A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

most of the myrtle kind; but amidst all this variety, we met with none which bore fruit fit to eat.In many parts the woods are so over-run with supplejacks, that it is scarcely possible to force one'sway amongst them. I have seen several which were fifty or sixty fathoms long.The soil is a deep black mould, evidently composed of decayed vegetables, and so loose that it sinksunder you at every step; and this may be the reason why we meet with so many large trees as we do,blown down by the wind, even in the thickest part of the woods. All the ground amongst the trees iscovered with moss and fern, of both which there is a great variety; but except the flax or hemp plant,and a few other plants, there is very little herbage of any sort, and none that was eatable, that wefound, except about a handful of water-cresses, and about the same quantity of cellery. What DuskyBay most abounds with is fish: A boat with six or eight men, with hooks and lines, caught dailysufficient to serve the whole ship's company. Of this article the variety is almost equal to the plenty,and of such kinds as are common to the more northern coast; but some are superior, and in particularthe cole fish, as we called it, which is both larger and finer flavoured than any I had seen before, andwas, in the opinion of most on board, the highest luxury the sea afforded us. The shell-fish are,muscles, cockles, scallops, cray-fish, and many other sorts, all such as are to be found in every otherpart of the coast. The only amphibious animals are seals: These are to be found in great numbersabout this bay on the small rocks and isles near the sea coast.We found here five different kinds of ducks, some of which I do not recollect to have any whereseen before. The largest are as big as a Muscovy duck, with a very beautiful variegated plumage, onwhich account we called it the Painted Duck; both male and female have a large white spot on eachwing; the head and neck of the latter is white, but all the other feathers as well as those on the headand neck of the drake are of a dark variegated colour. The second sort have a brown plumage, withbright green feathers in their wings, and are about the size of an English tame duck. The third sort isthe blue-grey duck, before mentioned, or the whistling duck, as some called them, from thewhistling noise they made. What is most remarkable in these is, that the end of their beaks is soft,and of a skinny, or more properly, cartilaginous substance. The fourth sort is something bigger thana teal, and all black except the drake, which has some white feathers in his wing. There are but fewof this sort, and we saw them no where but in the river at the head of the bay. The last sort is a gooddeal like a teal, and very common, I am told, in England. The other fowls, whether belonging to thesea and land, are the same that are to be found in common in other parts of this country, except theblue peterel before-mentioned, and the water or wood-hens. These last, although they are numerousenough here, are so scarce in other parts, that I never saw but one. The reason may be, that, as theycannot fly, they inhabit the skirts of the woods, and feed on the sea-beach, and are so very tame orfoolish, as to stand and stare at us till we knocked them down with a stick. The natives may have, ina manner, wholly destroyed them. They are a sort of rail, about the size and a good deal like acommon dunghill hen; most of them are of a dirty black or dark-brown colour, and eat very well in apye or fricassée. Among the small birds I must not omit to particularize the wattle-bird, poy-bird,and fan-tail, on account of their singularity, especially as I find they are not mentioned in thenarrative of my former voyage.The wattle-bird, so called, because it has two wattles under its beak as large as those of a smalldunghill-cock, is larger, particularly in length, than an English black-bird. Its bill is short and thick,and its feathers of a dark lead colour; the colour of its wattles is a dull yellow, almost an orangecolour.The poy-bird is less than the wattle-bird. The feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except those of itsneck, which are of a most beautiful silver-grey, and two or three short white ones, which are on thepinion joint of the wing. Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled, snow-white leathers, calledits poies, which being the Otaheitean word for earrings, occasioned our giving that name to the bird,