DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 427 



an incomparably better site for an infant colony than 

 Botany Bay or even Port Jackson. Next day he noted an 

 inlet which he named Port Stephens, which appeared to 

 him, as he looked from the mast-head, to be sheltered from 

 all winds. He described the land Northward of Botany 

 Bay as " diversified with an agreeable variety of hills, 

 ridges, and valleys, and large plains all clothed with woods." 



On the I7th he saw a "wide open Bay," which he Morton Bay 

 named Moreton Bay. Banks thought there must be a B^ tard Ba 

 river at the back of it, because the sea looked paler than 

 usual ; but Cook thought this appearance was explained 

 by the fine white sandy bottom. " Be this as it may," 

 he writes, " it was a point which could not be cleared 

 upj as we had the wind ; but, should anyone be desirous 

 of doing it that may come after me, this place may always 

 be found by three hills which lay to the Northward of 

 it " ; he named them the Glass Houses. The land was 

 sandy, and had no signs of fertility. With these words 

 Cook passed the Bay into which flows the river on which 

 Brisbane stands. On the 23rd he anchored in " a large 

 open Bay," where he found " room for a few ships to lay 

 very secure, and a small stream of fresh water." They 

 killed a bustard, and named the place " Bustard Bay." 

 The country was visibly worse than at Botany Bay. Banks 

 noticed some tropical plants, " sure mark that we were 

 on the point of leaving the Southern temperate Zone." 

 Some ants noticed him, and bit more sharply than any 

 he had felt in Europe. 



Northward from Bustard Bay, "the coast is encumbered 

 with shoals," and Cook kept outside them. 1 Hence he 

 passed Port Curtis without observation. Among islands 

 and reefs he groped into " Thirsty Sound," so named " by " Thirsty 

 reason we could find no fresh water." The land was again Sound - 

 bad ; "no sign of fertility was to be seen." After two days' 

 stay, Cook sailed through a sea so " strewed with dangers" 

 that our modern hydrographer is amazed that he " managed 

 to keep his ship off the ground." He had sailed so close 



to the land that he was not aware of the Great Barrier The Barrier 



Reef. 

 1 Wharton, p. 261. 



