White and black
cockatoos, parrots and parroquets, were every where found. Pigeons and
quails were seen in great quantities, and many melodious birds were
heard in the woods.
Seals were plentiful on all the islands. Captain Stirling says that it
was not the season for whales, but their debris strewed the shore of
Geographer's Bay. The French, in May and June, met with a prodigious
number of whales along this part of the coast, and sharks equally
numerous and of an enormous size, some of them stated to be upwards of
two thousand pounds in weight. Vlaming mentions the vast numbers of
large sharks on this part of the coast, and he, as well as the French,
found the sea near the shore swarming with sea-snakes, the largest
about nine or ten feet long. Captain Stirling's party procured three
or four different kinds of good esculent fish; one in particular, a
species of rock-cod, is described as excellent.
"The bottom of the sea," says Captain Stirling, "is composed of
calcareous sand, sometimes passing into marl or clay. On this may be
seen growing an endless variety of marine plants, which appear to form
the haunts and perhaps the sustenance of quantities of small fish.
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