cxxxvi INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries, 
Flinders, not plentiful, but some were taken with hook and line from the 
1798. i 
rocks. 
Speckled yellow snakes, of three or four feet in length, were 
found upon Preservation Island, and exist, no doubt, upon the larger 
isles. They sometimes get into the burrows of the sooty petrel, and 
probably destroy the young. I saw one dragged out by a sailor 
who expected to have taken a bird ; but, being quick in his move- 
ments, he was not bitten. These snakes possess the venomous 
fangs ; but no person experienced the degree of virulence in their 
poison. 
The schooner was ready to sail on Feb. 25 ; and the wind from the 
westward being fresh and favourable, we left Hamilton's Road to 
return to Port Jackson. It was still a matter of doubt whether the 
land to the south of the islands were, or were not, a part of Van 
Diemen's Land ; and I therefore requested of Mr. Reed to make a 
stretch that way. At noon our latitude was 40 0 4,4-, and the peak 
of Cape Barren bore N. 13' E. ; an island which had been visited 
by the Sydney-Cove's people, and was represented to be a breeding 
place for swans, bore from N. 68° W. to west, five or six miles, and 
there were some smaller islets behind it. The land lying two or 
three miles more to the south is sandy and low in front, but ascends 
in gently rising hills as it retreats into the country. Its general 
appearance was very different from that of Furneaux's Islands, the 
lower hills being covered with green grass, interspersed with clumps 
of wood, and the back land well clothed with timber trees. 
We stretched on until the land was seen beyond 40- 50'-' and then 
veered to the northward. In this latitude, captain Furneaux says, 
" the land benches away to the westward ;"* and as he traced the 
coast from the south end of the country to this part, there could no 
longer be a doubt that it was joined to the land discovered by Tasman 
m 10*42. The smokes which had constantly been seen rising from 
it shewed that there were inhabitants ; and this, combined with the 
* Cook's Second Voyage, Vol. I. page 114. 
