combustible kind.  On the point of land that forms the west side of the Cove, and on an elevated spot, a small observatory has been raised under the direction of Lieutenant Dawes, who was charged by the Board of Longitude with the care of observing the expected comet.  The longitude of this observatory is ascertained to be 159 deg. 19’ 30” east from Greenwich, and the latitude 32 deg. 52’ 30” south.  A small house, built by the Lieutenant Governor for himself, forms at present the corner of the parade; the principal street will be carried on at right angles with the front of this building.  Instead of thatch, they now use shingles made from a tree in appearance like a fir, but producing a wood not unlike the English oak.  This, though more secure than thatching, is not enough so for storehouses.  For these, if slate-stone should not be found, tiles must be made of the clay which has been used for bricks.  The principal farm is situated in the next cove to the east of the town, and less than half a mile from it.  When the plan was drawn it contained about nine acres laid down in corn of different kinds.  Later accounts speak of six acres of wheat, eight of barley, and six of other grain, as raised on the public account, and in a very promising way.

Sydney cove lies open to the north-east, and is continued in a south-west direction for near a thousand yards, gradually decreasing from the breadth of about one thousand four hundred feet, till it terminates in a point, where it receives a small stream of fresh water.  The anchorage extends about two thousand feet up the cove, and has soundings in general of four fathoms near the shore, and five, six, or seven, nearer the middle of the channel.  It is perfectly secure in all winds; and for a considerable way up on both sides, ships can lie almost close to the shore:  nor are there, in any part of it, rocks or shallows to render the navigation dangerous.  Such a situation could not fail to appear desireable to a discerning man, whose object it was to establish a settlement, which he knew must for some time depend for support on the importation of the principal necessaries of life.

It is supposed that metals of various kinds abound in the soil on which the town is placed.  A convict, who had formerly been used to work in the Staffordshire lead mines, declared very positively, that the ground which they were now clearing, contains a large quantity of that ore:  and copper is supposed to lie under some rocks which were blown up in sinking a cellar for the public stock of spirituous liquors.  It is the opinion of the Governor himself that several metals are actually contained in the earth hereabouts, and that mines may hereafter be worked to great advantage:  but at present he strongly discourages any search of this kind, very judiciously discerning, that in the present situation of his people, which requires so many exertions of a very different nature, the discovering of a mine would be the greatest evil that could befal