Kanguroo Island.^ TERRA AUSTRALIA 
pieces of a foot long, or more, like iron bars, and had a shining, ore- 
like appearance ; and the strata were then further from the horizontal 
line than I observed them to be elsewhere. 
A thick wood covered almost all that part of the island visible 
from the ship ; but the trees in a vegetating state were not equal in 
size to the generality of those lying on the ground, nor to the dead 
trees standing upright. Those on the ground were so abundant, 
that in ascending the higher land, a considerable part of the walk 
was made upon them. They lay in all directions, and were nearly 
of the same size and in the same progress towards decay ; from 
whence it would seem that they had not fallen from age, nor yet 
been thrown down in a gale of wind. Some general conflagration, 
and there were marks apparently of fire on many of them, is per- 
haps the sole cause which can be reasonably assigned ; but whence 
came the woods on fire ? That there were no inhabitants upon the 
island, and that the natives of the continent d-d not visit it, was 
demonstrated, if not by the want of all signs of such visit, yet by the 
tameness of the kanguroo, an animal which, on the continent, resem- 
bles the wild deer in timidity. Perhaps lightning might have been 
the cause, or possibly the friction of two dead trees in a strong wind ; 
but it would be somewhat extraordinary that the same thing should 
have happened at Thistle's Island, Boston Island, and at this place, 
and apparently about the same time. Can this part of Terra Aus- 
tralis have been visited before, unknown to the world ? The French 
navigator, La Pe'rouse, was ordered to explore it, but there seems 
little probability that he ever passed Torres' Strait. 
Some judgment may be formed of the epoch when these con- 
flagrations happened, from the magnitude of the growing trees ; for 
they must have sprung up since that period. They were a species 
of eucalyptus, and being less than the fallen trees, had most probably 
not arrived at maturity ; but the wood is hard and solid, and it may 
thence be supposed to grow slowly. With these considerations, I 
should be inclined to fix the period at not less than ten, nor more 
