on the fouth head for the purpofe o f obferving for the latitude.
The fun being more than half an hour diftant from the meridian
gave him time to examine three huts which flood at a little diftance.
They were o f a circular form, and about eight feet in diameter, The:
frame was Compofed o f the ftronger tendrils o f the vine, eroding
each other in all diredlions, and bound together by ftrong wiry
grafs at the principal interfedlions. The covering was o f bark o f a
foft texture, refembling the bark o f what is called the Tea-tree at
Port Jackfon, and fo compactly laid on as to keep out the wind and
rain. The entrance was by a fmall avenue projecting from the
periphery o f the circle, not leading direCtly into the hut, but turning
fufficiently to prevent the rain from beating in *. The height o f
the under part o f the roof is about four and a half, or five feet, and
thofe that were entered had collected" a coat o f foot, from the fires
which had been made in the middle of the huts. They much relem-
bled an oven. One o f them was a double hut, comprifing two
recedes under one entrance, intended molt probably for kindred families,
being large enough to contain twelve or fifteen people.
Bong-ree readily admitted that they were much fuperior to any huts
o f the natives which he had before feen. He brought away a fmall
hand balket, made o f fome kind o f leaf, capable o f containing five
or fix pints o f water, and very nearly refembling thofe ufed at
Coupang in the ifland o f Timor for carrying toddy, which Mr.
Flinders had noticed there.
The meridional' altitude o f the fun gave 29°. 26'. 28". S. for the
latitude o f the entrance into the bay.
Many white cockatoos and perroquets were feen about here, and
a crow whofe note was remarkably fhort and hafty. Numbers o f
pelicans, with fome gulls and red bills, frequented the fhoals, and
the country itfelf was very fandy wherever they landed. The palm
• H.OW much fuperior in contrivance to thofe about Port Jackfon, or in Van Diemen’»
Tfland !!
nut-tree
nut-tree which grows here was the third kind o f palm mentioned by
Captain Cook as being produced on the eaftern coaft o f New South
Wales * . This, he fays, was found only in the northern parts; and
as Bong-ree, who was tolerably well acquainted with the country as
far as Port Stephens, never faw or heard of it before, this was probably
one o f the mod fouthern fituations in which it would be found.
The individual nuts were feen fcattered about the fire-places o f the
natives ; and it was obferved, that the lower end of them had heen
c h e w e d and fucked in the manner that artichokes are eaten. This
method, on procuring föme that were ripe, was afterwards pradtifed.
The tafle was rather pleafant at firft, but left an aftringency
behind that fcarcely tempted one to try a fecond time. The
eatable part o f the nut in this way was fo tmall, as to be not worth
the trouble o f fucking it out from the fibres. They were about the
fize of a walnut; within the outer fkin was a hard Ihell like that o f
the cocoa nut 5 and within this, two, or perhaps more, almond-like
kernels. The nut, as taken from the tree, was an alfemblage o f
thefe kernels fet into a cone, and was from the fize of a man s two
fills, to that o f his head. Its fize, and the furrows or indentations
upon the furface, appeared on the firft view like the exterior form
o f the bread fruit, but a pine apple may be a bettefiobjedl of compa-
rifon. The ftem o f the tree was Ihort, and none were obferved to be
two feet or even eighteen inches in diameter. The branches did not
ramify into twigs, but preferved their fize to the extreme, where the
leaves were produced furrounding the fruit. One or two fmallef
branches here and there {truck off from the main branch, and produced
their leaves in the fame way, without fruit. The height of
the tree all together might be from fifteen to twenty-five or
thirty feet. Suckers or branches o f all fizes were feen Ihooting out
below thofe bearing fruit, and, growing downwards along the ftem,
« Vide HawkefworthY Voyage», Vol. I I I . P.. 624,
entered.