m, with a fine sandy
bottom. The south point of the bay bore E. 3/4 S. distant two miles, the
north point N.W. 1/4 N. and about the same distance from the shore.

Early the next morning I went ashore, with a party of men, in order to
examine the country, accompanied by Mr Banks, Dr Solander, the other
gentlemen, and Tupia: The wind blew fresh, and we found it so cold, that
being at some distance from the shore, we took our cloaks as a necessary
equipment for the voyage. We landed a little within the south point of
the bay, where we found a channel leading into a large lagoon: This
channel I proceeded to examine, and found three fathom water till I got
about a mile up it, where I met with a shoal, upon which there was
little more than one fathom; but having passed over it, I had three
fathom again. The entrance of this channel lies close to the south point
of the bay, being formed by the shore on the east, and on the west by a
large spit of sand: It is about a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in
S. by W. In this place there is room for a few ships to lie in great
security, and a small stream of fresh water; I would have rowed into the
lagoon, but was prevented by shallows. We found several bogs, and swamps
of salt water, upon which, and by the sides of the lagoon, grows the
true mangrove, such as is found in the West Indies, and the first of the
kind that we had met with. In the branches of these mangroves there were
many nests of a remarkable kind of ant, that was as green as grass: When
the branches were disturbed they came out in great numbers, and punished
the offender by a much sharper bite than ever we had felt from the same
kind of animal before.[75] Upon these mangroves also we saw small green
caterpillars in great numbers: Their bodies were thick set with hairs,
and they were ranged upon the leaves side by side like a file of
soldiers, to the number of twenty or thirty together: When we touched
them, we found that the hair of their bodies had the quality of a
nettle, and gave us a much more acute, though less durable pain. The
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