pear was the
least ill-tempered of the party, or we should not perhaps have retreated
without being under the necessity of firing in self-defence.

We retired however without any farther rupture and left them seated on
the bank, whence they continued to watch our movements until the boat was
loaded and we left the shore. They then came down to the beach and
searched about for whatever things we might accidentally have left
behind; and after examining with great attention some marks that, for
amusement, some of our party had scratched upon the sand, they separated.
The old man and the two boys embarked in a canoe and paddled round the
point towards the Cape, in which direction also the other two natives
bent their steps.

The tall, slender form of the Port Jackson natives and their other
peculiarities of long curly hair, large heads, and spare limbs are
equally developed in the inhabitants of this part. The bodies of these
people are however considerably more scarified than their countrymen to
the southward, and their teeth are perfect. One of our visitors had a
fillet of plaited grass, whitened by pigment, bound round his head, and
this was the only ornament worn by them.

The spear was of very rude form and seemed to be a branch of the
mangrove-tree, made straight by the effect of fire: it did not appear
that they used the throwing-stick.

The soil of the hills of Cape Clinton is of good quality but the country
at the back of the port appears to be chiefly marshy land. Mr. Hunter
sowed orange and lemon seeds in various places in the neighbourhood of
the cape; the climate of this part is so well adapted for those trees
that, if it were possible to protect them from the fires of the natives,
they would soon grow up, and prove a valuable refreshment to voyagers.

Captain Flinders describes the soil at the northern part of the port to
be "either sandy or stony, and unfit for cultivation."* The country
around Mount Westall is also formed of a shallow soil, but the low lands
are covered with grass and trees, and the ravines and sides of the hills
are covered with stunted pine-trees which were thought to be the
Araucaria excelsa.

(*Footnote. Flinders volume 2 page 38.)

The country between Port Bowen and Shoalwater Bay is low and overrun with
mangroves; but Captain Flinders* speaks more favourably of the land about
the latter bay, particularly in the vicinity of his Pine Mount, where he
describes the soil as being fi