of conveyance across even a narrow arm of the sea,
and thus the brute creation were left in a long and undisturbed
possession of many of the isles which lie near the main land. In the
more barren and miserable of these the bird called the _sooty petrel_,
and the seal, are the principal animals to be found, whilst in those
that are somewhat more fruitful, kangaroos, also, and emus are to be
found; the smaller breed of kangaroos being usually met with in the
smaller islands, and the larger species on the main land or in islands
of a greater extent. The following short account, by Captain Flinders,
may serve as a specimen of the lesser isles: Great flocks of petrels
had been noticed coming in from the sea to the island, and early next
morning, a boat was sent from the ship to collect a quantity of them for
food, and to kill seals, but the birds were already moving off, and no
more than four seals, of the hair kind, were procured. Upon the men
going on shore, the island was found to be a rock of granite, but this
was covered with a crust of limestone or chalk, in some places fifty
feet thick. The soil at the top was little better than sand, but was
overspread with shrubs, mostly of one kind, a whitish velvet-like
plant, amongst which the petrels, who make their nests underground,
had burrowed everywhere, and, from the extreme heat of the sun, the
reflection of it from the sand, and frequently being sunk half way up
the leg in these holes, the sailors, little used to difficulties in
land-travelling, were scarcely able to reach the highest hill near the
middle of the island. It was in the neighbourhood of scattered sandy
spots of this description that the sailors of Captain Flinders would
often endeavour successfully to improve their ordinary fare by catching
a few fish. On one occasion they were very much hindered by three
monstrous sharks, in whose presence no other fish dared to appear.
After some atte