Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
During our stay, Sims' Island, named at the request of Mr. Cunningham
after Dr. Sims, the eminent conductor of the Botanical Magazine, was
twice visited. It is situated in front of South-West Bay, is about two
miles and a half in circumference, and formed of a large and coarse
granular quartzose sandstone, large rounded masses of which cover the
surface at its northern end, the summit of which was named Sansom's Head.
Sims' Island furnished a very large addition to Mr. Cunningham's
collection, and among the flowers which it produced was a very beautiful
sweet-scented asclepias. No snakes nor reptiles of any description were
seen, but birds of various sorts were abundant, particularly the white
cockatoo. Of the sea-fowl, a species of tern was the most numerous. An
alligator, about fifteen feet long, swam about the vessel for some time,
which made us afterwards rather cautious of walking through the high
grass; but excepting a dog that followed the natives, no quadrupeds were
seen.
Off the north point of the bay, at the distance of a furlong, and
separated from it by a channel of from twelve to fifteen feet deep, are
two rocks of the same formation as those on Sims' Island; on the largest
was deposited a bottle containing a record on parchment of our visit. On
this rock all our observations were taken, excepting a few at the south
end of the sandy beach, before the natives showed themselves: the
longitude of Bottle Rock was subsequently determined to be 133 degrees 19
minutes 40 seconds.*
(*Footnote. Vide Appendix A Section X.)
April 6.
We left South-west Bay on the 4th, and the following morning anchored in
a bay on the west side of North Island, and on the 6th we commenced
cutting our wood from a group of casuarinas that grew close to the beach.
In the afternoon, when our party returned on board to dinner, some
natives were perceived examining our wooding-place, but our late
experience had taught us the precaution of bringing our tools away, to
prevent any further occasion of quarrel. They did not stop long but
walked on, as if they had some other object; at about forty yards farther
they halted again, and concealing themselves as they thought behind a
bank, they watched us for half an hour; after which they walked away and
disappeared among the trees.
April 7.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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