Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/165

 us. As soon as I came to anchor in this bay (of which I have given a plan) I sent my boat ashore to seek for fresh water: but in the evening my men returned, having found none. The next morning I went ashore myself, carrying pickaxes and shovels with me, to dig for water: and axes to cut wood. We tried in several places for water but, finding none after several trials, nor in several miles compass, we left any farther search for it and, spending the rest of the day in cutting wood, we went aboard at night.

The land is of an indifferent height, so that it may be seen 9 or 10 leagues off. It appears at a distance very even; but as you come nigher you find there are many gentle risings, though none steep nor high. It is all a steep shore against the open sea: but in this bay or sound we were now in the land is low by the seaside, rising gradually in within the land. The mould is sand by the seaside, producing a large sort of samphire, which bears a white flower. Farther in the mould is reddish, a sort of sand producing some grass, plants, and shrubs. The grass grows in great tufts as big as a bushel, here and there a tuft: being intermixed with much heath, much of the kind we have growing on our commons in Eng-