1 H> APPEARANCE OF SCURVY. 



Hobarfcon potatoes and some excellent ale, on board. 

 Oar crews had now been so long on salt provisions, 

 that the scurvy was beginning to shew itself with 

 rather alarming force. We had twelve on the sick 

 list, one or two of whom could hardly stand. Dr. 

 Muirhead, our surgeon, had never seen scurvy in 

 the navy before — so completely have modern dis- 

 coveries and improvements eradicated that naval 

 scourge. It is very seldom, however, that any 

 vessel, except perhaps a whaler, remains, as we had 

 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 



