Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0292
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[Page 292]
Georges Land
indeed within all parts of his flesh were abundance of maggots of a species of Beetle very common here
Such an advance of putrefaction in 8 days for it was no more since he was shot is almost past credit but what will not a hot climate & plenty of insects do
We had this evening some conversation about an ax which was brought in the morning by Hercules it wanting grinding its make was very different from that of our English ones several gentlemen were of opinion that it was a french one some went so far as to give it as their opinion that some other ship had been here since the dolphin the difficulty however appeard to me at least easily solvd by supposing axes to have been taken in the dolphin as trade in which case old ones might have been bought from an of the make of any countrey for many such I suppose there are in every old iron shop in London
24. Dr Solander & myself went along shore to the eastward in hopes of finding something worth observation by inlarging our ground the notd for about 2 miles the countrey within us was flat & fertile the hills then came very near the waters edge & soon after quite into the sea so that we were obligd to climb over them this barren countrey continued for about 3 miles more when we came to a large flat full of good houses & wealthy looking people here was a river much more considerable than our own it came out of a very deep & beautifull valley & was where we crossd it near 100 yards wide tho not quite at the sea