They frequently attended our boats when hauling the seine, and were very thankful to the officer for any fish he might give them, as in cold weather the harbour is but thinly stocked; indeed, when we arrived here it was full of fish, and we caught as many as we could use, but in the winter they seem to quit our neighbourhood. I had reason to think, that the people who inhabited Port Jackson when we first entered it were gone farther to the northward, and that it is their constant custom, as the cold weather approaches, to seek a warmer climate, by following the sun; and in this practice they have another very powerful incitement, as well as the comfortable warmth of the sun, which is, that the fish incline to the northward, as the cold weather comes on: this conjecture seems, in some degree, to account for Captain Cook's having seen so few natives while he lay in Botany-bay, and that it appeared to him the seacoast was thinly inhabited; for I think it was in April, or May, that he was there. The animal described in the voyage of the Endeavour, called the kangaroo, (but by the natives patagarang) we found in great numbers; one was lately shot which weighed 140 pounds; its tail was 40 inches long, and 17 in circumference at the root; it is very well described in Phillip's Voyage: we ate the flesh with great relish, and I think it good mutton, although not so delicate as that which we sometimes find in Leadenhall-market. The strength this animal has in its hind quarters is very great: in its endeavours to escape from us, when surprized, it springs from its hind legs, which are very long, and leaps at each bound about six or eight yards, but does not appear ever in running to let its fore-feet come near the ground; indeed they are so very short, that it is not possible that the animal can use them in running: they have vast strength also in their tail; it is, no doubt, a principal part of their defence, when attacked; for with it they can strike with prodigious force, I believe with sufficent power to break the leg of a man; nor is it improbable but that this great strength in the tail may assist them in making those astonishing springs.