Iq6 White, Expedition io Islands of Bass Strait. Tist^April 



fine vessel dashed on the rugged coast of the island, going to 

 pieces in a very short space of time. I believe over thirty 

 wrecks are credited to this dangerous coast, with the appalling 

 loss of over 800 lives. After visiting King Island one can 

 understand how quickly a ship would go to pieces. Early one 

 morning we rounded the north end of the island, with a heavy 

 sea running, which was rolling in on Navarin Reef with a boom 

 like thunder, the white foam spouting yards into the air, 

 presenting a grand sight. It was on this dangerous reef that 

 one of those many terrible wrecks occurred. The convict ship 

 Neva struck it on a wild night in 1835, tearing herself to pieces 

 on its jagged rocks. One shudders when one thinks of the 

 three hundred women convicts who were on board, cast 

 shrieking into the boiling sea ; some reached land, only to die 

 of starvation in the thick scrub. It is not an unusual occurrence 

 even to the present day to come upon the remains of a human 

 skeleton in some thick part of the scrub, or to find their charred 

 bones after bush fires. We were glad to enter Currie Harbour, 

 the capital of the island, where we were storm-bound for thirty- 

 six hours ; but we put in the time very profitably. Some of 

 our party visited a pretty islet in the harbour, where a rookery 

 of Silver Gulls {Lams novcB-hollandt'cB) was discovered. Their 

 eggs lay upon the ledges of rocks in numbers, with little or 

 no nest — just a slight depression scratched out, where they 

 deposited their dark olive-brown mottled eggs. Other members 

 of the expedition penetrated the interior of the island in quest 

 of small birds which frequent the dense scrub ; others kept to the 

 rocky shore or sandy beach in search of marine objects ; and some 

 rash gentlemen essayed a long and rough ride to the opposite 

 coast and back, visiting Sea Elephant Bay, but seeing none of 

 the animals which give the bay its name. My wife and self 

 set out for a 5 or 6-mile tramp into the centre of the island. I 

 regret to say we found that the big timber had been and is 

 being destroyed by ring-barking and fire ; the tall bleached and 

 charred trees stand out against a dark sky, monuments of 

 man's destructive hand. We had travelled several miles before 

 we entered the thick scrub, and, in places, dense patches of 

 tall cutting-grass, which made travelling very difficult. It was 

 well into the afternoon when we had gone about 6 miles and 

 camped to boil the billy and have lunch. By this time we had 

 noted several species of birds. On the open heath country, 

 before entering the scrub, the little Pipit {Ant/ius) was very 

 plentiful. Amongst the dense timber the Black Crow-Shrike 

 {Strepera fiiligmosa) was seen occasionally ; the White-bearded 

 Honey-eaters {Meliornis novcB-hollandicB) were fairly plentiful, 

 and their sharp note was continually heard from the thick 

 undergrowth, while the conspicuous yellow marking on the wing 

 would be seen as they darted across some open space from one 



