o try the experiment, he did not appear
to be sensible of the danger to himself in that case. As he did not
choose to quit his spear, and the sun was descending, they did not land,
but backed in near enough to throw him a yarn stocking, which they showed
him was to be worn as a cap with a tail to it, and then parted good
friends.

Monday the 22nd was passed in getting the sloop into the river, which
with some difficulty was accomplished, having to find out a channel
through an infinity of shoals, some of which were covered with mangroves.
Finding a proper place to lay the sloop on shore, Mr. Flinders took the
necessary measures; and on Thursday the 25th, having completely stopped
the leak, by filling up the seam with oakum, nailing the plank to afresh,
and covering the whole with tarred canvas and sheet lead, he re-stowed
his vessel, which had been cleared of every thing, a few tons of ballast
excepted, and was again in a condition to prosecute his intended
excursion to the Glass-House peaks.

In a spare interval of a few hours before high water, (the day he laid
the sloop ashore) he attempted to get some swans, but met with none that
could not fly. He saw several large fish, or animals that came up to the
surface of the water to blow, in the manner of a porpoise, or rather of a
seal, for they did not spout, nor had they any dorsal fin. The head also
strongly resembled the bluff-nosed hair seal, but their size was greater
than any which Mr. Flinders had seen before. He fired three musket balls
into one, and Bong-ree threw a spear into another; but they sunk, and
were not seen again. These animals, which perhaps might be sea lions,
were not observed any where but in this river.

Not finding any fresh water wherewith to fill up their casks, they had
dug a hole in a low situation about a hundred yards inland. The first
spit consisted of vegetable earth, mixed with a large portion of black
sand; the three following feet were composed of different layers of sand,
and then they came to the hardened black clay of which the rocks on some
parts of the banks were formed. Here the water began to ooze in at the
sides of the hole, which in the course of thirty-six hours was filled,
but with very thick water. Luckily there was not any occasion to use it;
for one of the people, incautiously straying into the wood, met with a
hole of very good water, at which they completed their stock.

While they were employed in making up the sai