[Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] by Phillip Parker King]@TWC D-Link bookNarrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] CHAPTER 1 7/21
In walking past a grove of pandanus trees, which grew near the water, we disturbed a prodigious quantity of bronze-winged butterflies, reminding us, in point of number, of the Euploea hamata, at Cape Cleveland in 1819.
It proved to be a variety of the Urania orontes (Godart) of Amboyna and the other Indian Islands.
Mr.Cunningham took advantage of the Dick's boat going to the bottom of the bay, to cut grass: near their landing-place he found some natives' huts; some of which were of more substantial construction than usual, and were thatched with palm leaves: inside of one he found a fishing rod, and a line, five or six fathoms long, furnished with a hook made from a shell, like the hooks of the South Sea Islanders: he also found a small basket, made from the leaf of a palm-tree, lying near the remains of their fireplaces, which were strewed with broken exuviae of their shell-fish repasts. A canoe twelve feet long, similar to the one described at Blomfield's Rivulet (volume 1) was also seen; and, like it, was not more than nine inches wide at the bilge.
A small kangaroo was seen by Mr.Cunningham feeding upon the grass, but fled the moment that it saw him approaching. Nothing more was seen of the natives, nor were any heard, or suspected of being near us; had there been any number the party would have been placed in an awkward situation, for upon landing, they all incautiously, and very imprudently, separated, to amuse themselves as they were inclined, without regarding the situation of the boat, which was soon left dry by the ebbing tide; and it was eight o'clock at night before they succeeded in launching her.
Immediately after its return, for which we had been waiting four hours, we got underweigh, and were only just in time to save the breeze, which carried us out into the offing: after a short calm, the wind gradually freshened from South-South-West, and we steered on under easy sail towards Cape Tribulation. June 19. On passing the cape two reefs were seen to seaward, which had previously escaped our notice. In the afternoon we anchored in ten fathoms, at about half a mile from the north-west end of the reef that stretches for two miles to the northward of the south-westernmost Hope Island; and, as it was low water and the reef uncovered, we walked across it.
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