Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/194

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184
VOYAGE IN SEARCH
[1792.

ing compelled to relinquiſh our intended reſearches.

We ſoon arrived at the borders of a large lake, connected with the ſea by a channel about 120 feet in breadth. We attempted to ford it, but it was too deep about the middle.

Amongſt a great variety of other plants that grew in the neighbouring woods, I obſerved ſeveral ſpecies of a new genus of the pedicularia, very nearly reſembling the polygala. Amongſt the ſhrubs which ornamented the grounds near the ſhore, was a beautiful ſpecies of ſenſitive plant with ſimple leaves, the ſtalk of which was bent into the form of the letter S.

We ſaw a large flock of black ſwans ſailing upon the lake; but they were not within reach of our guns. Some ſmall iſlands were viſible towards S.E. near the oppoſite ſhore of the lake. We killed a number of ſnipes of different kinds while we directed our march towards S.W. in order to arrive at the fartheſt extremity of the lake. The bottom of the lake is here ſo even, that throughout a ſurface of more than fifty toiſes in length, the water is hardly more than a foot and an half deep. It is covered with a prodigious quantity of ſhells, many of which are decayed in conſequence of the length of time they have lain there.

The