This expedient is adopted in many parts of the continent; it was observed by Lieutenant Oxley, R.N., the surveyor-general of New South Wales, in his journey on the banks of the Lachlan River: the same was also seen by me on several parts of the North-West Coast; and, from its being used on the South-East, South-West, and North-West Coasts, it may be concluded to be the practice throughout the country.
While waiting for an opportunity of leaving this harbour, Mr.Roe assisted me in making a survey of the entrance, in the hope of finding it more available for large ships; but in vain; for ships drawing more than twelve feet water cannot pass the bar.

The rise and fall of the tide is not only very inconsiderable, but also very irregular; under some circumstances we found that it rose three feet, but this was very unusual.
Our gentlemen made several excursions into the country in various directions, in the hope of meeting with natives, but not the least vestige of their immediate presence was found; they were not however far from us, for the smokes of their fires were seen every evening; probably the fear of punishment kept them away, as they had formerly made rather a mischievous attack upon some of the Emu's crew.
No marks were left of the ship Elligood's garden, which Captain Flinders found at the entrance of Oyster Harbour;* but a lapse of sixteen years will in this country create a complete revolution in vegetation; which is here so luxuriant and rapid that whole woods may have been burnt down by the natives, and grown again within that space of time; and it may be thus that the Elligood's garden is now possessed by the less useful but more beautiful plants and shrubs of the country.
(*Footnote.

Flinders Terra Australis volume 1 page 55.) Excepting the sea-fowl, which consisted of geese, wild ducks, teals, curlews, divers, sea-pies, gulls, and terns, very few birds were seen, and those chiefly of the parrot and cockatoo tribe; a species of the latter was noticed of a rich black plumage, and very like the black cockatoo of New South Wales.

Kangaroos from their traces must be numerous, but only a very few were noticed; the only reptile that was found was a black snake, which Mr.Cunningham saw for a moment as it glided past him.

This gentleman made a large collection of seeds and dried specimens from the vast variety of beautiful plants and flowers with which nature has so lavishly clothed the hills and plains of this interesting country.
A small spot of ground near the tent was dug up and enclosed with a fence, in which Mr.Cunningham sowed many culinary seeds and peach-stones; and on the stump of a tree, which had been felled by our wooding party, the name of the vessel with the date of our visit was inscribed; but when we visited Oyster Harbour three years and a half afterwards, no signs remained of the garden, and the inscription was scarcely perceptible, from the stump of the tree having been nearly destroyed by fire.
A little without the east entrance of the harbour, we saw one of those prodigious large nests which Captain Flinders observed near Point Possession; it was built on the summit of an almost inaccessible rock, exposed to the South-West winds; it measured four feet in diameter at the top, and nearly seven feet at the base: it appeared to have been deserted for some time, as the branches and sea-weed, with which it was made, were strewed about the rock.