VOYAGE TO NEW SOUTH WALES. 
purpofe of conftrudting at leaft a few public buildings; 
but this is by no means the cafe. That great navigator, 
notvvithftanding his ufual accuracy and candour, was 
certainly too lavifh of his praifes on Botany Bay. 
The peculiarity I have mentioned relative to the wood 
of this place is ftrange. There are only three kinds of it, 
and neither of them will float on the water. We have 
found another refln here, not unlike the balfam Tolu in 
fmell and effed:, but differing widely in colour, being of a 
clear yellow, which exudes from the tree. This, however, 
is not to be met with in fuch quantities as the red gum 
before mentioned, nor do I think that its medicinal virtues 
are by any means fo powerful. A kind of earth has been 
difcovered which makes good bricks, but we ftill are in 
want of a cement for them as well as for the ftone. 
What animals we have yet met with have been moftly 
of the Opoffum kind. The Kangaroo, fo very accurately 
delineated by Captain Cook, is certainly of that clafs, and 
the largeft animal feen in the country. One has been brought 
into camp which weighed a hundred and forty-nine pounds. 
See plate annexed. The conformation of this animal is 
peculiarly Angular. Its hinder parts have great mufcular 
A a 2 power, 
