James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 228

was the Opinion of everybody onboard that all sorts of European grain fruit Plants &tc. would thrive here, in short was this Country settled by an industrious people they would very soon be supplied not only with the necessaries, but many of the Luxuries of Life. the Sea Bays & Rivers abound with a great Variety of Excellent fish the most of them unknown in England, besides Lobsters which were allowed by every one to be the best they ever had eat. Oysters & many other sorts of shell fish all Excellent in their kind Sea & Water Fowls of all sorts are however in no great plenty those known in Europe are Ducks, Shags, Gannets & Gull all of which were Eat by us & found exceeding good, indeed hardly anything came Amiss to us that could be Eat by Man. Land fowl are likewise in no great & all of them except Quails are I believe unknown in Europe. those are exactly like those we have in England. the Country is certainly destitute of all sorts of beasts either wild or tame except dogs & Rats the former are tame & lived with the People who breed & bring them up for no other purpose than to Eat & rats are so scarce that not only I but many others in the Ship never see one, altho' we have seen some few Seals & once a Sea Lyon upon this Coast yet I believe they are not only very scarce but seldom or ever come ashore for if they did the Natives would certainly find out some Method of Killing them the Skins of which they no doubt would preserve for Cloathing as well as the Skins of Dogs & birds, the only Skins we ever saw among them, but they must sometimes get Whales because many of their Patta Pattoes are made of the bones of some such fish & an Ornament they were at their breast (on which they set great Value) which are supposed to made of the Tooth of a Whale & yet we know of no method or instrument they have to kill these Animals ~ 
in the Woods are plenty of Excellent Timber fit for all purposes except Ships Masts & perhaps upon a Close Examination some might be found not improper for that for that Purpose. There grows spontainously everywhere a Kind of very broad bladed grass like flags of the Nature of Hemp of which might be made the very best of Cordage Canvas &ct. & there are of 2 Sorts one finer that the other of these the Natives make Cloth, rope, Lines, netts &ct. Iron ore is undoubtedly to be found here particularly about Mercury Bay where we found great quantitys of Iron sand, however we met with no Ore of any Sort neither did we ever see any sort of Metal with the Natives. We met with some Stones at Admiralty Bay that appear'd to be Mineral in some degree but Dr Solander was of Opinion that they contain'd no Sort of Metal