VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.

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fhall have occafion to prefent in the courfe of our narrative, for the fhores of NewHolland will afford, on many occafions, proofs of great cataflrophes of nature.

The anxious defire I felt, however, to make my remarks on the inhabitants of theferegions, fhortly drew me from the fhore : I palled the downs, and almofl immediatelyafterwards was Hopped by a pool, the margin of which was every where covered withfalicornias, and on its fait waters numerous flocks of black fwans aifplayed their elegantforms. Beyond this marlh, the fuppofed river, the mouth of which my friends weregone to enter, has its courfe. A vafl number of the.footfteps of the natives feemed toannounce that many of them had recently paffed it, and there I refolved to join on theother fide. While in fearch of the moll favourite place of pafling, I heard the reportof a gun at a Ihort diftance, and trailed that, in the fportfmen, I Ihould meet withforne companions in my project; but Meffrs. Levillain and Bailly, to whom I addreffedmyfelf, far from being inclined to accompany, endeavoured to difl’uade me from myintentions. I was not to be turned from what I had refolved upon; but, undreflingmyfelf, pafied the river before them, and plunged into the firll which Ikirts its left fide.It was eleven o’clock, the Iky was clear, the temperature mild; thefe circumllancesadded to my ardor, and full of hope to meet, in a Ihort time, with fome of the peopleof thefe fhores, I continued my purfuit till it became fufpended by a lingular difcovery.

Near the fpot where I landed I perceived a valley, extending towards the interior, andapparently marking the courfe of fome fmall rivulet; I conceived it my duty to afcer-tain the fa£t; unfortunately my fufpicions were not verified, and I began to refumemy fleps, when a duller of large trees, which by their colour were readily diftinguifhedfrom thofe which furrounded them, attracted my attention. All thefe were white fromthe bafe of their trunk to the extremity of their branches.

Surprized at this appearance, I advanced precipitately towards this fpecies of bower,equally excited by interefl and curiofity. Both one and the other foon increafed. Twelvetrees of a larger fize, amid manyfmaller, and irregularly confounded with them, formeda femi-circle, the two extremities of which terminated on the bank of the river. Allthefe trees belonged to a new fpecies of Melaleuca, remarkable for the extreme thick-nefs of the bark, or rather the liber *, by which it is enveloped : this liber, of veryfine texture, and very pithy, adheres fo flightly to the wood, that the leafl effort fufficesto tear it off, in long ribbons, from the foot of the tree to the very extremity of thebranches. In this manner the trees I allude to, had been deprived of their bark, andas the middle barkf is remarkably white, their colour refulted from the abflraftion ofthe outer coat.

Within the area of the femi-circle formed by thefe white trees, were defcribed threeother femi-circles*gradually lefs, as within each other, and ending with their extremitieslike the outward one at the river. The firfl of the interior femi-circles was a kind offeat of turf, railed about fix or eight inches above the ground, and two feet wide ; theturf was compoled of a fine, light and very fhort grafs, which grows abundantly nearthe fpot: this verdant feat was feftooned on that fide which fronted the river, and eachof the intervals between the fefloons had evidently feemed as a feat for one individual;and twenty-feven fefloons ferved to indicate an affembly of a like number of individuals.

In front of this bank of turf was a clear fpace, two and a half feet wide, coveredwith a black fand, found in abundance on the fea fhore, and which forms a portion 01

* External part of the bark.

The bark of a tree is compofcd of the epidumis or ikin, the middle, and the outer bark or liber.

the