The joint is contrived by driving three pegs into the end of the log, and by bending them, they are made to enter opposite holes in the part that is to be joined on; and as the pegs cross and bend against each other, they form a sort of elastic connexion, which strongly retains the two together.

When it is used, they sit astride and move it along by paddling with their hands, keeping their feet upon the end of the log, by which they probably guide its course.

Such are the shifts to which the absence of larger timber has reduced these simple savages: they show that man is naturally a navigating animal; and this floating log, which may be called a marine-velocipede, is, I should suppose, the extreme case of the poverty of savage boat-building all round the world.
The island is composed of a rocky basis, covered by a thin layer of sandy soil.

On the summit of the bluff east end of the island was observed one of those immense nests that were seen at King George the Third's Sound, the base of which measured seven feet in diameter.

Whilst examining the nest, some natives were descried on an adjoining island, and as our principal object was to communicate with these people, we immediately re-embarked and sailed towards it.