Volume I Part 8 (2/2)
THE COCONUT PALM.
The southernmost island of the group differs from Number 4 in being higher and more rocky. Many of the trees here were very large, straight, and branching only near the top. It appeared to me that they would be highly useful as timber, and so regretted being unable to procure specimens, on account of their great height. With the exception of a low sandy portion, overgrown with shrubs and small trees, the remainder of the island is quite free from underwood. Two small clumps of coconut-trees, loaded with fruit, were found on the eastern side of the island, within reach of the spray, in a place where they might have originated from a floating nut or two thrown upon the beach. This is the only instance in which I have seen this useful plant growing wild in any part of Australia, or the islands strictly belonging to it. We succeeded in shooting down a number, and I know no more grateful beverage than the milk of a young coconut, especially under the influence of tropical noonday heat, on an island where there was not a drop of fresh water to be found. As usual the megapodius was plentiful, and one of our party killed six in a few hours. I also shot a fine large crested pigeon, of a species. .h.i.therto considered peculiar to the settled parts of New South Wales, and to which the singularly inappropriate specific name of antarcticus is applied; it thus ranges 380 miles within the tropics.
FITZROY ISLAND.
June 20th.
After anchoring for a short time to form a station, we finally came to under Fitzroy Island, half a mile from the sh.o.r.e. This island is about five miles in circ.u.mference, high and well-wooded, with two peaks, one of which is 861 feet in height. The rock, when exposed, is granitic. The small bay on the western side of the island, where the s.h.i.+p lay, has a steep beach of fragments of dead coral, through which oozes the water of two streamlets, at one of which the s.h.i.+p completed her stock with great facility. Following upwards one of the two branches of the princ.i.p.al stream through a narrow gully, one reaches a small basin-like valley, filled with dense brush, through which it is difficult to pa.s.s, on account of the unusual quant.i.ty of the p.r.i.c.kly Calamus palm. Several trees of the pomegranate (Punica granatum) were met with bearing fruit; as this plant is found wild in India, and here occurred in the centre of a thick brush not likely to have been visited by Europeans, it is probably indigenous. A kind of yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) was found here, and proved good eating. In consequence of this, a party from the s.h.i.+p was sent to dig for more, but, having mistaken the plant, they expended all their time and trouble in rooting up a convolvulus, with small, inedible, and probably cathartic tubers.
FIND A NEW VAMPIRE BAT.
A new species of large fruit-eating bat, or flying-fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) making the third Australian member of the genus, was discovered here. On the wooded slope of a hill I one day fell in with this bat in prodigious numbers, presenting the appearance, while flying along in the bright suns.h.i.+ne, so unusual in a nocturnal animal, of a large flock of rooks. On close approach a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering was heard. Many of the branches were bending under their loads of bats, some in a state of inactivity, suspended by their hind claws, others scrambling along among the boughs, and taking to wing when disturbed. In a very short time I procured as many specimens as I wished, three or four at a shot, for they hung in cl.u.s.ters--but, unless killed outright, they remained suspended for some time--when wounded they are to be handled with difficulty, as they bite severely, and on such occasions their cry reminds one of the squalling of a child. The flesh of these large bats is reported excellent; it is a favourite food with the natives, and more than once furnished a welcome meal to Leichhardt and his little party, during their adventurous journey to Port Essington.
One day we were surprised to see a small vessel approaching the anchorage from the southward. She proved to be a cutter of twenty-five tons, called the Will-o-the-Wisp, fitted out by a merchant in Sydney, and sent in a somewhat mysterious way (so as to ensure secrecy) to search for sandalwood upon the north-east coast of Australia. If found in sufficient quant.i.ty, a party was to be left to cut it, while the vessel returned to Moreton Bay with the news, and communicated with the owner, who was to send a larger vessel to pick it up and convey it at once to the China market.* An inferior kind of sandalwood, the produce of Exocarpus latifolia (but which afterwards turned out to be useless) was met with in several localities--as the Percy Isles, Repulse Bay, Cape Upstart, Palm Islands, etc. At this last place they had much friendly intercourse with the natives, who were liberally treated with presents.
(*Footnote. In 1847 nearly 1000 tons of this wood, procured chiefly from New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, etc. were exported from Sydney to China, where it is burnt with other incense in the temples. The sandalwood trade in these islands gives employment to about six small vessels, belonging to Sydney. In China it realises about 30 pounds per ton.)
AFFRAY WITH NATIVES.
It is supposed that the sight of so many valuable articles had excited the cupidity of these savages, for, one morning, at half-past three o'clock, a party came off in large canoes with outriggers, and boarded the cutter when all hands were below. Their first act was to throw into the cabin and down the fore hatchway some lighted bark, and when the master and one of the crew rushed on deck in a state of confusion, they were instantly knocked on the head with boomerangs and rendered insensible. At this crisis, had it not been for the successful courage of the mate, who cleared the deck with a sword, and allowed the remainder of the crew to come up to his a.s.sistance, the natives would probably have obtained possession of the vessel; as it was the survivors retired in confusion, which was further increased by the discharge among them of a swivel gun, mounted on a pivot amids.h.i.+ps.
At Goold Island, where the Will-o-the-Wisp next went in search of water, they had another affray with the natives, of whom several were shot, but whether justifiably, or from revengeful motives, is known to themselves only. Knowing that the Rattlesnake was upon the coast they proceeded in search of her to obtain surgical and other a.s.sistance, and, meeting two of the surveying boats, they were directed to Fitzroy Island.
Some parts of this account appeared so extraordinary, and others so improbable, that Captain Stanley felt it his duty to report it to the Colonial Government, along with the depositions of the men. Some days afterwards, the master, whose skull had been fractured, being p.r.o.nounced to be in as fair a way to recovery as was possible under the circ.u.mstances the Will-o-the-Wisp sailed for Moreton Bay, which we afterwards learned she reached in safety.
EXAMINE TRINITY BAY.
June 26th.
A party left before daylight in the pinnace and first galley, to examine an opening in Trinity Bay, marked upon King's chart. We found it to present the appearance of a wide creek running through low mangrove swamps, and with the eye could trace its windings for the distance of two or three miles. In all probability this is the embouchure of a considerable freshwater stream, but the shallowness of the head of the bay and the usual bar off the mouth of the supposed river, determined Captain Stanley to return to the s.h.i.+p, as the time which would otherwise have been spent in exploring a useless creek might be devoted to some better purpose.
CROCODILES.
June 29th.
Left Fitzroy Island for an anchorage under Cape Grafton, where we remained for the three following days. While running down to the anchorage we entered a large patch of discoloured water, with a perfectly defined margin, yet the lead showed no difference in the depth or nature of the bottom. It would also appear that since Captain King's survey the water has been shoaling hereabouts. On a small island insh.o.r.e, the skull of a crocodile was found upon the beach, and this reminds me that several of these animals were seen in one of the rivers of Rockingham Bay. The Australian alligator, as it is usually called, is a true crocodile, identical, according to Mr. Gray, with the common Indian species.
ISLET IN TRINITY BAY.
July 3rd.
Ran to the north-west fifteen miles, and, after having anch.o.r.ed midway to form a surveying station, brought up finally under a small unnamed islet in Trinity Bay. This island, viewed from our anchorage on its north-west side, presents the appearance of a ridge connecting two rounded eminences, with a sharp sea-face exposing the stratification of the rock.
This is a micaceous rock, a.s.suming at one place the appearance of mica slate, and at another being a conglomerate, with frequent veins of quartz. The strata, which are often flexuous, or slightly contorted, have a westerly dip of 60 degrees, and the strike is North-North-West and South-South-East. On the windward side there is a long gradual slope, covered with tall coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, among which many quail were found. The sh.o.r.e is fringed with the usual maritime trees and bushes, and an extensive mangrove bed runs out upon the reef in one place. This reef is of great extent, stretching out to windward upwards of a mile, as far as a small rocky isle like a hayc.o.c.k.
LOW ISLES.
On July 7th we anch.o.r.ed to leeward of the Low Isles, in the northern part of Trinity Bay, in eight fathoms, mud, half a mile from the sh.o.r.e, and remained there for the four succeeding days. This small group may be said to consist of three islets. One is low, sandy, and well wooded, about 300 yards in diameter, and is situated at the north-west extremity of a horse-shoe reef, with its concavity to leeward; the other two may be looked upon as merely groves of mangroves on the reef, the roots of which are washed at high-water, except in a few places, where narrow ridges of dead coral have afforded footing for the growth of a samphire-looking plant (Salicornia indica). The sandy islet presents no remarkable feature. The remains of burnt turtle bones indicate the occasional visits of natives from the mainland. A solitary megapodius was shot, but the only other land-birds are a little yellow Zosterops, and the larger ground-dove (Geopelia humeralis).
<script>