NEW SOUTH WALES. 
Fiili are caught in great plenty, and in the pro- 
per feafon very fine turtle. The woods are inhabited 
by innumerable tribes of birds, many of them very gay 
in plumage. The mofl: ufeful are pigeons, which are 
very numerous^ and a bird not unlike the Guinea fowl, 
except in colour, (being chiefly white,) both of v/hich 
were at firil fo tame as to fiiffer themfelves to be taken 
by hand. Of plants that afford vegetables for the table, 
the chief are cabbage palm, the wild plantain, the fern 
tree, a kind of wild fpinage, and a tree which pro- 
duces a diminutive fruit, bearing fome refemblance to a 
currant. This, it is hoped, by tranfplanting and care, 
Yvill be much improved in lize and flavour. 
But the produ6lions which give the greateif impor- 
tance to Norfolk Ifland are the pines and the flax plant, 
the former rifing to a lize and perfedfion unknown in 
other places, and promiflng the moft valuable fupply of 
mafis and fpars for our navy in the Eaft Indies; the latter 
not lefs eftirnable for the purpofes of making fiil-cloth, 
cordage, and even the fineft manufaftures ; growing 
in great plenty, and Vv'itli iuch luxuriance as to attain 
the height of eight feet.--- The pines meafure frequently 
one 
* The flax plant is thus defcrlbed in Captain Cook's nrft voyage, vol, iii. p. 39. 
as found at New Zealand. " There is, however, a plant that ferves the inhabi- 
tants inftcad of hemp and flax, v.'hich excels all that are put to the fame purpofes in 
other countries. Of this plant there are two forts ; the leaves of both refemble 
N 2 thofe 
