$70 HISTORY OP 



In accounting for the cause that produced 

 this change in the structure of the lower parts 

 of the stems of these trees, Mr. Bass professed 

 the greatest diffidence. He found that all his 

 conjectures were best supported by existing 

 facts, allowing however, they were petrifactions, 

 it is certain that there must have existed a pond, 

 in which the petrifying water was contained; 

 but the ground in their neighbourhood retained 

 no traces of such a receptacle. There were, in-* 

 deed, near them, some few lumps or banjos of 

 sand, and vegetable earth held together by dead 

 roots of small trees, and elevated above the rest 

 of the ground, but the relative position of these 

 with each other was so confused and irregular, 

 that nothing but the necessity of a once exist- 

 ing reservoir could ever lead any one to conjec- 

 ture that these might have been parts of its 

 bank. Mr. Bass concluded that this must have 

 been the case, and that the remainder of the 

 bank had been torn away, and the pond anni- 

 hilated by some violent effort of nature. 



Notwithstanding the narrowness of the island, 

 many small kangaroos were found in its brushy 

 parts ; but so many had been destroyed by the peo- 

 ple of Sydney- Cove, that they now became scarce. 



The sooty petrel had appropriated a certain 

 grassy part of the island to herself, and retained 

 her position with a degree of obstinacy not ea- 

 sily to be overcome. For though it so happened, 

 that the store-house for the wrecked cargo was 

 erected upon the spot, and the people for more 

 than a year gained the greater part of thr 





