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The specimen of the species of Helix I have above mentioned was found by Mr. Dring, one of our most successful collectors in that department. Leaving Depuch Island, we examined the coast to the eastward as far as the Turtle Isles, a distance of eighty-five miles, the first twenty-seven of which trended North 55 degrees East, and the remainder North 67 degrees East curving slightly inwards.
These savages of Australia, as we call them, who have adorned the rocks of Depuch Island with their drawings, have in one thing proved themselves superior to the Egyptian and the Etruscan, whose works have elicited so much admiration and afforded food to so many speculations namely, there is not in them to be observed the slightest trace of indecency.
The interior was, for a great distance, a vast plain, so low that we could scarcely see it from the ship's masthead over the sandhills, which did not exceed the height of 40 feet. Six or seven miles from the Turtle Isles this extensive level was interrupted by the presence of a group of hills, from 200 to 300 feet in elevation, apparently of the same character as the heights behind Depuch Island.
Although Depuch Island had been visited before, there still remained something quite new to reward the diligent search that was made after objects of natural history: namely, a small kind of kangaroo, a land bird, and a shell, a species of Helix. The bird was shot by Mr.
Strong south and south-east winds, which reduced the temperature, on one occasion, to 56 degrees about 4 A.M., generally prevailed, excepting for a few hours in the afternoon; quite reminding us of the winds we experienced at Depuch Island on the North-west coast, and preventing us from reaching our destination till the morning of the 24th, when we anchored two miles and a quarter from a particularly bare sand hillock, bearing South 53 degrees West.
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