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Dampier, William, 1652-1715

"A Voyage to New Holland"

I have given the pictures of 4 several
birds on this coast.
The land animals that we saw here were only a sort of raccoon, different
from those of the West Indies, chiefly as to their legs; for these have
very short forelegs; but go jumping upon them as the others do (and like
them are very good meat) and a sort of iguana, of the same shape and size
with other iguanas described, but differing from them in 3 remarkable
particulars: for these had a larger and uglier head, and had no tail: and
at the rump, instead of the tail there, they had a stump of a tail which
appeared like another head; but not really such, being without mouth or
eyes: yet this creature seemed by this means to have a head at each end;
and, which may be reckoned a fourth difference, the legs also seemed all
4 of them to be forelegs, being all alike in shape and length, and
seeming by the joints and bending to be made as if they were to go
indifferently either head or tail foremost. They were speckled black and
yellow like toads, and had scales or knobs on their backs like those of
crocodiles, plated onto the skin, or stuck into it, as part of the skin.


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