arks were
seen and remarked near the edge of all the holes, which were very
numerous upon the surface of the island, before I discovered that they
were the tracks of reptiles, from which it may be inferred that these
animals are very abundant. The only bird seen was a solitary species of
loxia, but upon a steep ledge of rocks I observed one of those nests of
which frequent mention has been already made: I examined and found it
built upon the pinnacle of some large rocks, very strongly constructed of
long sticks; it was about five feet high and exceeded four feet in
diameter, with a very slight cavity above; and seemed to have been very
recently inhabited. The rocks that formed its base were ornamented with a
prostrate capparis, or calyptranthus (Calyptranthus orbicularis,
Cunningham manuscript) which afforded me good flowering specimens. In my
walk I started a small black kangaroo: it was feeding upon the seeds of a
small acacia and, upon perceiving my approach, fled across the down
without reaching a single bush or rock large enough to conceal itself as
far as the eye could discern it, so bare and destitute of vegetation are
these arid, sandy plains."* The heat of the weather was so great as not
to allow of any communication with the shore, excepting between daybreak
and eight o'clock. Mr. Cunningham's visits were therefore necessarily
much confined: this precaution I found it absolutely requisite to take to
prevent the people from being exposed to the very great heat of the sun,
which on shore must have been at least twenty degrees more powerful than
on board, where the thermometer ranged between 71 1/2 degrees at
midnight, and 85 and 87 degrees at noon. The barometer ranged between
29.76 and 29.99 inches, and stood highest when the wind was to the
eastward of south, with which winds the horizon was much clearer, and the
air consequently drier than when the wind blew from the sea.

(*Footnote. Cunningham manuscript.)

As an anchorage during the summer months Dirk Hartog's Road has
everything to recommend it, excepting the total absence of fresh water
which, according to the French, was not found in any part of Shark's Bay;
the anchorage is secure and the bottom clear of rocks. There is also an
abundance of fish and turtle, and of the latter a ship might embark forty
or fifty every day, for they are very sluggish and make no effort to
escape, perhaps from knowing the impossibility of their scrambling over
the rocky ba