26 
SIR JOSERH RAXKS. 
25th. In gathering plants to-day I had the good fortune to see the beast so 
much talked of, though but imperfectly; he was not only like a gre 3 'hound in 
size and running, but had a tail as long as an\' greyhound’s ; what to liken him to 
I could not tell, nothing that I have seen at all resembles him. 
This was the first time a kangaroo was seen. 
26th. On this day Banks discovered that some of his precious 
herbarium specimens had become wet through the accident to the 
■“ Endeavour.” Following are his words ; — 
Since the ship has been hauled ashore, the water has, of course, all gone back- 
wards; and my plants, which for safety had been stowed in the bread-room, were 
this day found under water. Nobody liad warned me of this danger, which never 
once entered ray head. The mischief, however, was now done, so I set to work 
to remedy it to the best of my power. The day was scarcely long enough to get 
them all shifted, &c., many were saved, but some were entirely spoiled. 
2nd July. The wild plantain trees, though their fruit does not serve for food 
are to us a most material benefit. We made baskets of their stalks (a thing we 
had learned from the Islanders), in which our plants, which would not otherwi.se 
keep, have remained fresh for two or three daj's; indeed, in a hot climate it is 
hardly practicable to manage without such baskets, which we call by the island 
name of papa mija. Our plants dry better in paner books than in sand, with the 
precaution that one person is entirely emjtloj'cd in attending them. He shifts 
them all once a day, exposes the quires in which they are to the greatest heat of 
the sun, and at night covers them most carefully up from anj’ damp, alwaj’s being 
careful, also, not to bring them out too soon in the morning, or to leave them out 
too late in the evening 
No. 20. — Whitsunday Passage (named by Cook). Near Bowen, Queensland. 
