which account he named it "Garden Island."

On this island, Buache, or Garden (as the party named it) Captain
Stirling left a cow, two ewes in lamb, and three goats, where, he
observes, abundance of grass, and a large pool of water awaited them.
They would be, at all events, perfectly free from any disturbance from
the natives.

Rottenest Island is the largest in this quarter, being about eight miles
in length; it contains several saline lagoons, separated from the sea,
on the north-east side, by a beach composed mostly of a single species
of bivalve shell. Like Buache, it is covered with an abundant and
vigorous vegetation, and a small species of kangaroo is said by
Freycinet to be numerous upon it. Vlaming, who first discovered it,
speaks in raptures of the beauties of this island, to which, from the
multitude of rats, as he thought them to be, he gave the name of the
"Rats' Nest." The French call this animal the _preamble ... long new_.

It is not to be supposed that a hasty visit could enable the party
to explore the mineralogical resources of the country. It appears,
however, by a list of the soils and rock formations in Captain
Stirling's report, that he brought home specimens of copper ore, of
lead ore with silver, and also with arsenic, two species of magnetic
iron, several varieties of granite, and chalcedony, and of limestone,
with stalagmite incrustations, &c. The high cliffs of Cape Naturaliste
abound with large masses of what Mr. Fraser calls "an extraordinary
aggregate," containing petrifactions of bivalve and other marine
shells, every particle of which was thickly incrusted with minute
crystals. Here, too, he says, veins of iron of considerable thickness
were seen to traverse the rock in various directions; and he speaks of