Thursday 21.

The ship being moored I went in a boat to look out for the most convenient place to wood and water at, which I found to be at the west end of the beach:  for the surf, though considerable, was less there than at any other part of the bay.  The water was in a gully about sixty yards from the beach; it was perfectly good but, being only a collection from the rains, the place is always dry in the summer months; for we found no water in it when I was here with Captain Cook in January 1777.  We had very little success in hauling the seine; about twenty small flounders, and flat-headed fish called foxes were all that were taken.

I found no signs of the natives having lately frequented this bay or of any European vessels having been here since the Resolution and Discovery in 1777.  From some of the old trunks of trees then cut down I saw shoots about twenty-five feet high and fourteen inches in circumference.

In the evening I returned on board.

Friday 22.

The next morning, the 22nd, at daylight, a party was sent on shore for wooding and watering under the command of Mr. Christian and the gunner; and I directed that one man should be constantly employed in washing the people’s clothes.  There was so much surf that the wood was obliged to be rafted off in bundles to the boat.  Mr. Nelson informed me that in his walks today he saw a tree in a very healthy state which he measured and found to be thirty-three feet and a half in girt; its height was proportioned to its bulk.

Saturday 23.

The surf was rather greater than yesterday which very much interrupted our wooding and watering.  Nelson today picked up a male opossum that had been recently killed, or had died, for we could not perceive any wound unless it had received a blow on the back where there was a bare place about the size of a shilling.  It measured fourteen inches from the ears to the beginning of the tail which was exactly the same length.

Most of the forest trees were at this time shedding their bark.  There are three kinds, which are distinguished from each other by their leaves, though the wood appears to be the same.  Many of them are full one hundred and fifty feet high; but most of those that we cut down were decayed at the heart.  There are, besides the forest trees, several other kinds that are firm good wood and may be cut for most purposes except masts; neither are the forest trees good for masts, on account of their weight, and the difficulty of finding them thoroughly sound.  Mr. Nelson asserted that they shed their bark every year, and that they increase more from the seed than by suckers.

I found the tide made a difference of full two feet in the height of the water in the lake at the back of the beach.  At high water it was very brackish, but at low tide it was perfectly fresh to the taste, and soap showed no sign of its being the least impregnated.  We had better success in fishing on board the ship than by hauling the seine on shore; for with hooks and lines a number of fine rock-cod were caught.  I saw today several eagles, some beautiful blue-plumaged herons, and a great variety of parakeets.  A few oyster-catchers and gulls were generally about the beach, and in the lake a few wild ducks.