An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume II Part 11

The country along the back of the bay lies in rounded stony hills scarcely fit for pasturage, but covered with timber, and patches of short brush.

On the south side was another shallow inlet, larger than that on the SW running in by the end of a beach, and winding along to the SSW with little or no cultivable or low ground upon its borders. The returning tide did not allow time enough to proceed to the head of it.

On the eastern side, the hills being neither steep nor prominent, some extensive slopes of tolerably good, though sandy soil, have been formed.

Several which extended to the water, being well covered with gra.s.s and thinly set with timber, had a pleasing appearance from the bay, and resembled some of the most beautiful parts of Mount Edgec.u.mbe, near Plymouth. Speaking generally of the land round the bay, it might be said to be much more barren that productive; that there are several patches of tolerably good, and some few of excellent soil; but by far the greater part is incapable of cultivation, and fit only for pasturage.

The most common timber is a sort of gum tree, the bark of which along the trunk is that of the iron bark of Port Jackson; and its leaf, that of the blue gum tree; but its branches toward the head are of a yellow colour, smooth, and resembling the barked limbs of trees. The wood is longer grained, and more tough, splitting easier and more true than any other species of the gum tree.

The natives are, in person, similar to those living about Port Jackson, but their language was perfectly unintelligible. They used canoes, of which they seemed very careful; for on his rowing round the point of Snug Cove, when Mr. Ba.s.s was on his first visit to this bay in the whale boat, a party of them paddled hastily on sh.o.r.e, taking their canoes upon their heads, and running off with them into the woods. They, however, did not appear so shy of their visitors now as they had formerly been; and there was reason to believe that a friendly intercourse might have been easily established with them.

Not meeting with any gra.s.s trees, and the few spears that were seen being made of solid wood, it may be conjectured that the light gra.s.s reed spear used by the natives of Port Jackson is unknown among these people, as well as the use of the throwing-stick.

But very few marks of the kangaroo were seen. Both quadrupeds and birds appeared to be less numerous here than in other places. The dogs found a porcupine ant-eaters, but they could make no impression on him; he escaped from them by burrowing in the loose sand, not head foremost, but sinking himself directly downwards, and presenting his p.r.i.c.kly back opposed to his adversaries.

There were a few ducks, teal, herons, cranes, and a bird named from its bill the Red-bill, upon the lagoons, with some small flights of curlew and plover of a beautiful feather.

The rocks consist of hardened clay, in which are mixed great numbers of small stones, variously tinged, some with red, others with yellow. Small portions of calcareous spar lie scattered about the surface of the rocky ground; strata of which are deposited irregularly in fissures formed in the body of the rocks themselves.

Leaving Twofold Bay upon a favourable s.h.i.+ft of wind, the sloop proceeded to the southward, and on the 17th made a small cl.u.s.ter of islands, in lat.i.tude 38 degrees 16 minutes, which now bears the name of Kent's Group (a compliment to the commander of his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Supply_).

These are six or seven in number, and of various sizes. Their height is very considerable, and as irregular in figure as can well be imagined in land whose hummocks are no one of them more lofty than another. This small group appears to be formed of granite, which is imperfectly concealed by long straggling dwarfish brush, and some few still more diminutive trees, and seems cursed with a sterility that might safely bid defiance to Chinese industry itself. Nature is either working very slowly with those islands, or has altogether ceased to work upon them, since a more wild deserted place is not easily to be met with. Even the birds seemed not to frequent them in their usual numbers. There was, in short, nothing that could tempt our explorers to land.

Having pa.s.sed Kent's Group standing to the southward, the next morning Furneaux's Islands were in sight, and on the following day they anch.o.r.ed at Preservation Island, which is one of them. These islands, from what was seen of them during this run along their sh.o.r.e, and what had been seen of them before by Mr. Ba.s.s, appear to consist of two kinds, perfectly dissimilar in figure, and most probably of very unequal ages, but alike in the materials of which they are formed. Both kinds are of granite; but the one is low, and rather level, with a soil of sand covered with low brush and tufted gra.s.s: the other is remarkably high, bold, and rocky, and cut into a variety of singular peaks and k.n.o.bs. Some little vegetable soil lies upon these, and the vegetation is large; trees even of a tolerable size are produced in some places. There are attached to some parts of these high islands slips of low sandy land, of a similar height with the lower islands, and probably coeval with them.

Preservation Island, which takes its respectable name from having preserved the crew of the s.h.i.+p _Sydney Cove_, arranges itself in the humble cla.s.s of islands, and is of a very moderate height. A surface of sand, varying in depth, and mixed in different scanty proportions with vegetable soil, scarcely hides from view the base, which is of granite.

In several places vast blocks of this stone lie scattered about, as free from vegetation and the injuries of weather as if they had fallen but yesterday: and, what is remarkable, most of them, probably all, are evidently detached from the stone upon which they rest, so entirely that they might be dragged from the places where they lie, if it were thought worth while to apply a power sufficient to produce so useless an effect.

It should seem then that these loose blocks have fallen from some place higher than that upon which they were found; but that is impossible, for they are higher than any other part of the island. And the supposition that the injuries of the air and the rain caused the removal of that part of the granite which might originally have been of a corresponding height with these remaining blocks, seems hardly admissible in the present instance. Perhaps subterraneous or volcanic fire may have caused this curious appearance.

The great bulk of these blocks renders them so conspicuous, that the attention is first struck with them upon approaching the island. But, besides granite, there is on the north side, where the island is particularly low and narrow, a slip of calcareous earth, of a few hundred yards in length, which discovers itself near the broken surface of the water. It is not for the most part pure, for broken pieces of the granite are mixed with it in various proportions. Some parts are a mere ma.s.s of these broken pieces cemented together by the calcareous matter; whilst others are an almost perfect chalk, and are capable of being burnt into excellent lime. Broken sea sh.e.l.ls and other exuviae of marine animals are apparent throughout the whole ma.s.s.

Upon the beach at the foot of this chalky rock, was found a very considerable quant.i.ty of the black metallic particles which appear in the granite as black s.h.i.+ning specks, and are in all probability grains of tin.

To find this small bed of the remains of sh.e.l.l animals, of which chalk is formed wherever found, in such an unexpected situation, excited some surprise; and Mr. Ba.s.s endeavoured to investigate the cause of this deposit, by examining the form of the neighbouring parts of the island.

The result of his inquiries and conjectures amounted to this: that as traces of the sea, and of the effects of running waters, were plainly discernible in many parts of the island, and more particularly in the vicinity of this deposit of chalk and granite, it seemed highly probable that it had been formed by two streams of the tide, which, when the island was yet beneath the surface of the sea, having swept round a large lump of rocks, then met and formed an eddy, where every substance would fall to the bottom. The lump of rocks is now a rocky knoll, which runs tapering from the opposite side of the island toward the chalk. On each side of it is a gap, through which the two streams appear to have pa.s.sed.

The vegetation on the island seems brown and starved. It consists of a few stunted trees; several patches of brush, close set and almost impenetrable; large tufts of sour and wiry gra.s.s, and abundance of low saltish plants, chiefly of the creeping kind.

A small spot upon the east end of the island presented a phenomenon which seemed not easily explicable by any known laws of that cla.s.s of natural history to which it alone was referable.

Amidst a patch of naked sand, upon one of the highest parts of the island, at not less than 100 feet above the level of the sea, within the limits of a few hundred yards square, were lying scattered about a number of short broken branches of old dead trees, of from one to three inches in diameter, and seemingly of a kind similar to the large brush wood.

Amid these broken branches were seen sticking up several white stony stumps, of sizes ranging between the above diameters, and in height from a foot to a foot and a half. Their peculiar form, together with a number of p.r.o.ngs of their own quality, projecting in different directions from around their base, and entering the ground in the manner of roots, presented themselves to the mind of an observer, with a striking resemblance to the stumps and roots of small trees. These were extremely brittle, the slightest blow with a stick, or with each other, being sufficient to break them short off; and when taken into the hand, many of them broke to pieces with their own weight.

On being broken transversely, it was immediately seen that the internal part was divided into interior or central, exterior or cortical. The exterior part, which in different specimens occupied various proportions of the whole, resembled a fine white and soft grit-stone; but acids being applied, showed it to be combined with a considerable portion of calcareous matter. The interior or central part was always circular, but seldom found of the same diameter, or of the same composition, on any two stumps. In some the calcareous and sandy matter had taken such entire possession, that every fragment of the wood was completely obliterated; but yet a faint central ring remained. In others was a centre of chalk, beautifully white, that crumbled between the fingers to the finest powder; some consisted of chalk and brown earth, in various quant.i.ties, and some others had detained a few frail portions of their woody fibres, the s.p.a.ces between which were filled up with chalky earth.

It appeared, that when the people of the _Sydney Cove_ first came upon the island, the pieces of dead branches that at this time were lying round the stumps, then formed, with them, the stem and branches of dead trees complete. But by the time Mr. Ba.s.s visited the place, the hands of curiosity, and the frolics of an unruly horse that was saved from the wreck, had reduced them to the state already described.

Mr. Ba.s.s had been told from good authority, that when the trees were in a complete state, the diameter of the dead wood of the stem that rose immediately from the stoney part was equal to the diameter of that part; and also that a living leaf was seen upon the uppermost branches of one of them. But he could never learn whether the stony part of the stem was of an equal height in all the trees.

To ascertain to what depth the petrification had extended, Mr. Ba.s.s scratched away the sand from the foot of many of the stumps, and in no instance found it to have proceeded more than three or four inches beneath the surface of the sand, as it then lay; for at that depth the brown and crumbling remains of the root came into view. There were, indeed, parts of the roots which had undergone an alteration similar to that which had taken place in the stems: but these tended to establish the limits of the petrifying power; for they had felt it only either at their first outset from the bottom of the stems, or when, being obstructed in their progress, they had of necessity arched upwards toward the surface.

In attempting to account for the cause that had operated to produce this change in the structure of the lower parts of the stems of these trees, Mr. Ba.s.s feels the utmost diffidence. He found that all his conjectures which were best supported by existing facts, led him to place them among petrifications; although no strict a.n.a.logy could be seen between them and the subjects usually met with of this kind.

Admitting them, however, as petrifications, it is certain that there must once have existed a pond in which the petrifying water was contained; but the ground in their neighbourhood retained no positive traces of any such receptacle. There were, indeed, near them, some few lumps or banks consisting of sand, and a little vegetable earth which was held together by dead roots of small trees, and elevated above the rest of the ground, to the height of five, six, or eight feet; but the relative position of these with each other was so confused and irregular, that nothing but the necessity of a once existing reservoir could ever lead any one to conjecture that these might have been parts of its bank. Mr. Ba.s.s, however, rather concluded that this must have been the case, and that the remainder of the bank had been torn away, and the pond itself annihilated by some violent effort of an unknown power.

Notwithstanding the narrow limits of the island, abundance of small kangaroos were found to inhabit its brushy parts; but so many had been destroyed by the people of the _Sydney Cove_, that they had now become scarce.

The sooty petrel had appropriated a certain gra.s.sy part of the island to herself, and retained her position with a degree of obstinacy not easily to be overcome. For although it so happened, that the storehouse for the wrecked cargo was erected upon the spot, and the people for more than a year drew the favourite part of their food from these birds, and were besides continually walking over their habitations, yet at the end of that time the returning flights in the evening were as numerous as they had been observed to be upon their first arrival.

When Mr. Hamilton, the commander of the _Sydney Cove_, quitted the house, he left two hens sitting upon their eggs, some breeding pigeons, and a bag of rice; but no traces were now to be discovered either of the birds or their food. It is probable, that so long as this little colony continued within doors, it did well; but that, when forced by its necessities to go abroad in quest of food, it fell a quiet sacrifice to the rapacity of the hawks.

Several snakes with venomous fangs were found here; but, no person having been bitten by them, the degree of their power was unknown.

The water of the island was thought to have been injurious to the health of the people of the _Sydney Cove_. It was supposed to contain a.r.s.enic, which was highly probable from an experiment that was made with the metallic particles, which were taken to be tin. A large fume of what bore many marks of a.r.s.enic arose from the crucible during the time of smelting it. Water was very scarce while these people were upon the island; but, owing to some unusual falls of rain, several little runs and swamps were found by Mr. Ba.s.s; and a low piece of ground where they had deposited their dead was now a pond of an excellent quality.

Although he had seen but few of the low islands of Furneaux, yet Mr. Ba.s.s had not any doubt but that this account of Preservation Island would in general answer for the description of any of them.

He next proceeds to describe what little he saw of Cape Barren Island, which he understood, from the people of the _Nautilus_ snow, who had been there sealing, was an exact specimen of those of the higher kind, so far as they had observed of them.

Cape Barren Island, which takes its name from the cape so called by Captain Furneaux, is a small island when compared with that lying to the northward of it. From what was seen of it in the sloop, it could only be conjectured that these two were separate islands; but Mr. Bishop had pa.s.sed in the _Nautilus_ through the channel that divides them.

Mr. Ba.s.s did not land upon the large island, and it is only of the southern end of Cape Barren Island that he could speak from his own particular observation.

This island is one of those of the higher kind that consist of both high and low land. The high part is composed of granite, in many places almost bare, in others poorly clothed with moderate sized gum trees, which draw their support through some small quant.i.ty of vegetable earth lodged by the broken blocks and fragments of the stone, and some straggling brush-wood shooting up round the trees, and completing the appearance of a continued vegetation.

The base of the low part is granite; its surface chiefly sand; its produce, variety of brush, with some few small gum trees, and a species of fir, that grows tall and straight to the height of 20 or 25 feet.

There are within the body of the brush several clear spots, where the ground is partly rocky or sandy, partly wet and spongy. These are somewhat enlivened by beautiful flowering heath, and low shrubs, but have upon the whole a dark sombrous aspect, too much resembling the barren heaths of Hamps.h.i.+re.

A gra.s.s tree grows here, similar in every respect to that about Port Jackson, except that no reed, neither living nor dead, could be found to belong to it. It is certain, however, that there must be a reed, or a flowering part of some kind. In the brushes, where the sandy soil is somewhat ameliorated by the decay of vegetation, a few tufts of indifferent gra.s.s might be seen; but the greater part of it was the coa.r.s.e wiry sort that grows in ha.s.socks.

It is singular, that a place wherein food seemed to be so scarce should yet be so thickly inhabited by the small brush kangaroo, and a new quadruped, which was also a gra.s.s-eater.

This animal, being a new one, appears to deserve a particular description. The Wombat (or, as it is called by the natives of Port Jackson, the Womback) is a squat, thick, short-legged, and rather inactive quadruped, with great appearance of stumpy strength, and somewhat bigger than a large turnspit dog. Its figure and movements, if they do not exactly resemble those of the bear, at least strongly remind one of that animal.

Its length, from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose, is thirty-one inches, of which its body takes up twenty-three and five-tenths. The head is seven inches, and the tail five-tenths. Its circ.u.mference behind the forelegs, twenty-seven inches; across the thickest part of the belly, thirty-one inches. Its weight by hand is somewhat between twenty-five and thirty pounds. The hair is coa.r.s.e, and about one inch or one inch and five tenths in length, thinly set upon the belly, thicker on the back and head, and thickest upon the loins and rump; the colour of it a light sandy brown, of varying shades, but darkest along the back.

The head is large and flattish, and, when looking the animal full in the face, seems, excluding the ears, to form nearly an equilateral triangle, any side of which is about seven inches and five tenths in length, but the upper side, or that which const.i.tutes the breadth of the head, is rather the shortest. The hair upon the face lies in regular order, as if it were combed, with its ends pointed upwards in a kind of radii, from the nose their centre.

The ears are sharp and erect, of two inches and three-tenths in length, stand well asunder, and are in nowise disproportionate. The eyes are small, and rather sunken than prominent, but quick and lively. They are placed about two inches and five tenths asunder, a little below the centre of the imaginary triangle towards the nose. The nice co-adaptation of their ciliary processes, which are covered with a fine hair, seems to afford the animal an extraordinary power of excluding whatever might be hurtful.

The nose is large or spreading, the nostrils large, long, and capable of being closed. They stand angularly with each other, and a channel is continued from them towards the upper lip, which is divided like the hare's. The whiskers are rather thick and strong, and are in length from two to three inches and five tenths.

The opening of its mouth is small; it contains five long gra.s.s-cutting teeth in the front of each jaw, like those of the kangaroo; within them is a vacancy for an inch or more, then appear two small canine teeth of equal height with, and so much similar to, eight molars situated behind, as scarcely to be distinguishable from them. The whole number in both jaws amount to twenty-four.

The neck is thick and short, and greatly restrains the motions of the head, which, according to the common expression, looks as if it was stuck upon the shoulders.

From the neck the back arches a little as far as the loins, whence it goes off at a flat slope to the hindmost parts, where not any tail is visible. A tail, however, may be found by carefully pa.s.sing the finger over the flat slope in a line with the backbone. After separating the hairs, it is seen of some five tenths of an inch in length, and from three to one tenth of an inch in diameter, naked, except for a few short fine hairs near its end. This curious tall seemed to hold a much bolder proportion in the young than in the full-grown animal.

The fore legs are very strong and muscular: their length, to the sole of the paw, is five inches five tenths, and the distance between them is five inches and five tenths. The paws are fleshy, round, and large, being one inch and nine tenths in diameter. Their claws are five in number, attached to as many short digitations. The three middle claws are strong, and about eight or nine tenths of an inch in length; the thumb and little finger claws are also strong, but shorter than the others, being only from six to seven tenths of an inch. The fleshy root of the thumb claw is smaller and more flexible than the others. The sole of the paw is hard, and the upper part is covered with the common hair, down to the roots of the claws which it overhangs. The hind legs are less strong and muscular than the fore; their length, to the sole, is five inches and five tenths; the distance between, seven inches and five tenths. The hind paw is longer than the fore, but not less fleshy; its length is two inches and seven tenths, its breadth two inches and six tenths. The claws are four in number: the three inner ones are less strong, but about two tenths of an inch longer than the longest of the fore claws; and there is a fleshy spur in the place of a thumb claw. The whole paw has a curve, which throws its fore part rather inward.