Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/433

 408 B.

CONTAINING A LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTED DURING CAPTAIN KING'S SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL AND WESTERN COASTS OF AUSTRALIA.

to the establishment of the British Colony at Port Jackson, in the year 1787, the shores of this extensive continent had been visited by very few navigators who have recorded any account of the productions of its Animal Kingdom. The first authentic report that we have, is that of Vlaming, who is celebrated as the first discoverer of that "rara avis," the black swan: next to him followed Dampier, who has handed down to us in his intelligent, although quaint, style, the account of several of the productions of the North-western and Western Coasts; but the harvest was reserved for Banks and Solander, the companions of Cook, whose names are so well sad widely known in the fields of science. These distinguished naturalists were the first collectors upon the Coast of New South Wales; and although their labours were not confined to any particular branch of Natural History, yet Botany appeared to be their chief object, of which the Banksian Herbarium yields ample proof.

Among the collectors of Natural History, in the neighbourhood of the colony, since the year 1787, may be recorded the names of White, Paterson, Collins, Brown, Caley, Lewin, Humphreys, and Jamison; and in this interval the coasts