a the principal are Great Island, Cape 
_ Island, Clarke’s, eaten, capt 
FURNEAUX ISLANDS. 
Neither the exact number of islands composing this 
‘group, sup, nor their individual size, are completely ascer- 
tained : Barren 
and Babel 
Islands, besides many rocks and The first is 
not less than forty miles in length, and the second twen- 
. Almost all have good hi for shipping; but 
he channels among some of them are narrow, and of 
dan, navigation. : 
The basis of the greater part of these islands is a 
whitish granite, sometimes inclining to a reddish tinge, 
and full of small black specks, supposed to be tin, and 
municating a deleterious quality to water, as seve- 
a people died on drinking it. When exposed to heat, 
fumes escape strongly denoting the presence of arsenic. 
‘The hills rise to a considerable height; the highest is 
supposed to be 1200 feet, Those of Cape Barren Island 
are generally crowned with luge masses of granite ; and 
immense detached blocks of the same substance are 
scattered about on the rest. The lower parts of the 
islands are commonly sandy, or they have swamps and 
pools, where the water is usually of a reddish hue; in 
other places, it is fresh and aoa, although transient vi- 
sitors have denied its existence. fl 
_ The whole islands are overrun with brushwood, in- 
.termixed, in the more sheltered parts, with a few stunt- 
ed trees, never exceeding twelve feet in height, and 
_several low shrubs grow on the humid grounds, sur- 
rounding the margins of pools and swamps; but most 
_of the brushwood assumes a depressed and creeping 
form, particularly on those sides of the islands exposed 
to the more prevalent winds. A very singular and un- 
exampled feature is presented in some of the trees having 
undergone a partial petrifaction in Preservation Island. 
There, in a particular spot, none of them are thicker 
than a man’s leg ; all are decayed ; but while the up- 
-per branches consist. of wood, the roots at the surface, 
and the trunks tova certain height, are converted to a 
chalky substance. The interior central part is always 
circular, seldom of the same diameter or of the same 
composition ; and rings of the brown wood sometimes 
appear, on breaking over the trunks, as if the petri- 
faction were still incomplete. The vegetable produc. 
_tions of Furneaux’s Islands are scanty throughout ; and 
_it is to be observed, that although there are patches of 
»rich and fertile soil, and the most luxuriant growth of 
numerous plants in the vast extent of New Holland 
.and Van Diemen’s Land, a very large proportion of the 
- skirts, for the interior is yet unknown, consists of low 
sandy tracts, mt seen as if recently reclaimed from 
the sea, and where nature is seen in her most barren 
Two species of seals, differing in structure and ha- 
bits, frequent the shores of these islands, basking on 
' steep declivities, from whence they can easily precipitate 
themselves into the sea ; and they afford the three new 
greene of quadrupeds, the kanguroo, the wombat, and 
duck-billed ant-eater, all strangers to the older natu- 
ralists, because none exist on the four great continents of 
the world. The first is of a reddish brown species, weigh- 
ing 40 or 50 lib. now grown shy from incessant pursuit, 
and difficult to be cau, Re on account of its impenetrable 
retreats of tortishiwood. The wombat, whose flesh is very 
acceptable food, where quadrupeds are so scarce, was 
first seen on Clarke's and Cape Barren Island.” It has 
since been caught on the continent ; but its instinct is 
visibly modified by the presence or absence of danger, 
for it here feeds at all times, often foraging among the 
vefuse on the shore, while on the continent it never 
63 
leaves the holes where it burrows like a a until 
dark. The duck-billed ant-eater is esteemed a great 
delicacy. Speckled, yellow, and likewise black snakes, 
are seen on several islands on the confines of the brush- 
wood ; they have venomous fangs, but it is not report- 
ed that they have ever proved destructive. They fre- 
quently penetrate the burrows made by the sheer water 
or rust petrel, amidst the sandy tufts of coarse grass, 
probably’ in quest of the young. These birds occur in 
surprisin numbers, darkening the air at sun-set in 
their flight : they burrow exactly in the manner of rab- 
bits, and breed in their holes, and, in spite of the dis- 
turbance and destruction which they experience, th 
pertinaciously resort to the same spot. Penguins an 
other birds burrow in the same manner, in places sepa- 
rate and distinct from the petrels; and as the latter al- 
ways retire to the ground at night, the penguins, which 
have been shshered there the whole day, then regularly 
leave it. It is extremely difficult, and sometimes dan- 
gerous, to walk amidst da excavations formed by them, 
as people suddenly sink knee deep. The most valuable 
birds are the e and black swan; the former is nu- 
merous, it feeds on grass, and seldom takes to the wa- 
ter; the latter is rare, and frequents fresh water pools 
only, in the breeding season. 
Furneaux 
Islands, 
Fumes. 
—— 
urneaux’s islands were first explored by Mr Bass, pristory. 
s 
surgeon of the Reliance, and Lieutenant, afterward 
Captain Flinders, of the navy, in 1798. They were 
about the same time, and subsequently, resorted to by 
vessels from Botany Bay, in prosecuting the seal fishery, 
which was so profitable that a single ship captured 9000 
seals. Some years later, the French e ition of dis- 
covery examined the principal islands, and their ap- 
pearance and position here bian further explained by 
the elegant charts of Captain Flinders, published in 
1814. Previous to all these periods, however, one of 
them had afforded refuge to a shipwrecked crew, and 
it is not improbable that, during the frequent inter- 
course of the Dutch with their eastern possessions, the 
external islands may have been seen or visited. It 
must now be admitted, that an extensive portion of the 
coast of New Holland had, nearly two centuries 4 
been surveyed by them, though all remembrance of the 
fact was lost. Yet the slight sketches, which only af- 
forded scope for conjectures, are evidently the result of 
attentive investigation. 
Furneaux’s islands are probably of too little import- 
ance to become a permanent settlement. At present 
temporary establishments are formed upon them, by 
those engaged in the seal fishery, which is less produc- 
tive than it was originally. Besides, fresh water is 
scarce in general, the navigation is intricate, and the 
shores are frequently covered with the wreck of vessels, 
which repeatedly perish in the neighbourhood. See 
Collin’s Account of New South Wales, vol. ii. Peron 
Voyage aux Terres Australes, p. 351. Filinders’s Voyage 
to Terra Australis, vol. i. Introduct. p. 126. (¢) 
FURNES, Furna, a town of the Netherlands, situa- 
ted about three miles from the sea, on the canal which 
leads from Bruges to Dunkirk. Its fortifications were 
demolished in the years 1792, 1793, and 1794. The 
town house, which is a good building, adorned with 
figures of kings and princes, has a handsome tower 
with musical chimes. The town carries on a consider- 
able trade in corn, bees, cheese and butter. Its fairs 
are held on the 26th March, 5th May, and 3d October. 
Population of the town 3200. East Long. 2° 39/51”, 
and North Lat. 51° 4 23”, according to trigonometri- 
cal observations, 
