22 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



we arrived on board. We learnt that one of 

 the gunners of the Efperance, named Boucher, 

 had juft died, in confequence of a pulmonary 

 confumption. 



The time that I had left on the 5th and 6th, 

 after having defcribed and prepared the fpeci- 

 mens which I had collecled the preceding days, 

 I employed in vifiting the low lands that lay to 

 the fouth-eaft of us. I eafily penetrated into 

 thefe forcfts, the trees of which ftood at fome 

 diflance from each other. I found, almofl 

 every where, an excellent vegetable mould. I 

 here cut famples of feveral forts of wood, in 

 order to afcertain the different ufes to which 

 each of them might be applied. The fine tree, 

 which I take to be of the family of the conifera^ 

 and of which I have already fpoken, oppofed a 

 great refifcance to thefaw; this, no doubt, is 

 the tree of that family which would furnifh the 

 clofefi: grained wood, 



I had long wifhed that on this part of the 

 coafl might be depofited, in a good vegetable 

 mould fufficiently moiftcned, mod of the feeds 

 which we had brought from Europe, and which 

 might thrive here; but, on my return, I faw 

 with concern, that a very dry and very fandy 

 foil at the bottom of the bay had juft been 

 dug and fown. 



On the 7th, the gardener and I, with two men 



belongs 



