Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/228

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208
VOYAGE IN SEARCH
[1792.

future time add ſeveral new ſpecies to the claſſes of zoology. A ſpinal vertebra, that was found in the interior part of the country, the body of which was about four inches in diameter, gives reaſon to believe that very large quadrupeds will ſome time be diſcovered here.

A very heavy rain, which overtook us about the middle of the day, obliged us to halt. We ſheltered ourſelves in the hollow trunk of a large tree that was upwards of twenty-four feet in circumference. We attempted to kindle a fire in it after the manner of the New Hollanders, but the ſmoke ſoon drove us from our retreat.

We endeavoured to penetrate into parts which we had not yet viſited. A glade, at which we arrived, ſeemed to conduct us towards the north-eaſt plain. We had only three hours of the day before us. A ſteep aſcent impeded our journey, large trees heaped one upon another obſtructed the path, and the ſhrubs, to which the moiſture that prevails in theſe foreſts, give an uncommonly luxuriant growth, increaſed the difficulties we had to encounter. Amongſt theſe ſhrubs was a beautiful ſpecies of polypodium, the ſtem of which grows to the height of twelve feet.[1]

  1. The reader will eaſily excuſe me for not enumerating by name all the curioſities of natural hiſtory, which I collected during this expedition; eſpecially as I intended to do it in a ſeparate work.