octobes milk, it being a viviparous animal of the clafs which fuckle
their own young. It was cut up the next morning, and
the meat diftributed to the Chip’s company ; its colour was
not very inviting, being almoft black ; but its tafte after
cutting away all the fat, was very like beef, only fomewhat
dry. We dined on it very heartily, and were very well
contented with our good fortune. We faw land the fame
morning, which proved to be a fmall ifland, of moderate
elevation, wholly covered with cyprefs-trees, refembling
thofe we had found on Botany Ifland. We had foundings
at a good diftance, in twenty fathom more or Iefs, and;
about nine o’clock were abreaft of it. It feemed to be
about two or three miles long,, was very fteep, almoft entirely
covered with woods, and to appearance uninhabited..
Many aquatic fowls of different fpecies were obferved about
it, which gave us hopes of making at leaft a provifion of
another frefh meal. We haffiened to finifh. our dinner, and
went on fhore with captain Cook in two boats. Several
large broken rocks project into the fea from the ifland, on
all fides. We were fortunate enough to find a little cove
fo well fheltered by fome of thefe rocks, that our boats lay
very fafe in it, and were able to land without wetting a
foot. A heap of large ftones formed a kind of beach, beyond
which the fhore rofe very fteep, and in fome parts
perpendicular. We found a little rill which defcended in
a cleft between two hills; and following the courfe of it,
we
we penetrated into the woods with great difficulty, through
a thick tiflue of bindweeds and climbers. However, as
foon as we had palled through this outward fence, we
found the foreft tolerably clear of underwood, and had
not the leaft difficulty to walk forwards. The rocks of this
ifland confifted of the common yellowiffi clayey ftone,
which we had found at New Zeeland; and in fome places
we met with fmall bits of porous reddifh lava, which-
feemed to be decaying, but made us fufpect this ifland to-
have had a volcano.- The vegetables which we found,
upon it, throve with great luxuriance in a rich ftratum of.
black mould, accumulated during ages paft, from decaying
trees and plants. The greateft number of fpecies which
we met with were well known to us, as belonging to the
flora of New Zeeland, but they appeared here with all
the advantages which a milder climate, and an exuberant
foil could give them. The New Zeeland flag (fhormium
tenax), fhot ftalks eight or nine feet high, having flowers
much larger and brighter than we had feen at Queen Charlotte’s
Sound. The productions of New Zeeland were here:
united to thofe of New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides
for the cyprefs of the one, and the cabbage palm which-
we had feen in the latter, flourifhed here in the greateft
perfection. It was chiefly on thefe two fpecies, that we
bellowed our attention ; the former fupplied the carpenter
with feveral fpare booms, and pieces of timber and the
latter
1 7 7 4 - OCTOB