1 16 COOK’s VOYAGE. 
animals here except dogs, and of thefe we faw but two or three, 
which frequently came about the tents, to pick up the fcraps 
and bones that happened to lie fcattered near them. There 
does not indeed feem to be many of any animal, except the 
kanguroo ; we fcarcely faw any other above once, but this we 
met with almoft every time we went into the woods. Of land 
fowls we faw crows, kites, haws, cokatoos of two forts, one 
white and the other black, a very beautiful kind of loriquets, 
fome parrots, pigeons of two or three forts, and feveral fmall 
birds not known in Europe. The water fowls are herns, 
whittling ducks, which perch, and I believe, roott upon trees, 
wild geefe, curlieus, and a few others, but thefe do not abound. 
The face of the country, which has been occattonally men- 
tioned before, is agreeably diverfified by hill and valley, lawn 
and wood. The foil of the hills is hard, dry and ftony, yet it 
produces coarfe grafs befides wood : the foil of the plains and 
vallies is in fome places fand, and in fome clay ; in fome aifo 
it is rocky and ftony, like the hills ; in genera!, however, it 
is well clothed, and has at leaft the appeararce of fertility. 
The whole country, both hill and valley, wood and plain, 
abounds with ant hills, fome of which are fix or eight feet 
high, and twice as much in circumference. The trees here 
are not of many forts ; the gum tree, which we found on the 
fouthern part of the coaft, is the moil: common, but here it is 
not fo large ; on each ftde of the river, through its whole 
courfe, there are mangroves in great numbers, which, in fome 
places, extend a mile within the coaft. The country is in all 
parts well watered, there being feveral fine rivulets at a fmall 
diftance from each other, but none in the place wl^re we lay, 
at leaft not during the time we were there, which was the dry 
feafon ; we were however well fupplied with water by fprings, 
which were not far off. 
In the afternoon of the 4th, we had a gentle breeze at S. E. 
and clear weather, but as I did not intend to fail till the morn- 
ing, I fent all the boats td the reef, to get what turtle and 
fhell fiih they could. At low water, I went up to the mail- 
head, and took a view of the fhoals, which made a very 
threatening appearance : 1 could fee feveral at a remote dif- 
tance, and part of many of them was above water. The fea 
appeared, moft open to the north eaft of the turtle reef, and I 
came to a refolution to ftretch out that way, clofe upon a wind, 
becaufe if we fhould find no paffage, we could always return 
the way we went. In the evening the boats brought in a 
turtle, a fting-ray, and as many large cockles as came to about 
a pound and a half a man, for in each of them there was not 
lefs than two pounds of meat : in the night alfo we caught 
feveral lharks, which, though not a dainty, were an accep- 
table_increafe of ounfrelh provifion. 
