a convenient place offer
itself for laying her on shore, he intended in the interval to get it
stopped.

On examining this bay in his boat, he found it to be very shallow; the
north point of the entrance into it was only a projecting spot of sandy
ground. Having returned to the sloop about noon, he landed on the south
head for the purpose of observing for the latitude. The sun being more
than half an hour distant from the meridian gave him time to examine
three huts which stood at a little distance. They were of a circular
form, and about eight feet in diameter. The frame was composed of the
stronger tendrils of the vine, crossing each other in all directions, and
bound together by strong wiry grass at the principal intersections. The
covering was of bark of a soft texture, resembling the bark of what is
called the Tea-tree at Port Jackson, and so compactly laid on as to keep
out the wind and rain. The entrance was by a small avenue projecting from
the periphery of the circle, not leading directly into the hut, but
turning sufficiently to prevent the rain from beating in.* The height of
the under part of the roof is about four and a half, or five feet, and
those that were entered had collected a coat of soot, from the fires
which had been made in the middle of the huts. They much resembled an
oven. One of them was a double hut, comprising two recesses under one
entrance, intended most probably for kindred families, being large enough
to contain twelve or fifteen people. Bong-ree readily admitted that they
were much superior to any huts of the natives which he had before seen.
He brought away a small hand basket, made of some kind of leaf, capable
of containing five or six pints of water, and very nearly resembling
those used at Coupang in the island of Timor for carrying toddy, which
Mr. Flinders had noticed there.

[* How much superior in contrivance to those about Port Jackson, or in
Van Diemen's Island!]

The meridional altitude of the sun gave 29 degrees 26 minutes 28 seconds
S for the latitude of the entrance into the bay.

Many white cockatoos and paroquets were seen about here, and a crow
whose note was remarkably short and hasty. Numbers of pelicans, with some
gulls and red bills, frequented the shoals, and the country itself was
very sandy wherever they landed. The palm nut-tree which grows here was
the third kind of palm mentioned by Captain Cook as being produced on the
eastern coast of New South Wales.*