1773.
May.
however, they were covered with forests, equally intricate and impenetrable as those of Dusky Bay, but containing a greater number of pigeons, parrots, and small birds, which perhaps abandon that rude climate during the cold season, and pass their winter in these milder regions. Oyster-catchers or sea-pies, and various sorts of shags, likewise enlivened the sea shores here, but ducks were extremely scarce. West Bay contains a number of fine coves, each of which affords excellent anchorage; the hills rise gently all round it, covered with shrubs and trees, and many of their summits are clear of woods, but overgrown with a common species of fern, (acrosticum furcatum.) This is likewise the case with many islands in the sound, and great part of the south-east shore of the sound from Cape Koamaroò to East Bay. After collecting a number of new plants, among which was a species of pepper, very much resembling ginger in the taste, and shooting many birds of all sorts, we returned on board late in the evening.
The launch, which had been sent out in the morning to an adjacent cove, in order to cut greens for the ship's company and some grass for our goats and sheep, did not return that day; but staying out all the next likewise, we began to be very uneasy about the twelve people in her, among whom were our third lieutenant, the lieutenant of marines, Mr. Hodges, the carpenter, and the gunner. Our apprehensions were the more just, as the wind and wea-ther
