metimes met with a bog, upon
which the grass was very thick and luxuriant, and sometimes with a
valley that was clothed with underwood: The soil in some parts seemed to
be capable of improvement, but the far greater part is such as can admit
of no cultivation. The coast, at least that part of it which lies to the
northward of 25 deg. S., abounds with fine bays and harbours, where vessels
may lie in perfect security from all winds.

If we may judge by the appearance of the country while we were there,
which was in the very height of the dry season, it is well watered. We
found innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers; these
brooks, however, probably become large in the rainy season. Thirsty
Sound was the only place where fresh water was not to be procured for
the ship, and even there, one or two small pools were found in the
woods, though the face of the country was every where intersected by
salt-creeks and mangrove-land.

Of trees there is no great variety. Of those that could be called
timber, there are but two sorts; the largest is the gum-tree, which
grows all over the country, and has been mentioned already: It has
narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow; and the gum, or rather resin,
which it yields, is of a deep red, and resembles the _sanguis draconis_;
possibly it may be the same, for this substance is known to be the
produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by Dampier, and is
perhaps the same that Tasman found upon Diemen's Land, where he says he
saw "gum of the trees, and gum lac of the ground." The other timber
tree is that which grows somewhat like our pines, and has been
particularly mentioned in the account of Botany Bay. The wood of both
these trees, as I have before remarked, is extremely hard and heavy.
Besides these, here are trees covered with a soft bark that is easily
peeled off, and is the same that in the East Indies is used for the
caulking of ships.

We found here the palm of three different sorts. The first, which grows
in great plenty to the southward, has leaves that are plaited like a
fan: The cabbage of these is small, but exquisitely sweet; and the nuts,
which it bears in great abundance, are very good food for hogs. The
second sort bore a much greater resemblance to the true cabbage-tree of
the West Indies: Its leaves were large and pinnated, like those of the
cocoa-nut; and these also produced a cabbage, which, though not so sweet
as the other, was much larger