in Van Diemen's land. There is a beautiful sandy beach, about two miles long, at the bottom of Adventure Bay, formed to all appearance by the particles which the sea washes from a fine white sandstone. This beach is very well adapted for hauling a seine. Behind it is a plain, with a brackish lake, out of which we caught, by angling, some bream and trout. The parts adjoining the bay are mostly hilly, and are an entire forest of tall trees, rendered almost impassable by brakes of fern, shrubs, &c. The soil on the flat land, and on the lower part of the hills, is sandy, or consists of a yellowish earth, and in some parts of a reddish clay; but further up the hills, it is of a grey tough clay. This country, upon the whole, bears many marks of being very dry, and the heat appears to be great. No mineral bodies, nor stones of any other kind than the white sandstone, were observed by us; nor could we find any vegetables that afforded subsistence for man. The forest-trees are all of one kind, and generally quite straight: they bear clusters of small white flowers. The principal plants observed, are wood-forrel, milk-wort, cudweed, bell-flower, gladiolus, samphire, and several kinds of fern: the only quadruped, a species of opossum, about twice the size of a large rat. The kangaroo, found further northward in New Holland, may also be supposed to inhabit here, as some of the inhabitants had pieces of the skin of that animal. The principal sorts of birds in the woods are brown hawks or eagles, crows, large pigeons, yellowish paroquets, and a species which we called *metacilla cyanea*, from the beautiful azure colour of its head and neck. On the shore were several gulls, black oystercatchers, or sea-pies, and plovers of a stone-colour.

The inhabitants seemed mild and cheerful, with little of that wild appearance that savages in general have. They are almost totally devoid of personal activity or genius, and are nearly upon a par with the wretched natives of Terra del Fuego. They display, however, some contrivance in their method of cutting their arms and bodies in lines of different directions, raised above the surface of the skin. Their indifference for presents, their general inattention, and want of curiosity, were very remarkable, and testified no acuteness of understanding. Their complexion is a dull black, which they sometimes heighten by smearing their bodies, as was supposed, from their leaving a mark behind on any clean substance. Their hair is perfectly woolly, and is clotted with grease and red ochre, like that of the Hottentots. Their noses are broad and full, and the lower part of the face projects considerably. Their eyes are of a moderate size, and though they are not very quick or piercing, they give the countenance a frank, cheerful, and pleasing cast. Their teeth are not very white, nor well set, and their mouths are too wide; they wear their beards long, and clotted with paint. They are, upon the whole, well proportioned, though their belly is rather protuberant. Their favourite attitude is to stand with one side forward, and one hand grasping across the back, the opposite arm, which, on this occasion, hangs down by the side that projects.