»77°- which there is great plenty in the bay, followed the flowing
<---.— -> tide into very Ihallow water; he therefore took the opportu-
Fnday 4. 0f flood, and {truck feveral in not more than two or
three feet water: one of them weighed no lefs than two
hundred and forty pounds after his entrails were taken out.
Saturday-. The next morning, as the wind ftill continued northerly
I fent out the yawl again, and the people ftruck one ftill
larger, for when his entrails were taken out he weighed
three hundred and thirty-fix pounds.
The great quantity o f plants which Mr. Banks and Dr. Sounder
collected in this place induced me to give it the name
of BoTAiix Bay. It is fituated in the latitude of 34° S., longitude
20S0 37' W. It is capacious, fafe, and convenient, and
may be known by the land on the fea-coaft, which is nearly
level, and of a moderate height; in general higher than it is
farther inland, with fteep rocky cliffs next the fca, which
have the appearance of a long ifland lying clofe under the
fhore. The harbour lies about the middle of this land, and
in approaching it from the fouthward, is difcovered before
the fhip comes abreaft of i t ; but from the northward it is
• not difcovered fo foon : the.entrance is a little more than a
quarter of a mile broad, and lies in W.N.W." To fail into it
the fouthern fhore fhould be kept on board, till the fhip is
within a fmall bare ifland, which lies clofe under the north
fhore; within this ifland the deepeft water on that fide is
feven fathom, (hallowing to five a good way up. At a confi-
derable diftance from the fouth fhore there is a fhoal, reaching
from the inner fouth point quite tb the bead of the harbour;
but over towards the north and north weft fhore there
is a channel of twelve or fourteen feet at low water, for
three or four leagues, up to a place where there is three or
four fathom, but here I found very little frefh water. We
1 anchored
anchored near the fouth fhore, about a mile within the en- 'U?-
trance, for the convenience of failing with a ’ . fduthe. rly w- ind_, S<a—turda—ys^-
and beeaiife I thought it the belt Gtuation tor watering; but I
afterwards found a very fine ftream on the north fhore, in the
firft fandy cove within the ifland, before which a fhip might
lie almoft land-locked, and procure wood as well as water in
great abundance. Wood indeed is every where plenty, but
I faw only two kinds1 which may be confidered as timber.
Thefe trees are as large, or larger than the Engliflr oak-, and
one of them has not a very different appearance : this is the
fame that yields the reddifh gum like fawguis draconis, and
the wood is heavy, hard, and dark-coloured, like lignum
'vitas: the other grows" tall and ftrait, fomething like the-
pine; and the wood of this, which has feme refemblance to-
the live oak of America, is alfo hard and heavy. , There are
a few ihrubs, and feveral kinds of the palm ; mangroves,
alfo grow in great plenty near the head of the bay. The-
country in general is level, low, and woody, as far as we-
could fee. The woods, as I have before obferved, abound:
with birds of exquifite beauty, particularly of the parrot
. kind; we found alfo crows here, exaftly the fame with thofe-
in England. About the head o f ‘the harbour, where there-
are large flats of fand and mud, there is great plenty of
water-fowl, moft of which were gltogether unknown to us ;■
one of the moft remarkable was black and white, much;
larger than a fwan, and in fhape fomewhat refembling.-a pelican.
On thefe banks of fandiand mud there are great quantities
of oyfters, mufcles, cockles, and other fhell-fifh, which
feem to be the principal fubfiftence of the inhabitants, who.
,go into fhoal water with their little canoes, and pick them
out with their hands. We did not obferve that they eat any
of-them raw, nor do they always go on fhore to drefs them,,
for they have frequently fires in their canoes for that pur—