Phillip Parker King

“ The beach was strewed with pumice-stone, heaped up above the high-water mark.
The basis of the island is a coarse-grained granite. A shallow soil on the sides of the hills, the surface of which was thickly strewed with stones and large masses of rock, nourished a slight clothing of grass and other herbage. The summit of the island forms a peak, and is, perhaps, about a thousand feet high; the island is thinly wooded with small trees, which scarcely deserve the appellation of timber. ”

“ At first it was thought either that the pintles of the rudder were broken, or that the stern-post was rent; but, upon examination, both appeared to have escaped; and, as no leak was observed during the night, I indulged the hope that the noise was not occasioned by any accident that would inconvenience us, or oblige our premature return to Port Jackson. That this hope proved to be fallacious will soon appear; and, had the extent of the damage received been discovered before we left this anchorage, I should not have ventured further up the coast, but have immediately returned to Port Jackson. ”

“ These distinguished naturalists were the first collectors upon the Coast of New South Wales; and although their labours were not confined to any particular branch of Natural History, yet Botany appeared to be their chief object, of which the Banksian Herbarium yields ample proof. ”

“ One of the results of this voyage has been the occupation of Port Cockburn, between Melville and Bathurst Islands on the North Coast, and the formation of an establishment there which cannot fail to be productive of the greatest benefit to our mercantile communications with the Eastern Archipelago, as well as to increase the influence and power of the mother country in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans ”

“ No natives were seen, but it was evident they had lately been upon the island, from the recent appearances of their fire-places and the perfect state of a hut, which was a more comfortable habitation than we have usually found: it was arched over in the usual way, by twigs bent in the form of a dome; and was neatly thatched with dry grass. No turtle marks were noticed on the beach, so that I should think this was not the season for laying their eggs. ”

“ With respect to the collection which has been formed upon this expedition, fit is to be regretted that the gleanings of the Animal Kingdom, particularly of quadrupeds and birds, should have been so trifling in number; and that the students of Natural History should have suffered disappointment in what might, at first view, be fairly considered to have arisen from neglect and careless attention to the subject ”

“ The increased developement in the ovulum would not consist so much in the unusual form and thickening of the coat, a part of secondary importance, and whose nature is disputed, as in the state of the nucleus of the seed, respecting which there is no difference of opinion; and where the plurality of embryos, or at least the existence and regular arrangement of the cells in which they are formed, is the uniform structure in the family. ”

“ In order to divert them and obtain as much information as we could, whilst the boat's crew were filling the water-casks, we seated ourselves on the grass, and commenced a conversation that was perfectly unintelligible to each other, accompanied with the most ridiculous gestures, a species of buffoonery that is always acceptable to the natives of this part of the world, and on more than one occasion has been particularly useful to us. ”

“ The distribution of animals is a branch of study that has been very much neglected, which is to be lamented, as it appears likely to offer a very great assistance to the systematic Physiologist; and for this reason the species found at the Isle of France have been added to the list.
For the catalogue and descriptions of the quadrupeds, reptiles, and shells, I am under obligation to Mr. J.E. Gray, of the British Museum. Mr. Vigors has kindly assisted me with the use of his collection, and his valuable advice with respect to the few specimens of birds that were preserved ”

“ At high water the reef was overflowed excepting at its northwest end, where a patch of sand not larger than the boat was left dry. At low tide the key, or the ridge of rocks heaped up round the edge of the reef, was left dry, and formed a barricade for the interior, which is occupied by a shallow lake of circular shape, in which many small fish and some sharks were seen swimming about. It was from this reef that Captain Cook, during the repair of his ship, procured turtle for her crew ”

“ Happily the tide was flowing, and, as soon as the vessel floated, she was warped into a secure birth within the heads of the inlet.
During the time that the cutter had been on the bank, which was two hours and a half, she was continually striking; and, at one time, we heard a loud crash, which gave us reason to fear that some serious damage had happened. ”

“ He considers the centre of the hilum as the base, and the chalaza, where it exists, as the natural apex of the seed.
M. Mirbel, in 1815, though admitting the existence of the foramen or micropyle of the testa, [20] describes the ovulum as receiving by the hilum both nourishing and fecundating vessels, [21] and as consisting of a uniform parenchyma, in which the embryo appears at first a minute point, gradually converting more or less of the surrounding tissue into its own substance; the coats and albumen of the seed being formed of that portion which remains. ”

“ Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Hunter walked about the island, but did not meet the natives. The traces both of men and dogs were so recent as to make us conjecture they were at no great distance; but, from our subsequent knowledge of thee inhabitants of these islands, there is no doubt but that they would have shewn themselves had they known of our visit. Mr. Cunningham also ascended a remarkably rugged looking hill at the south point of the bay, on the east side of the island, which from its appearance, received several appropriate names from our people, such as "Mount Dreary," and "Mount Horrid." ”

“ The analogy between the male and female organs in Coniferæ, the existence of an open ovarium being assumed, is at first sight more apparent than in Cycadeæ. In Coniferæ, however, the pollen is certainly not naked, but is enclosed in a membrane similar to the lobe of an ordinary anthera. And in those genera in which each squama of the amentum produces two marginal lobes only, as Pinus, Podocarpus, Dacrydium, Salisburia, and Phyllocladus, it nearly resembles the more general form of the antheræ in other Phænogamous plants. ”

“ They then came down to the beach, and searched about for whatever things We might accidentally have left behind; and, after examining with great attention some marks that, for amusement, some of our party had scratched upon the sand, they separated. The old man and the two boys embarked in a canoe, and paddled round the point towards the Cape, in which direction also the other two natives bent their steps.
The tall, slender form of the Port Jackson natives, and their other peculiarities of long curly hair, large heads, and spare limbs; are equally developed in the inhabitants of this part. ”

“ Adanson, in 1763, [16] states the Embryo to exist before fecundation, and that it receives its first excitement from a vapour or aura proceeding from the Pollen, conveyed to it through the tracheæ of the style, and entering the Ovulum by the umbilical cord.
Spallanzani, [17] who appears to have carefully examined the unimpregnated Ovula of a considerable variety of plants, found it in general to be a homogeneous, spongy, or gelatinous body; but in two Cucurbitaceæ to consist of a nucleus surrounded by three coats. ”

“ Yet most of these peculiarities of structure might perhaps be adduced in support of the opinion advanced, being apparent adaptations to the supposed economy.
There is one fact that will hardly be brought forward as an objection, and which yet seems to me to present a difficulty, to this opinion; namely, the greater simplicity in Cycadeæ, and in the principal part of Coniferæ, of the supposed ovulum which consists of a nucleus and one coat only, compared with the organ as generally existing when enclosed in an ovarium. ”

“ It is about a mile and a half in circumference, and forms a high rock of steep ascent; its windward side is clothed with a stunted brush, but the lee, or north-west, side is tolerably well wooded, and is fronted by a sandy beach, on which the traces of natives' fire-places, scattered with fish-bones and turtle shells, were foun in all directions. A considerable coral-reef extends to the northward, having some dry sandy keys at its north extremity. ”

“ Malpighi, in 1675, [8] gives the same account of the early state of the Ovulum; his "secundinæ externæ" being the testa, and his chorion the nucleus. He has not, however, distinguished, though he appears to have seen, the foramen of Grew, from the fenestra and fenestella, and these, to which he assigns the same functions, are merely his terms for the hilum. ”

“ In 1718, Vaillant, [13] who rejects the vermicular hypothesis of generation, supposes the influence of the Pollen to consist in an aura, conveyed by the tracheæ of the style to the ovula, which it enters, if I rightly understand him, by the funiculus umbilicalis: at the same time he seems to admit the existence of the aperture in the coat. ”

“ The distinct origins and different directions of the nourishing vessels and channel through which fecundation took place in the ovulum, may still be seen in many of those ripe seeds that are winged, and either present their margins to the placenta, as in Proteaceæ, or have the plane of the wing at right angles to it, as in several Liliaceæ. These organs are visible also in some of those seeds that have their testa produced at both ends beyond the inner membrane, as Nepenthes ”

“ Of the authors referred to, it may be remarked, that those who have most particularly attended to the ovulum externally, have not always examined it at a sufficiently early period, and have confined themselves to its surface: that those who have most minutely examined its internal structure, have trusted too much to sections merely, and have neglected its appearance externally: and that those who have not at all examined it in the early stage have given the most correct account of its surface. ”

“ But it is not only superior to the passage without the reefs, from its being shorter, there are also other advantages: the principal of which are, that the weather is more generally fine; the sea is always perfectly smooth; and wood or water may be procured upon various parts of the coast: with only common attention there is no risk; and, however laboriously the day may be spent, the night is spent without disturbing the crew ”

“ The evil, however, deposits its own atonement: and the succeeding crop, if it escapes a flood, repays the settlers for their previous loss: this it is that emboldens them to persist in their ill-advised temerity. ”

“ The soil of the hills of Cape Clinton is of good quality, but the country at the back of the port appears to be chiefly marshy land. Mr. Hunter sowed orange and lemon seeds in various places in the neighbourhood of the cape; the climate of this part is so well adapted for those trees, that, ff it were so possible to protect them from the fires of the natives, they would soon grow up, and pove a valuable refreshment to voyagers. ”

“ It is used by the natives with success in killing the kangaroo, and is, I believe, more a hunting than a warlike weapon. The size varies from eighteen to thirty inches in length, and from two to three inches broad. The shape is that of an obtuse angle rather than a crescent: one in my possession is twenty-six inches long, its greatest breadth two inches and a half, thickness half an inch, and the angle formed from the centre is 140°. Boomerang is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for want of a more descriptive name. ”

“ This mount is a pile of rugged rocks, towered up to a considerable elevation above the sea, which washes its base: thee stones of the summit being of angular, or conical forms, (apparently basaltic,) whilst the general mass on the slopes or declivities are deeply excavated, furnishing spacious retreats to the natives. I entered one of the caverns (the walls of which were of a decomposing sand-stone,) having a window formed in it by the falling down of a portion of the side rock. The cave was a large, natural chamber, capacious enough to hold conveniently a large tribe of natives ”

“ But the analogy of the female spadix of Cycas to that of Zamia is sufficiently obvious; and from the spadix of Zamia to the fruit-bearing squama of Coniferæ, strictly so called, namely, of Agathis or Dammara, Cunninghamia, Pinus, and even Araucaria, the transition is not difficult. This view is applicable, though less manifestly, also to Cupressinæ; and might even be extended to Podocarpus and Dacrydium. But the structure of these two genera admits likewise of another explanation, to which I have already adverted. ”

“ No time is lost by the delay, for the anchor may be dropped in the ship's immediate track; and, if the cargo consists of live animals, such as horses, cattle, or sheep, grass may be obtained for them from the islands near the anchorage. ”

“ At no very distant period a time will arrive when these very lands, the cultivation of which has caused so much distress to the colony and ruin to individuals, will, by being laid down in grass for the purposes of depasturing cattle, become a considerable source of wealth to their possessors. ”

“ Individuals who, from obstinacy, persist in the cultivation of the low banks of the Hawkesbury, alone suffer from these destructive floods, which have been known to rise in a few hours to the height of eighty feet above the usual level of the river's bed. ”