116 APPEARANCE OF SCURVY. 



Hobarton potatoes and some excellent ale, on board. 

 Our crews bad now been so long on salt provisions, 

 tbat tbe scurvy was beginning to shew itself with 

 ratber alarming force. We bad twelve on tbe sick 

 list, one or two of wbom could bardly stand. Dr. 

 Muirhead, our surgeon, bad never seen scurvy in 

 tbe navy before — so completely bave modern dis- 

 coveries and improvements eradicated tbat naval 

 scourge. It is very seldom, however, tbat any 

 vessel, except perbaps a whaler, remains, as we bad 

 now, eight months without putting into any port, 

 or touching at any point where fresh vegetables or 

 animal food could be procured. There is, I should 

 imagine, no coast in the world, of anything like the 

 extent, so utterly destitute as that of Australia, of 

 everything in the shape of fruits, vegetables, or any 

 other edible, except limpets and oysters. In our 

 boat cruises along the coast, there was powder 

 and shot supplied to the men ; and Captain Black- 

 wood had bought a double-barrelled fowling-piece 

 for each boat for the men's use ; but I do not re- 

 collect more than a single instance where a meal 

 sufficient for all hands had been procured in any 

 boat, or could have been procured, except by giving 

 up every other object in order to shoot small plovers 

 on the beach. Another drawback was, that many 

 of the tins of preserved meat, supplied by the 

 Government for the use of the sick and the boats' 

 crews, were found to be of bad quality, the contents 

 being in a filthy putrid state. Some sheep and 



