26 Australian Birds in 1697 



De Vlaming notes in his journal that odoriferous wood was found 

 on the mainland. Portions of it were subsequently submitted 

 to the Council of the Dutch East Indies at Batavia, and from 

 these portions an essential oil was obtained by distillation. It 

 may well be supposed that this experiment was the first in the 

 manufacture of eucalyptus oil, which, however, in our day is 

 obtained not from the wood but from the leaves of the tree. 

 On the 13th of January De Vlaming records that a dark resinous 

 gum resembling lac was seen exuding from trees. 



In a narrative of the voyage published under the title 

 Journaal wegens een Voyagie na het onbekende Zuid-land^ we 

 read that on the nth of January nine or ten Black Swans were 

 seen. In a letter from Willem van Oudhoorn, Governor-General 

 of the Dutch East Indies, to the Managers of the East India 

 Company at the Amsterdam Chamber, it is stated that three 

 black swans were brought alive to Batavia, but died soon after 

 their arrival.* 



Several boat expeditions were made, and Swan River was 

 entered and ascended. During these expeditions the author of 

 the Journaal mentions that the song of the ' Nachtegael ' was 

 heard. There are no nightingales in Australia, but the bird to 

 which the writer of the Journaal alludes may have been the 

 Long-billed Reed Warbler, the Australian representative of the 

 Sedge Warbler and a denizen of the reed-beds of the Swan 

 River. Two species of geese are also mentioned by the same 

 writer under the names of European geese. It is somewhat 

 difficult to determine to which geese the author of the Journaal 

 alludes under the names ' Kropgans ' and * Rotgans.' 



When English - speaking Dutch are asked to translate 

 * kropgans,' they do so by ' Christmas goose ' or ' fat goose.' 



* Heercs, The Tart borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia, p. 84. 



