It is scarcely necessary to say, that these people are almost black, and go entirely naked, since none of any other colour, or regularly wearing clothes, have been seen in any part of Terra Australis. About their fire places were usually scattered the shells of large crabs, the bones of turtle, and the remains of a parsnip-like root, apparently of fern; and once the bones of a porpoise were found; besides these, they doubtless procure fish, and wild ducks were seen in their possession. There are kangaroos in the woods, and several bustards were seen near Cape Keppel. The mud banks are frequented by curlews, gulls, and some lesser birds. Oysters of a small, crumply kind, are tolerably plentiful; they do not adhere to the rocks, but stick to each other in large masses on the banks; here are also pearl oysters, but not so abundantly as in Port Curtis. The _latitude_ of our anchorage, from the mean of three meridian altitudes to the north, was 23° 29' 34" south. _Longitude_ from twenty-four sets of distances of the sun and moon, the particulars of which are given in Table I. of Appendix No. I. to this volume, 151° 0' 28"; but from fifty other sets, reduced by the survey from Broad Sound, the better longitude of the anchorage is 150° 58' 20" east. According to the time keepers the longitude would be 150° 57' 43"; and in an interval of six days, they were found to err no more than 5" of longitude on the Port-Jackson rates. From three compasses on the binnacle, lieutenant Flinders observed the _variation_ 6° 48', when the ship's head was north, and 5° 47' when it was south-south-east. This last being reduced to the meridian, the mean of both will be 6° 47' east, nearly the same as in Bustard Bay; but 2° less than was observed off Gatcombe Head. At the different stations round Keppel Bay whence bearings were taken, the variation differed from 5° 10' to 6° 30' east. Whilst beating off the entrance, I had 7° 52' east variation, from azimuths with the surveying compass when the head was N. W., and from an amplitude, with the head N. by W., 6° 54'; the mean reduced to the meridian. will be for the outside of the bay 6° 16' east. Captain Cook had 7° 24' near the same situation, from amplitudes and azimuths observed in 1770, with the Endeavour's head W. N. W. The rise of _tide_ in the entrance of Keppel Bay seems to vary at the neaps and springs, from nine to fourteen feet, and high water to take place _nine hours and a half_ after the moon's passage over and under the meridian; but the morning's tide fell two or three feet short of that at night. The set past the ship was greatest at the last quarter of the flood and first of the ebb, when it ran two-and-half knots, and turned very suddenly. In the offing, the flood came from the eastward, at the rate of one mile per hour. CHAPTER II.