cover a large tract of land, that ſometimes lies under water.
We found another of the fences above deſcribed on the ſkirt of the foreſt. It was of the ſame conſtruction and height as the former, but twice as long. Within it were broken pieces of drinking veſſels made of the fucus palmatus.
We arrived at the borders of a lake, which is connected with the ſea at flood-tide. Its greateſt length was 750 toiſes, and its breadth 250.
On our return by a more direct road through the woods, we ſaw ſome unfiniſhed huts of the natives. They conſiſted of branches fixed by both ends into the ground, and ſupported the one upon the other, ſo as to form a frame-work of an hemiſpherical form, about four feet and an half in height. The branches were faſtened together with the leaves of a ſpecies of graſs; and the buildings ſeemed to require nothing more in order to be completed, than to receive their coverings of bark, which renders them impenetrable to the rain.
It ſeems that human beings are here either very few in number or in a very ſavage ſtate. Though a great number of the men from both veſſels had penetrated very far into the country, they had not met with a ſingle inhabitant.
The Cape of Van Diemen is ſubject, in conſe-
quence
