dge of high breakers.

The glass bottles I have mentioned were of a short stout Dutch build, and
were placed in rows, as if for the purpose of collecting water; some of
them were very large, being capable of holding five or six gallons; they
were in part buried in the sand, and the portion which was left exposed
to the air presented a singular appearance, being covered with a white
substance that had eaten away the glaze. A number of seal bones were
noticed on this island; and I have no doubt they are the remains of those
that were killed by the crew of the Zeewyk for their subsistence. On the
north end of the island was a hole containing brackish water; when we dug
it deeper the salt water poured in. The next small islet to the
East-South-East we discovered to be that on which the Dutchmen had built
their sloop. On the west side of it was a spot free from coral reefs,
thus offering them facilities, nowhere else afforded, for launching the
bark which ultimately carried them in safety to Batavia.

A mile and a half to the southward of Gun Island, opposite a
singular-looking indentation in the outer side of the reefs, a small
cluster of cliffy islets approaches within half a mile of them. It is
rather singular that in another of the group--larger than Gun Island,
lying in the centre of the lagoon, and the only one not visited by the
Beagle's boats--water should have been found by a party who came from
Swan River to save the wreck of a ship lost in 1843, close to the spot on
which the Batavia struck more than two hundred years ago. This island is
called in the chart Middle Island. The well is on the south point, and
the water, which is very good, rises and falls with the tide. Doubtless
this must have been the island on which the crew of Pelsart's ship found
water, though for some time they were deterred from tasting it by
observing its ebb and flow, from which they inferred it would prove salt.
The north point of Gun Island, which our observations placed in latitude
28 degrees 53 minutes 10 seconds South, longitude 1 degree 53 minutes 35
seconds West of Swan River, is fronted for half a mile by a reef.

MANGROVE ISLETS.

The ship was now moved to the north-east extreme of the lagoon, to which
we crossed in 17 fathoms--the depth we anchored in, a mile north-west
from a cluster of islets covered in places with mangroves, from which
they receive their name. To the southward the depth in the lagoon, as far
as a square-look