177^. ROUND THE WORLD, 111 



\ 



great variety ; but except the flax or hemp plant, 

 and a few other plants, there is very little herbage 

 of any sort, and none that was eatable that we found, 

 except about a handful of water-cresses, and about 

 the same quantity of cellery. What Dusky Bay 

 most abounds with is fish : a boat with six or eight 

 men with hooks and lines, caught daily sufficient to 

 serve the whole ship's company : of this article the 

 variety is almost equal to the plenty ; and of such 

 kinds as are common to the more northern coast ; 

 but some are superior ; and in particular the cole 

 fish, as we called it, which is both larger and finer 

 flavoured than any I had seen before, and was, in the 

 opinion of most on board, the highest luxury the sea 

 afforded us. The shell-fish are muscles, cockles, 

 scallops, cray-flsh, and many other sorts ; all such 

 as are to be found in every other part of the coast. 

 The only amphibious animals are seals ; these are 

 to be found in great numbers about this bay, on the 

 small rocks and isles near the sea coast. 



We found here five different kinds of ducks, some 

 of which I do not recollect to have any where seen 

 before ; the largest are as big as a Muscovy duck, 

 with a very beautiful variegated plumage, on which 

 account we called it the painted duck : both male and 

 female have a large white spot on each wing ; the 

 head and neck of the latter is white, but all the other 

 feathers, as well as those on the head and neck of 

 the drake, are of a dark variegated colour. The 

 second sort have a brown plumage, with bright green 

 feathers in their wings, and are about the size of an 

 English tame duck. The third sort is the blue-grey 

 duck before mentioned, or the whistling duck, as 

 some called them, from the whistling noise they 

 made. What is most remarkable in these is, that 

 the end of their beaks is soft, and of a skinny, or 

 more properly, cartilaginous substance. The fourth 

 sort is something bigger than teal, and all black ex- 

 cept the drake, which has some white feathers in his 

 wing. There are but few >f this sort ; and we saw 



