t
low water, in clear weather, but when cloudy, they never land;
this, together with there being no appearance of any pits where
they lay their eggs, leads me to suppose that they do not breed
on any part of the island; especially as this is the only place
where there is a possibility for them to make their pits.

The 16th, being Sunday, I performed divine service. Two
convicts, whom I had given leave the preceding day to take an
excursion into the interior part of the island, returned this day
at noon quite naked: they had several cuts in different parts of
their bodies, some of which were deep, occasioned by the
entangled state of the woods, and the sharpness of the briars:
they had not been an hour from the settlement before they lost
sight of the sun from the thickness of the woods; this caused
them to wander about till eleven o'clock, when they heard the
noise of our church bell, which was a man beating on the head of
an empty cask, and presently afterwards they returned to the
settlement.

As my own situation, and that of every other person was very
uncomfortable, owing to the tents being close to the sea shore,
on which a heavy surf continually beats: I set the people to work
on the 17th, to clear a piece of ground to the right of the
garden, and a little above it; here I intended to move the tents,
or to build houses; and having two sawyers and a carpenter, I set
them to work in digging a sawpit, in order to saw pine for
building a store-house for the provisions and stores, they at
present being lodged in my tent, which was made of the Sirius's
sprit-sail.

The surgeon, in walking about the island, found out the
flax-plant, which proved to be what we had hitherto called the
iris: not having any description of this plant, I had no idea of
its being what Captain Cook calls the flax-plant of New Zealand;
the cliffs and shore near the settlement were covered with it;
its root is bulbous, and eight leaves issue from it, which are,
in general, five or six feet in length, and about four inches
broad, close to the root: the plant bears a great resemblance to
the iris, except that the leaves are much thicker and larger; the
flaxy part is the fibres, which extend the whole length of the
leaf; towards the root they are very thick and strong, and
diminish in size as they approach the end of the Jeaf. This
plant, in its green state, is of a surprising strength: from the
quantity of dead leaves about the root, I imagin