52 
W. B. ALEXANDER, M.A. I 
it sits on its hind-legs, and clutches its food with its forepaws, 
just like a squirrel or monkey. Their manner of generation or 
procreation is exceedingly strange and highly worth observing. 
Below the belly the female carries a pouch, into which you may 
put your hand ; inside this pouch are her nipples, and we have 
found that the young ones grow up in this pouch with the nipples 
in their mouths. We have seen some young ones lying there 
which were only the size of a bean, though at the same time 
perfectly proportioned, so that it seems certain that they grow 
there out of the nipples of the mamm e, from which they draw 
their food, until they are grown up and are able to walk. Still 
they keep creeping into the pouch even when they have become 
very large, and the dam runs off with them when they are hunted. 
[This account refers to the Dama wallaby, Macropus eugcnn, 
which is still plentiful on the islands. ] In these two islands we 
also found a number of grey turtle-doves [the brush bronzewing 
pigeon, Cmmopelia elegans, plentiful in the \\ allaby Group , but 
no other animals.” 
From the journal of Commander Wollebrand Geleynszoon 
de Jongh we learn that on May 25, 1635, “ we sighted the South- 
land from the ship ‘ Amsterdam.' We took the latitude, which 
we found to be 25 0 16' South (about Dirk Hartog Island), but of 
this we are not quite sure. . . . We saw a good deal of rock- 
weed floating past our ship, and also a small saturn-gull, and 
not above 6 or 7 other gulls.” 
The next discoveries to which I must refer were again the 
result of a shipwreck. The ship " De Vergulde Draeck ” was 
wrecked on a reef on the coast of the southland in latitude 30° 
(a little south of Jurien Bay), on the 28th of April, 1(556. The 
Dutch governors of Batavia and the Cape sent several ships to 
rescue the survivors, but none were found. One of these ships, 
the “ Waeckcnde Boey,” having sent a boat ashore containing 
fourteen men, as they did not return within twenty-four hours, 
abandoned them on the supposition that the boat must have 
been dashed against the rocks and all hands perished, hour of 
the crew afttrwards reached Japara, in Java, the rest having 
perished on the journey there. They reported that, finding 
themselves abandoned by the ship, ” they repaired their boat, 
as best they might, with sealskins and provided themselves with 
a little water and seals’ flesh.” From the journal of Abraham 
Leeman, one of the survivors, we learn that “ they were obliged 
to keep themselves alive by eating seals’ flesh, gulls, etc." 
Samuel Volckersen, skipper of the ” Waeckende Boey,” 
published “ a brief account of the west-coast of the South-land ” 
in 1658. In this we read that “ in slightly under 32° S. I.at. 
there is a large island, at about 3 (Dutch, 12 English) miles’ 
distance from the mainland of the Southland (Rottnest) ; here 
