In many parts the woods are fo over-run with Tuple-jacks,
that it is fcarcely poflible to force one’s way amongft them.
I have feen feveral which were fifty or fixty fathoms long.
The foil is a deep black mould, evidently compofed of decayed
vegetables, and fo loofe that it finks under you at
every ftep ; and this may be the reafon why we meet with
fo many large trees, as we do, blown down by the wind,
even in the thickeft part of the woods. All the ground
amongft the trees is covered with mofs and fern, of both
which there is a great variety; but except the flax or hemp
plant, and a few other plants, there is very little herbage
o f any fort, and none that was eatable, that we found, except
about a handful of water-creffes, and about the fame
•quantity of cellery. What Dufky Bay mod abounds with is
fifh: a boat with fix or eight men, with hooks and lines,
■ caught daily fufficient to ferve the whole lliip’s company.
Of this article the variety is almoft equal to the plenty; and
o f fuch kinds as are common to the more northern coaft;
but fome are fuperior; and in particular the cole fifh, as
we called it, which is both larger and finer flavored than
any I had feen before, and was, in the opinion of moft on
board, the higheft luxury the fea afforded us. The fhell
fifh are, mufcles, cockles, fcallops, cray-fifh, and many other
forts; all fuch as are to be found in every other part of the
coaft. The only amphibious animals, are feals. Thefe are
to be found in great numbers, about this bay, on the fmall
rocks and ifles near the fea coaft.
We found here five different kinds of ducks, fome of
which I do not recollect to have any where feen before.
The largeft are as big as a Mufcovy duck, with a very beautiful
variegated plumage, on which account we called it
the
the Painted duck; both male and female have a large white t&§
fpot on each wing; the head and neck of the latter is i----
white, but all the other feathers, as, well as thofe on the
head and neck of the drake, are of a dark variegated colour.
The fecond fort have a brown plumage, with bright green
feathers in their wings, and are about the fize of an Englifh
tame duck. The third fort is the blue-grey duck before
mentioned, or the whiffling duck, as fome called them from
the whiffling noife they made. What is moft remarkable
in thefe is, that the end of their beaks is foft, and of a
Ikinny, or more properly, cartilaginous fubftance. The
fourth fort is fomething bigger than teal, and all .black except
the drake, which has' fome white feathers in his
wing. There are but few of this fort; and we faw them
no where but in the river at the head of the bay. The laft
fort is a good deal like a teal, and very common, I am told,
in England. The other fowls, whether belonging to the fea
or land, are the fame that are to be found in common in
other parts of this country, except the blue peterel before
mentioned, and the water or wood hens. Thefe laft, although
they are numerous enough here, are fo fcarce in
other parts, that I never faw but one. The reafon may be,
that, as they cannot fly, they inhabit the fkirts of the woods,
and feed on the fea beach; and are fo very tame or foolifh,
as to ftand and flare at us till we knocked them down with
a flick. The natives may have, in a manner, wholly de-
ftroyed them. They are a fort of rail, about the fize and
a good deal like a common dunghill hen, moft of them are
of a dirty black or dark brown colour, and eat very well in
a pye or fricaffee. Amongft the fmall birds I muft not omit
to particularife the wattle-bird, poy-bird, and fan-tail, on
Vol. I. O account