rance, in the hope of finding it
more available for large ships; but in vain; for ships drawing more than
twelve feet water cannot pass the bar. The rise and fall of the tide is
not only very inconsiderable, but also very irregular; under some
circumstances we found that it rose three feet, but this was very
unusual.

Our gentlemen made several excursions into the country in various
directions, in the hope of meeting with natives, but not the least
vestige of their immediate presence was found; they were not however far
from us, for the smokes of their fires were seen every evening; probably
the fear of punishment kept them away, as they had formerly made rather a
mischievous attack upon some of the Emu's crew.

No marks were left of the ship Elligood's garden, which Captain Flinders
found at the entrance of Oyster Harbour;* but a lapse of sixteen years
will in this country create a complete revolution in vegetation; which is
here so luxuriant and rapid that whole woods may have been burnt down by
the natives, and grown again within that space of time; and it may be
thus that the Elligood's garden is now possessed by the less useful but
more beautiful plants and shrubs of the country.

(*Footnote. Flinders Terra Australis volume 1 page 55.)

Excepting the sea-fowl, which consisted of geese, wild ducks, teals,
curlews, divers, sea-pies, gulls, and terns, very few birds were seen,
and those chiefly of the parrot and cockatoo tribe; a species of the
latter was noticed of a rich black plumage, and very like the black
cockatoo of New South Wales. Kangaroos from their traces must be
numerous, but only a very few were noticed; the only reptile that was
found was a black snake, which Mr. Cunningham saw for a moment as it
glided past him. This gentleman made a large collection of seeds and
dried specimens from the vast variety of beautiful plants and flowers
with which nature has so lavishly clothed the hills and plains of this
interesting country.

A small spot of ground near the tent was dug up and enclosed with a
fence, in which Mr. Cunningham sowed many culinary seeds and
peach-stones; and on the stump of a tree, which had been felled by our
wooding party, the name of the vessel with the date of our visit was
inscribed; but when we visited Oyster Harbour three years and a half
afterwards, no signs remained of the garden, and the inscription was
scarcely perceptible, from the stump of the tree having been nearly
destroy