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Surrounding it is a low coral reef, trending northward to the outer edge of the group. This reef afforded me an opportunity of examining the coral formation of the Abrolhos, which, with the exception of Bermuda, is the place farthest removed from the equator where coral formation is found.
We found to our surprise that the group into which we had penetrated was entirely distinct from that under which we had first anchored to the southward, so that we had already discovered the Abrolhos to form three separate groups. The centre island we named Rat Island, from the quantity of that vermin with which it was infested. Several of these were brought away alive.
Bynoe's interesting observations on the Marsupiata, which the number of wallaby killed at Houtman's Abrolhos afforded him the means of perfecting. I may preface his remarks by stating, that all the information I could gain from the colonists on the subject was, that the young of the kangaroo were born on the nipple, which my own experience appears to corroborate. "My first examination," says Mr.
With this view G.F. Moore, Esquire, embarked on the trip. The Abrolhos. Latitude by a good sight on shore, 288 degrees 45 minutes, subsequently corrected to 288 degrees 40 minutes.
I had two myself for nine months on board, and afterwards presented them to Lady Gipps. Of those taken by Lieutenant Emery, he was so fortunate as to bring one alive to England, in 1841. It is still in his possession, and thrives remarkably well. In one of his last letters he writes to me as follows on the subject: "The Abrolhos lizard is very docile, and knows Mrs.
Bynoe and myself succeeding in knocking over four, weighing from five to eight pounds; they also had blunt noses, and were of a light brown colour, quite different from those on the Abrolhos. Two iguanas, measuring seven feet in length, and nearly black, striped slightly with white, were also killed here. We did not find any surface water; everything wore a dry parched appearance.
If one looks at the west coast of Australia one is struck by the large number of Dutch names which are jotted down the coast. There is Hoog Island, Diemen's Bay, Houtman's Abrolhos, De Wit land, and the Archipelago of Nuyts, besides Dirk Hartog's Island and Cape Leeuwin.
This calcareous formation has been traced as far north as Shark's Bay; it crosses over to the Abrolhos Group, there frequently lying over a coral formation, and forming in many places cavities of a cylindrical figure, of some few feet in depth. Beds of clays, varying in quality and colour, are to be met with on sandy margins, containing particles of gypsum.
A terrible storm destroyed ten of the fleet, and on June 4th, 1629, the Batavia was driven ashore on the reef still known as Houtman's Abrolhos, which had been discovered and named by a Dutch East Indiaman some years earlier probably by the commander of the Leeuwin, who discovered and named after his ship the cape at the south-west point of the continent.
Pelsart remained another week at the Abrolhos, endeavoring to recover some of the Batavia's treasure, and succeeded in finding all but one chest. The mutineers were tried by the officers of the Sardam, and all but two were executed before the ship left the scene of their awful crime.
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