Probably Were It Meliorated
By Cultivation, It Would Become More Palatable.
Fresh water, as I have said before, is found but in inconsiderable quantities.
For the common purposes of life there is generally enough; but we know
of no stream in the country capable of turning a mill:
And the remark made
by Mr. Anderson, of the dryness of the country round Adventure Bay,
extends without exception to every part of it which we have penetrated.
Previous to leaving England I remember to have frequently heard it asserted,
that the discovery of mines was one of the secondary objects of the expedition.
Perhaps there are mines; but as no person competent to form a decision
is to be found among us, I wish no one to adopt an idea, that I mean to
impress him with such a belief, when I state, that individuals,
whose judgements are not despicable, are willing to think favourably
of this conjecture, from specimens of ore seen in many of the stones
picked up here. I cannot quit this subject without regretting, that some one
capable of throwing a better light on it, is not in the colony. Nor can I help
being equally concerned, that an experienced botanist was not sent out,
for the purpose of collecting and describing the rare and beautiful plants
with which the country abounds. Indeed, we flattered ourselves, when at
the Cape of Good Hope, that Mason, the King's botanical gardener,
who was employed there in collecting for the royal nursery at Kew,
would have joined us, but it seems his orders and engagements prevented him
from quitting that beaten track, to enter on this scene of novelty and variety.
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