MISCELLANIES. 
ring the day ; but it was not our 
fortune to take one of them. 
I shall now sum up into one 
view, the principal remarks made 
during our stay amongst these 
islands. The stone most com- 
monly seen on the shores is an 
iron ore, in some places so strong- 
ly impregnated, that I conceive it 
would be a great acquisition to a 
colony fixed inthe neighbourhood. 
Above this is a concreted mass of 
coral, shells, coral sand, and 
grains of iron ore, which some- 
times appears at the surface, but 
is usually covered either with sand 
or vegetable earth, or a mixture 
of both. Such appeared most ge- 
nerally to be the consistence of 
all the islands; but there are 
many local varieties. 
The soil, even in the best parts, 
is far behind fertility ; but the 
small trees and bushes which 
grow there, and the grass in some 
of the less-covered places, save 
the larger islands from the re- 
proach of being absolutely sterile. 
The principal woods are eucalyp- 
tus and casuarina, of a size too 
small in general to be fit for 
other purposes than the fire ; the 
pandanus grows almost every 
where, but most abundantly in 
the sandy parts ; and the botan- 
ists made out along list of plants, 
several of which were quite new 
to them. 
We saw neither quadruped nor 
reptile upon the islands. Birds 
were rather numerous; the most 
useful of them were ducks of se- 
veral species, and bustards ; and 
one of these last, shot by Mr. 
Bauer, weighed between ten and 
twelve pounds, and made us an 
excellent dinner. The flesh of 
this bird is distributed in a man- 
547 
ner directly contrary to that of 
the domestic turkey, the white 
meat being upon the legs, and 
the black upon the breast. In 
the woody parts of the islands 
were seen crows and white cock- 
atoos ; as also cuckoo-pheasants, 
pigeons, and small birds peculiar 
to this part of the country. On 
the shores were pelicans, gulls, 
sea-pies, ox-birds, and sand-larks ; 
but except the gulls, none of these 
tribes were numerous. The sea 
afforded a variety of fish ; and in 
such abundance, that it was rare 
not to give a meal to all the ship’s 
company from one or two hauls 
of the Seine. Turtle abound 
amongst the islands ; but it seem- 
ed to be a fatality that we could 
neither peg any from the boat, 
nor yet catch them on shore. 
Indians were repeatedly seen 
upon both Bentinck’s and Sweer’s 
Islands ; but they always avoided 
us, and sometimes disappeared in 
a manner which seemed extraor- 
dinary. It is probable that they 
hid themselves in caves dug in the 
ground ; for we discovered in one 
instance a large hole, containing 
two apartments (so to call them), 
in each of which a man might lie 
down. Fire places under the 
shade of the trees, with dried 
grass spread around, were often 
met with; and these I apprehend 
to be their fine-weather, and the 
caves their foul-weather resi- 
dences, The fern or some similar 
root, appears to form a part of 
their subsistence; for there were 
some places in the sand and in the 
dry swamps, where the ground 
had been so dug up with pointed 
sticks that it resembled the work 
of a herd of swine. 
Whether these people reside 
2N2 
