466 



ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [January^ 



probable, from an experiment that was made with the metallic par- 

 ticles that were taken to be tin : a large fame of what bore marks of 

 arfenic arofe from the crucible during the time of fmelting it. Water 

 was at -fir ft very fcarce ; but, owing to fome unufual falls of rain,, 

 feveral little runs and fwamps were found ; and a low piece of ground-, 

 where the inhabitants had depofited their dead, was now a pond of an 

 excellent quality. 



Although he had feen but few of the low iflands of Furneaux, yet 

 Mr. Bafs had not any doubt but that this account of Prefervation* 

 Ifland would in general anfwer for the defcription of any of them, 



Mr. Bafs's next landing was on the fouthern end of Cape Barren 

 Mand ; which was indeed barren ; but it was, he remarks, very 

 fingular, that a place wherein food feemed to be fo fcarce, (hould yet 

 be fo thickly inhabited by the fmall brum kangooroo, and a. new 

 quadruped which was alfo a grafs-eater. 



This animal, being a ftranger, appears to merit a particular defcrhv 

 tion. The Wom-bat (or, as it is called by the natives of Port Jack- 

 fon, the Womback) is a fquat, thick, fhort-legged, and rather inactive 

 quadruped, with great appearance of (lumpy ftrength, and fomewhat 

 bigger than a large turn-fpit dog. Its figure and movements, if they 

 do not exa&ly refemble thofe of the bear, at lead ftrongly remind one 

 of that animal. Its length, from the tip of the tail to the tip of the 

 nofe, is thirty-one inches, of which its body takes up twenty-three 

 and five-tenths. The head is feven inches and the tail five-tenths 0 . 

 Its circumference behind the fore-legs twenty-feven inches; acrofs 

 the thickeft part of the belly thirty-one inches. Its weight, by hand, 

 is fomewhat between twenty-five and thirty pounds. The hair is 

 coarfe, and about one inch, or an inch and five-tenths, in length ; 

 thinly fet upon the belly, thicker on the back and head,, and thickeft 

 upon the loins and rump. The colour of it a light fandy brown, of 

 varying {hades, but darkeft along the back. 



The head is large and fiattifh, and, when we are looking the animal 

 full in the face, feems, excluding the ears, to form nearly an equilateral 



triangle^ 



