110 
“I have finished my account of the natural history of King 
George’s Sound. From its position at the extremity of the S.W. 
coast of New Holland, it marks the line of demarcation which exists 
between the animals of the North and those of the South of this 
vast continent; on this last account it obviously deserved the greater 
length which I have devoted to its description.” 
In Oyster Harbour “excellent oysters, hardly covered by a few 
feet of water, grow on the banks of sand and clay; our sailors fished 
as many of them as they desired. Not far from the entrance of the 
sound is a little islet on which Vancouver sowed several useful seeds, 
and which, for this reason, he called Garden Island. Landing there, 
our companions found no trace of European plants; innumerable 
legions of large ants appeared to them to be the principal cause of 
the destruction of these useful seeds.” 
The ships left King George’s Sound on 1st March. In Geo- 
graphe Bay the Casuarina “encountered an innumerable quantity 
of dead whales, which, floating on the surface of the water, pre- 
sented an appearance as strange as it was surprising.” In the 
marshes near Port Leschenault “we saw everywhere many very wild 
teal, some pelicans, and other sea-birds.” “Some bones of a large 
kangaroo, on which some of the flesh remained,” were collected near 
a recent fire. They arrived at Sharks Bay on March 16. On Peron 
Peninsula “innumerable legions of little Tabanus pursued us mer- 
cilessly everywhere.” 
On the east coast the sand banks were covered with shells, 
“various troops of fish swam fearlessly round us : w r e distinguished 
among others brilliant Labrus, curious Chastodons, several species 
of Balistes, Scomber, Raia, Tetrodon, and several large sharks.” 
The chief object of this second visit to Sharks Bay was to 
obtain turtles, but “with much trouble, in eight days, they procured 
only 12 of these animals in the same place at which our companions 
of the ‘Naturaliste’ had encountered them in thousands. This rarity 
of turtles is as simple to explain as it was easy to foresee. It is in 
spring that these amphibia approach deserted sandy islands to de- 
posit their eggs, which are hatched by the heat of the sun : they live 
on land as long as the education of their young family requires; 
after which they regain the high seas, where they habitually live. 
A small number of feeble or diseased individuals remain on shore, 
and it was from amongst these latter that we managed to procure 
a few. 
“Thus the habitation of marine turtles, like that of seals, is 
essentially governed by the progress of the seasons ; and the prudent 
navigator ought to take account of this circumstance: not to be 
misled in the researches or commercial speculations which he may 
wish to make on these animals. The same is true of whales, which 
had terrified us by their number on the occasion of our first sojourn 
in Sharks Bay and of which we did not see a single individual on 
our return to the same locality.” 
