The Leaves Of The Other Are Like
The Bay, And It Has A Seed Like The White Thorn, With An Agreeable Spicy
Taste And Smell.
Out of the trees we cut down for fire-wood, there issued
some gum, which the surgeon called gum-lac.
The trees are mostly burnt or
scorched, near the ground, occasioned by the natives setting fire to the
under-wood, in the most frequented places; and by these means they have
rendered it easy walking. The land birds we saw, are a bird like a raven;
some of the crow kind, black, with the tips of the feathers of the tail and
wings white, their bill long and very sharp; some paroquets; and several
kinds of small birds. The sea-fowl are ducks, teal, and the sheldrake. I
forgot to mention a large white bird, that one of the gentlemen shot, about
the size of a large kite of the eagle kind. As for beasts, we saw but one,
which was an opossom; but we observed the dung of some, which we judged to
be of the deer kind. The fish in the bay are scarce; those we caught were
mostly sharks, dog-fish, and a fish called by the seamen nurses, like the
dog-fish, only full of small white spots; and some small fish not unlike
sprats. The lagoons (which are brackish) abound with trout, and several
other sorts of fish, of which we caught a few with lines, but being much
encumbered with stumps of trees, we could not haul the seine.
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