i44 
A VOYAGE TO 
CHAPTER XV. 
Sofiie Specimens of Animals frojn New South Wales, 
C P- ^fl ^ HE great advantage of a fcientific eye over that of 
— ' the unlearned obferver, in viewing the produc- 
tions of nature, cannot be more ftrongly exempUfied 
than by the prefent ftate of the natural hiftory of Botany 
Bay, and its vicinity. The Englifn who firft vilited this 
part of the coaft, ftaid there only a week, but having 
among them perfons deeply verfed in the ftudy of 
nature, produced an account, to which the prefent fettlers, 
after a relidence of near eleven months when the laft 
difpatches were dated, have been able to add but very 
little of importance. The properties and relations of 
many obje6ts are known to the philofopher at firfl: light, 
his enquiries after novelty are condu6led with fagacity, 
and when he cannot defcribe by name what he difcovers, 
as being yet unnamed, he can at leaft refer it to its 
proper clafs and genus. The obfervation of unfkilful 
perfons is often detailed by trivial refemblances, while it 
pafies 
