COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
17 
irregular; under some circumstances we found I8i8- 
that it rose three feet, but this was very January, 
unusual. 
Our gentlemen made several excursions into 
the country in various directions, in the hope of 
meeting with natives, but not the least vestige of 
their immediate presence was found ; they were 
not however far from us, for the smokes of their 
fires were seen every evening ; probably the 
fear of punishment kept them away, as they had 
formerly made rather a mischievous attack upon 
some of the Emu’s crew. 
No marks were left of the ship Elligood’s 
garden, which Captain Flinders found at the 
entrance of Oyster Harbour* ; but a lapse 
of sixteen years will in this country create a 
complete revolution in vegetation ; which is 
here so luxuriant and rapid that whole woods 
may have been burnt down by the natives, 
and grown again within that space of time ; 
and it may be thus that the Elligood’s gar- 
den is now possessed by the less useful 
but more beautiful plants and shrubs of the 
country. 
Excepting the sea-fowl, which consisted of 
geese, wild ducks, teals, curlews, divers, sea-pies, 
gulls, and terns, very few birds were seen, and 
* Flinders’ Terra Australis, vol. I. p. 55. 
