een at Kangaroo Island than in the gulf region.
Thirty emus were observed on one day; kangaroos, as has been remarked,
were plentiful; and a large colony of pelicans caused the name of Pelican
Lagoon to be given to a feature of the island's eastern lobe. The
marsupial, the seal, the emu, and the bag-billed bird that nature built
in one of her whimsical moods, had held unchallenged possession for tens
of thousands of years, probably never visited by any ships, nor even
preyed upon by blacks. The reflections of Flinders upon Pelican Lagoon
have a tinting of poetic feeling which we do not often find in his solid
pages:

"Flocks of the old birds were sitting upon the beaches of the lagoon, and
it appeared that the islands were their breeding places; not only so, but
from the number of skeletons and bones there scattered it should seem
that they had for ages been selected for the closing scene of their
existence. Certainly none more likely to be free from disturbance of
every kind could have been chosen, than these inlets in a hidden lagoon
of an uninhabited island, situate upon an unknown coast near the
antipodes of Europe; nor can anything be more consonant to the feelings,
if pelicans have any, than quietly to resign their breath whilst
surrounded by their progeny, and in the same spot where they first drew
it. Alas, for the pelicans! their golden age is past; but it has much
exceeded in duration that of man."

The picture of the zoological interests of Kangaroo Island is heightened
by Flinders' account of the seals and marsupials. "Never perhaps has the
dominion possessed here by the kangaroo been invaded before this time.
The seal shared with it upon the shores, but they seemed to dwell
amicably together. It not unfrequently happened that the report of a gun
fired at a kangaroo, near the beach, brought out two or three bellowing
seals from under bushes considerably further from the water side. The
seal, indeed, seemed to be much the more discerning animal of the two;
for its actions bespoke a knowledge of our not being kangaroos, whereas
the kangaroo not unfrequently appeared to consider us to be seals." In
the quotation, it may be as well to add, the usual spelling of "kangaroo"
is followed, but Flinders invariably spelt it "kanguroo." The orthography
of the word was not settled in his time; Cook wrote "kangooroo" and
"kanguru," but Hawkesworth, who edited his voyages, made it "kangaroo."

The quantity of fallen timb