166 SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1822 . by a spreading undescribed species of melaleuca, 
Jan. 14. (allied to m. armillaris, Smith ;) and the more 
elegant pitfmporum, an arborescent species, also 
undescribed. In fact, these three trees consti- 
tute the timber of the island. The ground is 
in some parts profusely clothed with spinifex 
hirsutus, Labil., in which I detected a new spe- 
cies of xerotes, a round bushy plant growing in 
large bodies. 
No fresh water has ever been discovered 
upon this island : indeed the loose filtering na- 
ture of the soil is not tenacious enough to 
retain that element at the surface. The woods 
are abundantly stocked with a small species 
of kangaroo, of which we saw only the traces ; 
nor did we see the animal, on account of whose 
numbers and resemblance to a rat, the island 
received its name from Vlaming, in 1619. M. 
Peron says, that it forms a new genus, and of 
a very remarkable character^. Rottnest Island 
does not appear ever to have been inhabited, 
or even visited by the natives from the main ; 
probably on account of the stormy nature of the 
weather, and the prevalence of westerly winds, 
which would be quite sufficient to deter them 
from venturing to sea in such fragile vessels 
as they possessf 
^ PfiHON, vol. i. p. 189. t Cunningham MSS, 
