1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 203 



neral is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are 

 largest, are seldom less than forty feet asunder ; nor 

 is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, 

 better clothed than the sea-coast. The banks of the 

 bays are covered with mangroves, to the distance of 

 a mile within the beach, under which the soil is a 

 rank mud, that is always overflowed by a spring- 

 tide ; farther in the country we sometimesmet with 

 a bog, upon which the grass was very thick and 

 luxuriant, and sometimes with a valley, that was 

 clothed with underwood : the soil in some parts 

 seemed to be capable of improvement, but the far 

 greater part is such as can admit of no cultivation. 

 The coast, at least that part of it which lies to the 

 northward of 25 S., abounds with fine bays and har- 

 bours, where vessels may lie in perfect security from 

 all winds. 



If we may judge by the appearance of the country 

 while we were there, which was in the very height of 

 the dry season, it is well watered : we found innu- 

 merable small brooks and springs, but no great 

 rivers ; these brooks, however, probably become 

 large in the rainy season. Thirsty Sound was the 

 only place where fresh water was not to be procured 

 for the ship, and even there one or two small pools 

 were found in the woods, though the face of the 

 country was every where intersected by salt creeks 

 and mangrove land. 



Of trees, there is no great variety. Of those that 

 could be called timber, there are but two sorts : the 

 largest is the gum-tree, which grows all over the 

 country, and has been mentioned already : it has 

 narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow ; and the 

 gum, or rather resin, which it yields, is of a deep red, 

 and resembles the sanguis draconis ; possibly it may- 

 be the same, for this substance is known to be the 

 produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by 

 Dampier, and is perhaps the same that Tasman found 

 upon Diemen's Land, where he says he saw " Gum 



