Amongst the reptiles was a variety of lizards; one of which, of the larger size, was met with by Dampier on the West Coast, and is described by him “as a sort of guano, but differing from others in three remarkable particulars:  for these had a larger and uglier head, and had no tail:  and at the rump, instead of the tail there, they had a stump of a tail, which appeared like another head; but not really such, being without mouth or eyes.  Yet this creature seemed, by this means, to have a head at each end; and, which may be reckoned a fourth difference, the legs, also, seemed all four of them to be fore legs, being all alike in shape and length, and seeming by the joints and bendings to be made as if they were to go indifferently either head or tail foremost.  They were speckled black and yellow like toads, and had scales or knobs on their backs like those of crocodiles.  They are very slow in motion and when a man comes nigh them they will stand and hiss, not endeavouring to get away.  Their livers are also spotted black and yellow; and the body when opened hath a very unsavoury smell.  The guano’s I have observed to be very good meat, and I have often eaten of them with pleasure; but though I have eaten of snakes, crocodiles, and alligators, and many creatures that look frightfully enough, and there are but few I should have been afraid to eat of, if pressed by hunger, yet I think my stomach would scarce have served to venture upon these New Holland guano’s, both the looks and the smell of them being so offensive.”  The animal is certainly of a singular form; but it is scarcely necessary to say that the merit of Dampier’s description does not consist in being strictly accurate.

The fish caught with hook and line were principally small mullet, and an excellent kind of snapper, nearly the same as that called wollamai by the natives of Port Jackson; but these were larger, weighing sometimes as much as twenty pounds.

Our frequent and amicable communication with the natives of this country has been mentioned.  The women were, however, kept out of sight with seeming jealousy; and the men appeared to suspect the same conduct in us, after they had satisfied themselves that the most beardless of those they saw at the tents were of the same sex with the rest.  The belief that there must be women in the ship induced two of them to comply with our persuasion of getting into the boat, one morning, to go on board; but their courage failing, they desired to be relanded, and made signs that the ship must go on shore to them.

It was with some surprise that I saw the natives of the east coast of New South Wales so nearly portrayed in those of the south-western extremity of New Holland.  These do not, indeed, extract one of the upper front teeth at the age of puberty, as is generally practised at Port Jackson, nor do they make use of the womerah, or throwing stick; but their colour, the texture of the hair, and personal appearance are the same; their