101 
“Fishing yielded us an abundance of excellent fish; there were, 
however, some days on which we could not catch a single one; these 
days seemed to me to correspond with the days of the greatest calm 
of wind and waves. Perhaps at these times the fish moved further 
into the open, and only returned to our neighbourhood when the sea, 
being too rough, they found it necessary to seek in shallower water 
a region where the waves were smaller. 
What struck us most concerning the fish was the .multitude of 
sharks; they never left the ship for a moment, and the majority of 
them were truly enormous. We captured one whose muzzle was 
much more pointed than that of the rest; its length was 42dms. 
(13ft.), its circumference 32dms. (10ft.), and its total weight about 
636 kilos (l,3001hs.). We saw some whose dimensions were twice 
as big as this, it may well be doubted whether any other seas con- 
tain more powerful and formidable monsters of this genus. We also 
frequently observed sea-snakes round the ship, principally when the 
sea was calm.” 
On Garden Island “I observed partridges and crows smaller 
than those of Europe, but of a delicious taste; seals are much more 
numerous there than on Rottnest.” 
Leaving this locality the “Naturaliste” continued northwards up 
the coast, passing the Abrolhos, and anchored in Sharks Bay on 
July 16th. On Cape Inscription at the north end of Dirk Hartog 
Island they found a plate with two Dutch inscriptions, that of Dirk 
Hartog in 1616 and that of de Vlaming in 1697. On the east coast 
of Dirk Hartog Island, a small bay and islet were named Bay and 
Islet of Tetrodons, “because of the great number of fish of this genus 
which we found there, and of which our sailors took an abundant 
haul. Here whales occur in such great numbers that I was often 
obliged to alter my course so as not to be capsized by these enormous 
cetaceans. I saw also some turtles, and many small sharks or dog- 
fish.” Close to the southern point of the island “I observed several 
holes as large as a man, and which seemed to constitute so many 
burrows; it would be difficult to guess by what animal they were 
excavated, the largest species of quadruped which we observed on 
the island being scarcely as large as a rabbit.” 
“Round several extinct fires,” presumably on the mainland, 
“we saw many remains of shells and of fish, but no quadruped 
bones.” “We discovered a great many pearl oysters; our sailors 
collected a number, and found some pearls in the.m, of which the 
largest was only half a line in diameter.” 
“On a little, sterile, solitary islet, on which we passed the night, 
we found a prodigious number of different seabirds, which as soon 
as we landed, flew round us screaming loudly; they remained a long 
time sailing overhead, all the time making a great noise. The sight 
which this cloud of birds afforded was very curious ; their whiteness 
allowed us to distinguish them against the sky, in spite of the dark- 
