raccoon, different from that of the West Indies, chiefly as to the legs;
for these have very short fore legs; but go jumping upon them" (not upon
the short fore, but the long hind, legs, it is to be presumed), "as the
others do; and like them are very good meat." This appears to have been
the small kangaroo, since found upon the islands which form the road; and
if so, this description is probably the first ever made of that singular
animal.

Leaving Shark's Bay on Aug. 14, captain Dampier steered northward, along
the coast; but at too great a distance to make much observation upon it,
until he got round the North-west Cape. On the 22nd, he saw an extensive
cluster of islands; and anchored, in latitude 20° 21', under one of the
largest, which he called _Rosemary Island_. This was near the southern
part of De Witt's Land; but, besides an error in latitude of 40', he
complains that, in _Tasman's chart_, "the shore is laid down as all along
joining in one body, or continent, with some openings like rivers; and
not like islands, as really they are."--"By what we saw of them, they
must have been a range of islands, of about twenty leagues in length,
stretching from E. N. E. to W. S. W.; and for ought I know, as far as to
those of Shark's Bay; and to a considerable breadth also, for we could
see nine or ten leagues in amongst them, towards the continent or main
land of New Holland, _if there be any such thing hereabouts_: And by the
great tides I met with awhile afterwards, more to the north-east, I had a
strong suspicion that here might be a kind of archipelago of islands; and
a passage, possibly, to the to the south of New Holland and New Guinea,
into the great South Sea, eastward."

Not finding fresh water upon such of the islands as were visited that
day, captain Dampier quitted his anchorage next morning, and "steered
away E. N. E., coasting along as the land lies." He seems to have kept