April 1828. OAK BEAM OF THE WAGER. 165 
** As our present situation was completely exposed to westerly 
winds, I went to examine a deep bight in the southern shore, 
which proved to be a good harbour, perfectly sheltered from 
all winds, with a depth of three and a half fathoms over a fine 
sandy bottom. In the afternoon we weighed anchor and 
warped into a berth in the inner harbour, where we moored in 
three fathoms. I found lying, just above high-water mark, 
half buried in sand, the beam of a large vessel.* We imme- 
diately conjectured that it had formed part of the ill-fated 
Wager, one of Lord Anson’s squadron (of whose loss the tale 
is so well told in the narratives of Byron and Bulkeley): the 
dimensions seemed to correspond with her size, and the con- 
jecture was strengthened by the circumstance that one of 
the knees that attached it to the ship’s side had been cut, 
which occurred in her case, when her decks were scuttled to get 
at the provisions ; all the bolts were much corroded ; but the 
wood, with the exception of the outside being worm-eaten, was 
perfectly sound. Our carpenter pronounced it to be English 
oak. 
*¢ The land about this harbour is similar to that about Port 
Henry. Its shores are rocky, with some patches of sandy 
beach, but every where covered with trees, or an impervious 
jungle, composed of dwarfish trees and shrubs. The land, in 
most places, rises abruptly from the shore to mountains, some 
of which attain an altitude of more than two thousand feet, and 
are quite bare at their summits and on their sides, except in 
sheltered ravines, where a thick growth of trees is found. These 
mountains, or at least their bases, where we could break off 
specimens, were of basalt, with large masses of quartz imbedded 
in it; but on some parts of the shores the rocks were of very 
coarse granite. 
‘As in the vicinity of Port Henry, the thickness of the 
Jungle prevented our going far inland; the greatest distance 
was gained by Lieut. Skyring, who, with his wonted zeal to 
prosecute the survey, ascended some of the mountains for the 
* Length twenty feet five inches and a half, sided twelve inches, and 
moulded eight inches and a half. 
