Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/331

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A FLYING VISIT TO DIRK HARTOG, ETC.
303

only in one small spot near the east end of the island. Ascending a low hill on the north shore, I obtained a good view of the adjacent West Wallaby Island, which was connected to the eastern island by an almost continuous series of reefs and coral-flats, so that it appeared quite practicable to cross from one island to the other on foot at low water, the distance being about two miles. Close to this hill was one of the two wells or watering-places mentioned by Capt. Stokes in his account of the island; this was a circular hole in the limestone rock, about a yard in diameter and ten feet deep, with a few inches of slightly brackish but clear and fairly good water at the bottom. No more Wallabies were shot to-day, as the men had got tired of them; but a fair number of bronze-wing Pigeons and several specimens of the peculiar Quail were bagged by our sportsmen.

We were able at last to get away from our anchorage at daybreak on the 20th, and, abandoning finally our proposed visit to Champion Bay, as our stock of coal on board was very low, we shaped our course direct for Fremantle, where we arrived on the morning of Nov. 22nd.