155 
Wellesley's Islands.] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
light than they made for the water, and with speed, as if conscious 
that the bu shards were watching them ; when placed in a direction 
from the sea, which was done for experiment, they turned themselves 
and took the straightest course to the water side. But it is not only 
in the bustards, nor on land alone, that they have enemies to fear ; 
tiger sharks were numerous, and so voracious, that seven were 
hooked along-side the ship, measuring from five to nine feet in length. 
These were ready to receive such of the little animals as escape their 
first enemies ; and even one of the full grown turtle had lpst a semi- 
circular piece, equal to the tenth part of its bulk, which had been 
bitten out of its side ; and what seemed more extraordinary, the shell 
had closed, and the place was healed up. Were it not for the im- 
mense destruction made of these animals in the different stages of 
their existence, and that food must in the end fail, their fecundity is 
such, that all the tropical seas and shores would scarcely afford room 
for them in a few years. The number of eggs found in the females, 
and there were few, if any males amongst the forty-six taken here, 
usually ran from four to seven hundred ; and in one weighing 
459 lbs, taken earlier in the following season, the number of eggs 
cpunted was 1940, as recorded in lieutenant Powder’s journal ; but 
many were not bigger, some not so large as peas. They seem to 
lay from twenty to a hundred eggs at once, and this is done many 
times in the season ; after which they go very little on shore. In 
Terra Australis, the season appears to commence in August, and to 
terminate in January or February. 
The latitude of our anchorage, one mile from the south-east side 
of Bountiful Island, was 16’ 41' south. Lieutenant Flinders observed 
six sets of lunar distances, which gave 139 0 46' 18" east longitude ; 
but the time keeper No. 543 made it 14^' east of Inspection Hill, or in 
1 39 0 59 j . The variation of the compass, from azimuth and ampli- 
tude observed with the ship’s head in the magnetic meridian, was 
3° 4 6' east ; and at my station on shore, an amplitude with the 
theodolite gave 3 0 47’ east. From a little past ten in the mornibg 
1802. 
December. 
Saturday 4. 
