80 Mr. W. L. Sclater— Saldanha Bay 



Commodore Johnston, which was known to he sailing for 

 the Cape. Levaillant spent three months at Saldanha Bay 

 and in its environs and made considerable collections. He 

 visited Schaap or Sheep Island, and gives an account of 

 the numerous rabbits there. He also visited a bird-island 

 which he calls "Dassen'" Island, but which appears, from his 

 description of it, to have been Marcus Isle. He noticed the 

 large number of sea-birds nesting there, and gave a descrip- 

 tion of the Penguins. Finally, he had the mortification of 

 seeing the Dutch ships all fail into the hands of the English 

 under Commodore Johnston, who appeared unexpectedly in 

 the Bay, having obtained information that the Dutch were 

 lying there. The i Middelburg/ on which Levaillant was 

 living, was the only ship which was not captured. She 

 was fired by her skipper, Van Gennep, and sunk iu shallow 

 water in Hoetjes Bay. There she still lies, and was being- 

 explored for treasure by divers during my recent visit. They 

 had then found little except some Chinese crockery, which 

 apparently had formed the greater part of her cargo. 



During the last year a good deal of ^attention has been 

 attracted to Saldanha Bay as an alternative harbour, or 

 perhaps more as an adjunct to that of Table Bay, owing to 

 the great pressure and block in the Cape Town Docks j and a 

 syndicate, which has bought up a good deal of the land in the 

 neighbourhood, is proposing to build a railway across country 

 to Purterville Road Station on the main line to Johannesburg 

 and to develop the port. They also intend to bring fresh 

 water to supply the proposed harbour from the Berg River, 

 about twenty miles inland, by pumping it through a series 

 of pipes running across country over the hills. 



It had long been my intention to pay a visit to Saldanha 

 Bay and to some of the bird-islands there, and this was 

 rendered more easy by the enterprise of Messrs. Bucknell 

 Brothers, who now run a small steamer there every week, 

 leaving on Friday and returning on Tuesday. 



Embarking at the Cape Town Docks in the early morning 

 of September 25th last in the s.s. c Blairgowan,' we reached 

 Hoetjes Bay, the name given to the northern i portion of 



