Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/69

 COASTS O AUSTIALIA. 15 his clothes, narrowly escaped with his life. Isis. Fortunately he met with no further impediment J,,,,,ry to his return, and reached the tent much fatigued. el--S. We afterwards made an excursion up this river, but from the greater part of the day being spent in searching for the entrance, which is both shoal and intricate, we did not succeed in reaching farther than four miles from its mouth. At the part where we left off our examination, it was about sixty yards wide, and from en to twelve feet deep;bounded on either side by gently rising and well-wooded hills; but the soil was neither rich nor deep. The shoals of the river, which at the entrance were very extensive, were covered with large flights of water-fowl; among which curlews and teals were abundant. Oyster Harbour is plentifully stocked with fish, but we were not successful with the hook, on accouut of the immense number of sharks that were constantly playing about the vessel. A few fish were taken with the seine, which we hauled on the eastern side of the small central island. At this place Captain Vancouver planted and stocked a garden with vegetables, no vestige of which now remained. Boongaree speared a great many fish with his fiz-gig; one that he struck with the boat-hook on the shoals at the entrance of the Eastern River weighed twenty-two Digitized , Goog[e

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