*769. choring ground, however, lay feveral rocky ledges, that January. # J 0
'----£---- r were covered with fea-weed; but I was told that there was
Saturday.14. nQt jeps eight and nine fathom over all of them. It
will probably be thought ftrange, that where weeds, which
grow at the bottom, appear above the furface, there fhould
be this depth of water; but the weeds which grow upon
rocky ground in thefe countries, and which always diftin-
guifh it from fand and ooze, are of an enormous fize. The
leaves are four feet long, and fome of the ftalks, though not
thicker than a man’s thumb, above one hundred and twenty:
Mr, Banks and Dr. Solander examined fome of them, over
which we founded and had fourteen fathom, which is eighty-
four feet; and, as -they made a very acute angle with the
bottom, they were thought to he at leaft one half longer :
foe foot ftalks were fwelled into an air veflel, and Mr, Banks
and Dr. Solander called this plant Fucus giganteus. Upon the
report of foe Matter, I flood in with the fhip ; but not truft-
ing implicitly to his intelligence, I continued to found, and
found but four fathom upon the firft ledge that I went over;
concluding, therefore, that I could not anchor here without
rifk, I-determined to feek fome port in the Streight, where
1 might get on board fuch wood and water as we wanted.
Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, however, being very defirous
to go on fhore, I fent a boat with them and their people,
while I kept plying as near as poflible w ith the fhip.
Having been on fhore four hours, they returned about
nine in the evening, with above an hundred -different plants
and flowers, all of them wholly unknown to the botanifts
of Europe. They found the country about the bay to be in
general flat, the bottom of it in particular was a plain, covered
with grafs, which might eafily have been made into a
large quantity of ha y ; they found alfo abundance of good.
5 wood
wood and water, and fowl in great plenty. Among other
things, of which Nature has. been liberal in this place, is i--------->
Q ' . " . ' r 1 1 Saturday 14*
Winter’s bark, Wmteranea aromatica; which may eauly be
known by its broad leaf, lhaped like the laurel, of a light
green colour without, and inclining to blue within : the bark
is eafily ftripped with a bone or a flick, and its virtues are
well known: it may be ufed for culinary purpofes as a fpice,
and is not lefs pleafant than wholefome: here is alfo plenty
of wild celery and fcurvy grafs. The trees are chiefly of
one kind, a fpecies of the birch, called Betula antarSlica; the
ftem is from thirty to forty feet long, and from two to three
feet in diameter, fo that in a cafe of neceflity they might
poflibly fupply a fhip with top-mafts: they are a light white
wood, bear a fmall leaf, and cleave very ftraight. Cranberries
were alfo found here, in great plenty, both white and red.
The perfons who landed faw none of the inhabitants, but
fell in with two of their deferted huts, one in a thick wood,
and the other clofe by the beach.
Having taken the boat on board, I made fail into the
Streight, and at three in the morning of foe 15th, I anchored Sunday
in twelve fathom and an half, upon coral rocks, before a
fmall cove, which we took for Port Maurice, at the diftance
"of about half a mile from the fhore. Two of the natives
came down to the beach, expediing us to land; but this fpot
afforded fo little flicker, that I at length determined not to
examine i t : I therefore got under fail again about ten
-o’clock, and the favages retired into the woods.
. At two o’clock, we anchored in the bay of Good Succefs1
and after dinner I went on fhore, accompanied by Mi. Banks
and Dr. Solander, to look for-a watering-place, and fpeak to
the Indians, feveral of whom had come in fight. We landed
on the ftarboard fide of the bay near fome rocks, which
Vol. II. G , made