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Dampier, William, 1652-1715

"A Voyage to New Holland"

, the shore was lined thick with many other
sorts of very strange and beautiful shells, for variety of colour and
shape, most finely spotted with red, black, or yellow, etc., such as I
have not seen anywhere but at this place. I brought away a great many of
them; but lost all except a very few, and those not of the best.
There are also some green-turtle weighing about 200 pounds. Of these we
caught 2 which the water ebbing had left behind a ledge of rock, which
they could not creep over. These served all my company 2 days; and they
were indifferent sweet meat. Of the sharks we caught a great many which
our men eat very savourily. Among them we caught one which was 11 foot
long. The space between its two eyes was 20 inches, and 18 inches from
one corner of his mouth to the other. Its maw was like a leather sack,
very thick, and so tough that a sharp knife could scarce cut it: in which
we found the head and bones of a hippopotamus; the hairy lips of which
were still sound and not putrefied, and the jaw was also firm, out of
which we plucked a great many teeth, 2 of them 8 inches long and as big
as a man's thumb, small at one end, and a little crooked; the rest not
above half so long.


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