TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
311 
Wreck Reef.~\ 
allowance ; although many casks were stove in the hold by the bulg- isos, 
ing of the larbord side, and much dry provisions spoiled by the Tuesdays, 
salt water. The principal contents of the warrant officers store 
rooms, as well as the sails, rigging, and spars, were also on shore. 
My books, charts, and papers had suffered much damage, from the 
top of the cabin being displaced when the mizen mast - fell ; all such 
papers as chanced to be loose on the night of the shipwreck were 
then washed away by the stirfs, and amongst them a chart of the 
west side of the Gulph of Carpentaria and part of the North Coast, 
upon which I had been occupied in the afternoon. Part of my small 
library shared the same fate ; but the rest of the charts, with my 
log and bearing books and astronomical observations were all saved, 
though some of them in a wet and shattered state. The rare plants 
collected on different parts of the south, the east, and north coasts of 
Terra Australis, for His Majesty’s botanic garden at Kew, and which 
were in a flourishin g state before the shipwreck, were totally de- 
stroyed by the salt water ; as were the dried specimens of plants. 
Fortunately, the naturalist and natural-history painter, who re- 
mained at Poit Jackson, had put on board only a small part of their 
collection of specimens ; the great mass, with the preserved birds, 
quadrupeds, and insects being kept for a future opportunity. Mr. 
Westall, the landscape painter, had his sketches and drawings 
wetted and partly destroyed in his cabin ; and my little collection 
in mineralogy and conchology was much defaced, and one-half lost. 
1 he carpenters were employed until the evening of the 25th, in Thursday 35. 
preparing the cutter for her intended expedition ; and the rest of the 
people in adding to the stores on the bank. As the Porpoise be- 
came lighter, the sea threw her higher up on the reef, and she 
was much shaken ; but we hoped the timbers and beams would 
hold together, at least until the next spring tides, and that every 
thing would be got out. Of the Cato, nothing but a few scattered 
fragments had remained for several days before. 
Before leavingWreck Reef, it will be proper to say some- 
