The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
country here is manifestly worse than about Botany Bay: the soil is dry
and sandy, but the sides of the hills are covered with trees, which grow
separately, without underwood. We found here the tree that yields a gum
like the _sanguis draconis_; but it is somewhat different from the trees
of the same kind which we had seen before, for the leaves are longer,
and hang down like those of the weeping willow. We found also much less
gum upon them, which is contrary to the established opinion, that the
hotter the climate the more gums exude. Upon a plant also, which yielded
a yellow gum, there was less than upon the same kind of plant in Botany
Bay. Among the shoals and sand-banks we saw many large birds, some in
particular of the same kind that we had seen in Botany Bay, much bigger
than swans, which we judged to be pelicans; but they were so shy that we
could not get within gun-shot of them. Upon the shore we saw a species
of the bustard, one of which we shot: it was as large as a turkey, and
weighed seventeen pounds and a half. We all agreed that this was the
best bird we had eaten since we left England; and in honour of it we
called this inlet BUSTARD BAY. It lies in latitude 24° 4ʹ, longitude
208° 18ʹ. The sea seemed to abound with fish; but, unhappily, we tore
our seine all to pieces at the first haul. Upon the mud banks, under the
mangroves, we found innumerable oysters of various kinds; among others,
the hammer-oyster, and a large proportion of small pearl-oysters: if in
deeper water there is equal plenty of such oysters at their full growth,
a pearl fishery might certainly be established here to very great
advantage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account