umice stone,
several kinds of coral, five or six species of shells, skeletons of fish
and sea snakes, the fruit of the pandanus, and a piece of cocoa-nut shell
without bernacles or any thing to indicate that it had been long in the
water; but there were no marks of shipwreck. A seine was hauled upon the
small beaches at the south end of the island, and brought on shore a good
quantity of mullet, and of a fish resembling a cavally; also a kind of
horse mackerel, small fish of the herring kind, and once a sword fish of
between four and five feet long. The projection of the snout, or sword of
this animal, a foot and a half in length, was fringed with strong, sharp
teeth; and he threw it from side to side in such a furious way, that it
was difficult to manage him even on shore.

A boat was sent in the evening to the foot of Pine Mount, for the
naturalist and his party, but returned without any tidings of them; and
it was noon next day [SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 1802] before they got on
board. They had reached the top of the mount, but were disappointed in
the view by the pines and underwood. In returning to the boat, a chase
after a kangaroo had led one of the gentlemen out of his reckoning; and
this, with the labour of bringing down their prize, had prevented them
from reaching the water side that night. Pine Mount is stony, but covered
with large trees of the kind denoted by its epithet; the country between
it and the water side is grassy, bears timber trees, and is of a
tolerably good soil, such as might be cultivated. There are small creeks
of salt water in the low land; and in one of them a fish was shot which
furnished the party with a dinner.

Pine Mount is composed of the _greenstone_ of the German mineralogists;
but in some other parts of the neighbourhood the stone seems to be
different, and contains small veins of quartz, pieces of which are also
scattered over the surface. At Aken's Island there was some variety. The
most common kind was a slate, containing in some places veins of quartz,
in a state nearly approaching to crystallization, and in others some
metallic substance, probably iron. The basis of most other parts of the
island was _greenstone_; but in the eastern cliffs there was a soft,
whitish earth; and on the north-west side of the island, a part of the
shore consisted of water-worn grains and small lumps of quartz, of coral,
pumice stone, and other substances jumbled together, and concreted into a
solid