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 4 of them to be forelegs, being all alike in shape and length, and seeming by the joints and bending 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, plated onto the skin, or stuck into it, as part of the skin.  They are very slow in motion; and when a man comes nigh them they will stand still and hiss, not endeavouring to get away.  Their livers are also spotted black and yellow:  and the body when opened has a very unsavoury smell.  I did never see such ugly creatures anywhere but here.  The iguanas 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 iguanas, both the looks and the smell of them being so offensive.

The sea-fish that we saw here (for here was no river, land, or pond of fresh water to be seen) are chiefly sharks.  There are abundance of them in this particular sound, and I therefore give it the name of Shark’s Bay.  Here are also skates, thornbacks, and other fish of the ray kind (one sort especially like the sea-devil) and garfish, bonetas, etc.  Of shellfish we got here mussels, periwinkles, limpets, oysters, both of the pearl kind and also eating-oysters, as well the common sort as long oysters; beside cockles, etc., the shore was lined thick with many other sorts of very strange and beautiful shells, for variety of colour and shape, most finely spotted with red, black, or yellow, etc., such as I have not seen anywhere but at this place.  I brought away a great many of them; but lost all except a very few, and those not of the best.

There are also some green-turtle weighing about 200 pounds.  Of these we caught 2 which the water ebbing had left behind a ledge of rock, which they could not creep over.  These served all my company 2 days; and they were indifferent sweet meat.  Of the sharks we caught a great many which our men eat very savourily.  Among them we caught one which was 11 foot long.  The space between its two eyes was 20 inches, and 18 inches from one corner of his mouth to the other.  Its maw was like a leather sack, very thick, and so tough that a sharp knife could scarce cut it:  in which we found the head and bones of a hippopotamus; the hairy lips of which were still sound and not putrefied, and the jaw was also firm, out of which we plucked a great many teeth, 2 of them 8 inches long and as big as a man’s thumb, small at one end, and a little crooked; the rest not above half so long.  The maw was full of jelly which stank extremely:  however I saved for a while the teeth and the shark’s jaw:  the flesh of it was divided among my men; and they took care that no waste should be made of it.