it requires considerable force to break
them. I have seen the silk of which the web is composed, wound
off into a ball, and think it equal to any I ever saw in the same
state from the silk worm; it is of the same colour, a pale
yellow, or straw colour. None of the gentlemen employed here have
as yet made any particular observations upon the manner in which
this animal is produced, or how they prepare their silk. I have
found upon bushes, on which the web has been hanging in clusters,
a thin shell, something like that wherein the silk-worm prepares
its silk, but of this shape, [The image is included in the HTML
version] and, upon opening them, I have seen a quantity of this silk
within, in which a spider was found wrapped up.

Of reptiles, there are snakes from the smallest size known in
England, to the length of eleven feet, and about as thick as a
man's wrist; and many lizards of different kinds and sizes.

The natives we have seen accompanied by dogs, which appear to
be domesticated the same as ours in Europe; they are of the wolf
kind, and of a reddish colour.

When speaking of birds, I should have mentioned, that some of
our gentlemen have seen in the lagoons and swamps which they have
fallen in with, in their shooting excursions, the black swan,
which is said to have been found in some parts of the west coast
of this country; the extremity of their wings are described to be
white, and all the rest of the plumage black. I have seen one
which has been shot. It answered the above description as to
colour, but the bill was a pale pink or crimson; it was about the
size of a common white swan, and was good meat.

The vast variety of beautiful plants and flowers, which are to
be found in this country, may hereafter afford much entertainment
to the curious in the science of botany; but I am wholly
unqualified to describe the different sorts with which we find
the woods to abound; we sometimes met with a little wild spinach,
parsly, and sorrel, but in too small quantities to expect it to
be of any advantage to the seamen. The flax plant has been found
here in several places, but not in any considerable quantity; I
have heard it reckoned a good kind, but in that also I must
confess my ignorance.

In the infancy of a distant settlement, the want of timber to
carry on the necessary buildings, will be allowed to be a very
great inconvenience; but we were here in the middle of a wood, in
which were trees from the size of