With the aid of the spyglass, we could occasionally make out a few, chiefly women, collecting shellfish on the mudflats of the mainland, and their fires were daily seen in every direction.

The employment of firearms against them on several occasions by the crew of the Lord Auckland (under, apparently, justifiable circumstances however) which left the harbour, after repairing her damages, only a few months before our arrival, had probably taught the natives to look with distrust upon white men; and they cautiously avoided our parties.
On Facing Island, our sportsmen found little inland to recompense them for their trouble, except blue mountain parrots and quail; but along the shore, curlews, oystercatchers, and godwits, were plentiful.

One day I killed a bustard (Otis australasiana) weighing 22 1/2 pounds; the goodness of its flesh was duly appreciated by my messmates.

Several small flocks of this noblest of the Australian gamebirds were seen; but, from their frequenting the open country, and being very wary, it is only by stratagem or accident that they can be approached within gunshot.

No land snakes were seen, but sea snakes seem to be frequent in the harbour.
SHARKS AND SHELLS.
Sharks of enormous size appeared to be common; one day we caught two, and while the first taken was hanging under the ship's stern, others made repeated attacks upon it, raising their heads partially out of the water, and tearing off long strips of the flesh before the creature was dead.
Another swam off apparently as active as ever, although a musket ball had been fired through its head.