1802.
March.
than twenty years before our arrival. This brings us back to La Pérouse. He was in Botany Bay in the beginning of 1788; and if he did pass through Torres' Strait, and come round to this coast, as was his intention, it would probably be about the middle or latter end of that year, or between thirteen and fourteen years before the Investigator. My opinion is not favourable to this conjecture; but I have furnished all the data to enable the reader to form his own judgment upon the cause which might have prostrated the woods of these islands.
The soil of that part of Kanguroo Island examined by us, was judged to be much superior to any before seen, either upon the south coast of the continent, or upon the islands near it; with the exception of some portions behind the harbours of King George's Sound. The depth of the soil was not particularly ascertained; but from the thickness of the wood it cannot be very shallow. Some sand is mixed with the vegetable earth, but not in any great proportion; and I thought the soil superior to some of the land cultivated at Port Jackson, and to much of that in our stony counties in England.
Never perhaps had the dominion possessed here by the kanguroo been invaded before this time. The seal shared with it upon the shores, but they seemed to dwell amicably together. It not unfrequently happened, that the report of a gun fired at a kanguroo near the beach, brought out two or three bellowing seals from under bushes considerably further from the water side. The seal, indeed, seemed to be much the most discerning animal of the two; for its actions bespoke a knowledge of our not being kanguroos, whereas the kanguroo not unfrequently appeared to consider us to be seals.
The latitude of the landing place near Kanguroo Head from an observation in the artificial horizon, was 35° 43′ 0″ south; and the longitude of our anchorage by time keepers, 137° 58′ 31″ east. This last, being deduced from observations only four days after the proof had of the time keepers having gone correctly since leaving Port Lincoln, should be as accurate, or very nearly so, as the longitude of that port.
