228 



height of fifty feet, and its trunk frequently exceeded two 



feet and a half in diameter. 



Amongst the new botany of this tract may be enumerated 

 a species of Metrosideros of great elegance, forming thickets 

 on the flats, and intermingling with two other species of the 

 same genus, but of less beauty. Its flowers are of the most 

 brilliant scarlet: the general height of the plant six feet. 

 There were also a pink-flowered handsome species of ten" 

 taureUi a remarkable dwarf species of Hakea^ two species oi 



Daviesia and Dryandra armata. 



I observed a species of Psittacus^ {Cockatoo^) in large 

 flocks, whose voice is more plaintive than that of the white 

 cockatoo. It feeds on the roots of Orchideous plants, to t 



obtain which it scratches the ground to a considerable depth. 



While attending to a boat in the river, which the party 

 were dragging over the mud, I distinctly heard the bellowing 

 of some huge animal^ similar to that of an ox, proceeding 

 from an extensive marsh farther up the river, (Could this be 

 the Dugong^ of the French?) Immediately afterwards I 



• The Ditgong, or Dougong, of the French, is the Trichecus Dugo^O ** 

 Gmelin, an inhabitant of the Indian seas, hut is not, that I am aware, foun 

 in the part of New Holland visited by Mr, Frasen The animal whose bellon^- 

 ing he heard, was unquestionably the Phoca prohoscidea (now made the gen^^ 

 Macrorhinus) of Peron's Voyage aux Terres Austrahsf v. 2, p. 34, t. 32. 

 Fhoque d, trompe. Elephant marin, Bottle-nosed Seal, Sea-Lion of Anson's voy- 

 age. The French Voyagers heard it in the same river, and, as it appears? 

 the first time. They were descending the river, overpowered with naisi**^ u 

 and fatigue, and want of food. In the midst of their dangers, night came on. 

 " Nous nous diapoblons a mettre pied a terre pour «ous secher et reparer no re 

 vigeur eteinte, lorsque tout-a-coup un hurlement terrible vint nous g^acer 

 terreur; il etait semblable au mugissement d*un bo'uf, mais beaucaup pl^^s ***' * 

 ct paroissoit sortir des roseaux voisina. A ce cri redoubtable, nous perJimcs 

 toute envie de descendre a terre et quoique transis de froid, nous preferames 

 passer la nuit sur I'eau, sans souper et sans pouvoir fermer roeil, a cause de a 

 pluie et du froid." y. 1. p. 183. Their alarm would probably have been^ 

 still greater, could they have formed an idea of the size of the animal, which JS 

 from twenty-five to thirty feet in length : and U herds in such numbers that t e 

 whole shore of the bottom of a bay has been seen covered with them, giving * « 

 appearance, at a little distance, of masses of black rock. The remarkable fea- 

 ture of the animal is, that, in the male, the nostrils, which, at rest, are 



