On our way to the shore in our boat we disturbed two flights of black
swans who flew away at our approach. Having landed at the bottom of the
cove where the Sophia had obtained her cargo, we found the Huon
pine-trees, interspersed with many others of different species, growing
in great profusion, within three yards of the edge of the water, upon a
soil of decomposed vegetable matter, which in many parts was so soft that
we often suddenly sank ankle-deep, and occasionally up to the knees in
it: this swampy nature of the soil is to be attributed to the crowded
state of the trees; for they grow so close to each other as to prevent
the rays of the sun from penetrating to the soil.
The ground is also strewed with fallen trees, the stems of which are
covered with a thick coat of moss, in which seedlings of all the
varieties of trees and plants that grow here were springing up in the
prostrate stem of perhaps their parent tree; and it was not rare to see
large Huon pines of three feet in diameter rooted in this manner on the
trunk of a sound tree of even larger dimensions that had, perhaps, been
lying on the ground for centuries; while others were observed, in
appearance sound, and in shape perfect, and also covered with moss,
which, upon being trod upon, fell in and crumbled away.
The fructification of this tree, so called from the river, which was
named after Captain Huon Kermadie, who commanded L'Esperance under the
order of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, never having been seen, its detection
was matter of much curiosity to Mr. Cunningham, who diligently examined
every tree that had been felled. It was, however, with some difficulty
that he succeeded in finding the flower, which was so minute as almost to
require a magnifying lens to observe it; it is a coniferous tree and was
supposed by Mr. Cunningham to be allied to dacrydium. Several saplings of
this wood were cut for studding-sail booms and oars, as also of the
Podocarpos aspleniifolia, Labillardiere; this latter tree is known to the
colonists by the name of Adventure Bay Pine, and grows on Bruny Island in
Storm Bay; but it is there very inferior in size to those of Pine Cove.
The Carpodontos lucida, or Australian snowdrop, of which Labillardiere
has given a figure in his account of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux's voyage,
was in full flower, and had a most beautiful appearance.
The following is a list of the several species of trees that grow in this
Cove, for which I am in
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