We found that Tremouille was as scantily supplied with vegetation as Barrow’s Island; in one or two places was growing a stunted kind of wood, sufficient for fuel for a small-sized ship; but there was no sign of water.  The wallaby, which were very numerous, must have got their supply of moisture from the copious dews.  They were found lying very close in the wiry prickly grass, allowing us to kick them out, when they went off at speed, affording excellent sport, quite equal to any rabbit shooting; among three guns we managed, in a couple of hours, to bag nearly twenty.  It was quite a new kind of wallaby, and has been classed, from a specimen we brought away, as Lagorchester conspicillata.  It had a blunt nose, similar to those at Barrow’s Island, and was about the same size, though its colour was lighter, and it had a back exactly like a European hare.  The tail tapered away like a rat’s, and the flesh was by no means good to eat, tasting very strong; this was the only instance in which we found wallaby at all unpalatable.

Although our exploration in this neighbourhood did not lead to our finding any of the land fertile, yet from the new feature our chart will give to this part of the coast, the necessity of the Beagle’s visit will be evident.  Our object had been satisfactorily attained, inasmuch as we had cleared up the doubts respecting Ritchie’s Reef, and the long-lost Tryal Rocks.  We had also been so fortunate as to add to the stores of natural history a new kangaroo and two kinds of wallaby, besides a large water-snake.

RITCHIE’S REEF.

September 9.

We left Tremouille Island in the morning, and passing round the north side, soon came in sight of Clerke’s, alias Ritchie’s Reef.  It was our intention to have gone round the northern end of it, but the tide setting two knots an hour forced us to the southward.  In a line midway between it and Tremouille the depth was 17 and 20 fathoms.  The reef was nearly three miles long, in a north-east and south-west direction, and one mile and a half wide; the centre being partly dry.  Two miles and a half South-West by West of it we crossed a patch of 13 fathoms, with 22 and 25 fathoms on each side, the northern part of Hermite Island bearing South 62 degrees East fourteen miles, soon after which it was lost sight of from the poop.

The next afternoon a westerly wind brought us again in with the land; and in the evening we tacked in six fathoms, three miles and a half to the northward of Thevenard Island, which we found to be connected with a reef we discovered in the morning, lying eleven miles North by East from it; inside this reef the water looked deep and smooth.  The island is a narrow strip lying east and west, about three miles; the west end we made in latitude 21 degrees 26 minutes South and longitude 114 degrees 54 minutes East.  From the number of islands I saw to the south of Thevenard, I think the reef continues to Maison Island, near the North-west Cape.  The outer one, seen from the Beagle, is in latitude 21 degrees 31 minutes South and longitude 114 degrees 42 minutes East.  I myself believe the whole extent from Maison to Barrow’s Island is occupied by islets and reefs, probably all connected.  We know, in fact, from Captain King, that a reef extends sixteen miles off the south end of Barrow’s Island.