De Witt's Isles, (so named, probably, by Tasman) twelve in number, are of
various sizes. The two largest are from three to four miles in circuit.
Their sides are steep, but their height is inferior to that of the main.
The largest is the lowest. The smaller isles are little more than large
lumps of rock, of which that named by Captain Cook the mew stone is the
southernmost. Their aspect, like that of the main, bespeaks extreme
sterility; but, superior to the greater part of it, they produce a
continued covering of brush; and upon the sloping sides of some of their
gullies are a few stinted, half dead gum trees.
They could not account for the vestiges of fires that appeared upon the
two inner large islands; the innermost in particular, which lay at some
distance from the nearest point of the main, was burnt in patches upon
different parts of it. It must have been effected either by lightning, or
by the hand of man; but it was so much unlike the usual effects of the
former, that, with all its difficulties, they chose to attribute it to
the latter cause.
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