getables, especially one in which there was a small run, and
several holes of fresh water. The principal wood is the _eucalyptus_, or
gum tree, but it is not large; small cabbage palms grow in the gullies,
and also a species of fig tree, which bears its fruit on the stem,
instead of the ends of the branches; and pines are scattered in the most
rocky places.

No inhabitants were seen upon any of the islands, but there were deserted
fire places upon all. The Indians probably come over from the main land
at certain times, to take turtle, in which they must be much more
dexterous than we were; for although many turtle were seen in the water,
and we watched the beaches at night, not one was caught. There are no
kangaroos upon the Percy Isles; nor did we see any useful birds. The
large bats or vampyres, common to this country, and called flying-foxes
at Port Jackson, were often found hanging by the claws, with their heads
downward, under the shady tops of the palm trees; and one solitary eel of
a good size, was caught on clearing out the hole where our water casks
had been first intended to be filled.

Pines, fresh water, and fish will be some inducement to visit the Percy
Isles; as perhaps may be the hump-backed whales, of which a considerable
number was seen in the vicinity. The best and most convenient anchorage,
and indeed the only one to be recommended, is that where the Investigator
lay, directly off the basin; in mid-channel between No. 2 and the western
pine islets. It is sheltered at fourteen points to the eastward, and
three towards the west; and there being a clear passage out, both to the
north and south, no danger is to be apprehended: the bottom, however,
does not hold very well.

A wet dock might be made of the basin without other trouble or expense
than a little deepening of the narrow entrance, and throwing a pair of
gates across; and were the mud to be cleared out, the basin would contain
fifteen or twenty sail of merchant ships with great ease.

The flood _tide_ came from the north and the ebb from the south, past the
anchorage; but on the outside, they run south-west and north-east. It is
not extraordinary that the rise and fall by the shore did not exactly
coincide with the swinging of the ship; but that the time of high water
should differ three hours, and the rise twenty feet from Broad Sound, is
remarkable. According to Mr. Fowler's observations in the basin, it was
high water there _eight hours aft