In turning from the view of these complicated dangers to that of the interior country the prospect was but little improved.  Sand and stone, with the slightest covering of vegetation, every where presented themselves on the lower lands; and the many shining parts of the sides of the hills showed them to be still more bare.  The vegetation, indeed, consisted of an abundant variety of shrubs and small plants, and yielded a delightful harvest to the botanists; but to the herdsmen and cultivator it promised nothing:  not a blade of grass, nor a square yard of soil from which the seed delivered to it could be expected back, was perceivable by the eye in its course over these arid plains.

Upon a rock on the side of the hill I found a large nest, very similar to those seen in King George’s Sound.  There were in it several masses resembling those which contain the hair and bones of mice, and are disgorged by the owls in England after the flesh is digested.  These masses were larger, and consisted of the hair of seals and of land animals, of the scaly feathers of penguins, and the bones of birds and small quadrupeds.  Possibly the constructor of the nest might be an enormous owl, and if so, the cause of the bird being never seen, whilst the nests were not scarce, would be from its not going out until dark; but from the very open and exposed situations in which the nests were found, I should rather judge it to be of the eagle kind, and that its powers are such as to render it heedless of any attempts from the natives upon its young.

MONDAY 11 JANUARY 1802

On the following morning I sent the master to examine a small bay or cove lying two miles to the westward of Lucky Bay.  He found it to be capable of receiving one ship, which might be placed in perfect security in the western corner, with anchors out on the off bow and quarter, and hawsers on the other side fast to the shore.  She would thus lie in from 3 to 5 fathoms, almost near enough to lay a stage to the beach.  There was wood for fuel; and at less than a hundred yards from the shore, a lake of fresh water, one mile in circumference, from which a small stream runs into the cove; but another stream, descending from the hills nearer into the western corner, would better suit the purposes of a ship.  This account was from the master, after whom this little but useful discovery was named Thistle’s Cove.  It seems to be much superior to Lucky Bay, where neither wood nor water can be procured without much time and trouble, nor is the shelter so complete.

TUESDAY 11 JANUARY 1802