Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/187

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April.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
177

trance of the harbour, where tents had been pitched for the purpoſe of taking obſervations, as we were ſure of meeting there with a boat to carry us on board.

The aſtronomers expected the firſt of Jupiter's ſatellites to appear at about a quarter of an hour after eight in the evening; but with all their activity they could not get their inſtruments ready in due time; ſo that the opportunity was loſt. Bonvouloir, one of our officers, who had made the preliminary calculations a long time ſince, was ſo affected by this diſappointment, that he wept like a child.

One of our crew ſhot a young kangarou upon the ſhore. The animal, after running about a hundred yards along the ſand, threw himſelf into the ſea and expired. It was remarkable that he uſed all his four feet in running, not ſupporting himſelf ſolely upon the hinder feet, as he is uſually repreſented to do; though theſe as well as the fore, are without hair on the inner ſide. As he goes in queſt of his food more in the night-time than during the day, nature has provided him with the membrane termed by zoologiſts membrana nictitans, ſituated at the interior angle of the eye, which he can extend at pleaſure over the whole ball. His ſtomath was full of vegetables, and divided by three very diſtinct partitions,

which