By the 28th, the watering and wooding of the ship were completed, the gunner had dried all his powder in the sun, and the tents and people were brought on board.  All that the carpenters could do at the ship was to secure the hooding ends to the stem—­shift some of the worst parts in the rotten planking—­and caulk all the bends; and this they had finished.  The wind being south-east on the morning of the 29th [MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER 1802], I attempted to quit the Investigator’s Road by steering out to the northward; but this being found impracticable, from the shallowness of the water, we were obliged to beat out to the south; and so contrary did the wind remain, that not being able to weather the reef at the south-east end of Sweers’ Island, we anchored within it on the evening of the 30th [TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 1802].

I shall now sum up into one view, the principal remarks made during our stay amongst these islands.  The stone most commonly seen on the shores is an iron ore, in some places so strongly impregnated, that I conceive it would be a great acquisition to a colony fixed in the neighbourhood.  Above this is a concreted mass of coral, shells, coral sand, and grains of iron ore, which sometimes appears at the surface, but is usually covered either with sand or vegetable earth, or a mixture of both.  Such appeared most generally to be the consistence of all the islands; but there are many local varieties.

The soil, even in the best parts, is far behind fertility; but the small trees and bushes which grow there, and the grass in some of the less covered places, save the larger islands from the reproach of being absolutely sterile.  The principal woods are eucalyptus and casuarina, of a size too small in general, to be fit for other purposes than the fire; the pandanus grows almost every where, but most abundantly in the sandy parts; and the botanists made out a long list of plants, several of which were quite new to them.

We saw neither quadruped nor reptile upon the islands.  Birds were rather numerous the most useful of them were ducks of several species, and bustards and one of these last, shot by Mr. Bauer, weighed between ten and twelve pounds, and made us an excellent dinner.  The flesh of this bird is distributed in a manner directly contrary to that of the domestic turkey, the white meat being upon the legs, and the black upon the breast.  In the woody parts of the islands were seen crows and white cockatoos; as also cuckoo-pheasants, pigeons, and small birds peculiar to this part of the country.  On the shores were pelicans, gulls, sea-pies, ox-birds, and sand-larks; but except the gulls, none of these tribes were numerous.  The sea afforded a variety of fish; and in such abundance, that it was rare not to give a meal to all the ship’s company from one or two hauls of the seine.  Turtle abound amongst the islands; but it seemed to be a fatality that we could neither peg any from the boat, nor yet catch them on shore.