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[Page 269]

265.
May 1770    New South Wales

carried with it no signs of fertility

18. Land this morn very sandy  we could see through our glasses that the sands which lay in great patches of many acres each were moveable  some of them had been lately movd  for trees which stood up in the middle of them were quite green  others of a longer standing had many stumps sticking out of them which had been trees killd by the sand heaping about their roots: few fires were seen: two water snakes swam by the ship they were in all respects like land snakes & beautifully spotted except that they had broad flat tails which probably serve them instead of fins in swimming. in the evening I went out in the small boat but saw few birds of three sorts  Men of War birds (Pelecanus aquilus) Bobies (Pelicanus Sula) & Nectris munda of which last shot one & took up 2 cuttle bones differing from the European ones in nothing but the having a small sharp peg or prickle at one end of them

19. Countrey as sandy & barren as ever  two snakes were seen  a man of war bird  & a small Turtle  at sun set the land appeard in a low bank to the sea over which nothing was seen  so that we imagind it was very narrow & that some deep bay on the other side ran behind it

20. At day break the land in sight terminated in a Sandy Cape behind which a deep bay ran in  across which we could not see, our usual good fortune now again assisted

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