120 cook's second voyage march, 



the natives setting fire to the under-wood in the most 

 frequented places ; and by these means they have 

 rendered it easy walking. The land birds we saw, 

 are a bird like a raven ; some of the crow kind, black, 

 with the tips of the feathers of the tail and wings 

 white, their bill long and very sharp ; some paro- 

 quets ; and several kinds of small birds. The sea- 

 fowl are ducks, teal, and the sheldrake. I forgot to 

 mention a large white bird, that one of the gentlemen 

 shot, about the size of a large kite of the eagle kind. 

 As for beasts, we saw but one, which was an oj)ossii?n ; 

 but we observed the dung of some, which we judged 

 to be of the deer kind. The fish in the bay are 

 scarce ; those we caught were mostly sharks, dog 

 fish, and a fish called by the seamen nurses, like the 

 dog fish, only full of small white spots ; and some 

 small fish not unlike sprats. The lagoons (which 

 are brackish) abound with trout, and several other 

 sorts of fish, of which we caught a few with lines, 

 but being much encumbered with stumps of trees, 

 we could not haul the seine. 



While we lay here, we saw several smokes and 

 large fires, about eight or ten miles in shore to the 

 northward, but did not see any of the natives ; 

 though they frequently come into this bay, as there 

 were several wigwams or huts, where we found some 

 bags and nets made of grass, in which I imagine 

 they carry their provisions and other necessaries. In 

 one of them there was the stone they strike fire with, 

 and tinder made of bark, but of what tree could not 

 be distinguished. We found in one of their huts, 

 one of their spears, which was made sharp at one end, 

 I suppose, with a shell or stone. Those things we 

 brought away, leaving in the room of them, medals, 

 gun-flints, a few nails, and an old empty barrel with 

 the iron hoops on it. They seem to be quite ignorant 

 of every sort of metal. The boughs, of which their 

 huts are made, are either broken or split, and tied 

 together with grass in a circular form, the largest end 



