In the afternoon we anchored off Round Head and Mr.Kelly came on board to assist me in buoying and examining the channel, which bears his name in my plan, and in which the deepest water in one part is but eight feet.

In order that the cutter might pass through this, for it was the only one that communicated with the harbour, we were obliged to buoy it, since the breadth was not more than thirty-five yards, and only six inches deeper than the cutter's draught of water.
January 19 to 21.
While our people were at dinner, a party of natives came to the verge of Round Head, and remained for some time calling to us.

As soon as we had dined, we landed, with the intention of communicating with them; they had however left the place, and we returned on board without seeing them: the following day, when I was away with the boat sounding the channels towards Betsey's Island, they came down again, but seeing no boat near the vessel they walked round to the Sophia, which was still at anchor near Mount Wellington: we afterwards found that they had been induced to go on board the brig, and were much pleased with their visit, and gratified with the presents which Mr.Kelly gave them.
On the 21st with a breeze from the North-West we got under weigh and passed through Kelly's Channel; but at eleven o'clock the wind fell, and we were obliged to anchor upon the edge of the bank off River Point; we had not, however, to wait long, for the breeze freshened up again, and we arrived at Pine Cove in time to land and examine the place before sunset.
January 21 to 24.
On our way to the shore in our boat we disturbed two flights of black swans who flew away at our approach.

Having landed at the bottom of the cove where the Sophia had obtained her cargo, we found the Huon pine-trees, interspersed with many others of different species, growing in great profusion, within three yards of the edge of the water, upon a soil of decomposed vegetable matter, which in many parts was so soft that we often suddenly sank ankle-deep, and occasionally up to the knees in it: this swampy nature of the soil is to be attributed to the crowded state of the trees; for they grow so close to each other as to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating to the soil.
The ground is also strewed with fallen trees, the stems of which are covered with a thick coat of moss, in which seedlings of all the varieties of trees and plants that grow here were springing up in the prostrate stem of perhaps their parent tree; and it was not rare to see large Huon pines of three feet in diameter rooted in this manner on the trunk of a sound tree of even larger dimensions that had, perhaps, been lying on the ground for centuries; while others were observed, in appearance sound, and in shape perfect, and also covered with moss, which, upon being trod upon, fell in and crumbled away.
The fructification of this tree, so called from the river, which was named after Captain Huon Kermadie, who commanded L'Esperance under the order of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, never having been seen, its detection was matter of much curiosity to Mr.Cunningham, who diligently examined every tree that had been felled.

It was, however, with some difficulty that he succeeded in finding the flower, which was so minute as almost to require a magnifying lens to observe it; it is a coniferous tree and was supposed by Mr.Cunningham to be allied to dacrydium.