Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/105

] it had served to bring some savages into this bay from the island of Maria. It was made of the bark of trees; in shape nearly resembling that which is represented in Plate XLVI. fig. 2, being as broad, but not so long by more than a third. The pieces of bark, that composed it, were of the same structure as that of the eucalyptus resinifera, but its leaves were much thinner. These pieces had been held together by cords, made of the leaves of grasses, forming a texture of very large meshes, most of which had the form of a pretty regular pentagon.

Just by we saw some limestone rocks, bounding an extensive sandy shore. On its borders we found the remains of a place which had been made by Europeans for sawing wood, the pegs they had used for erecting a tent, and some large logs, on which, it appeared to us, they had placed instruments for making astronomical observations.

The steep hills, which skirt the sandy shore a little farther to the north, had in them caves, which appeared pretty much frequented by the natives, to judge by the black colour they had received from smoke, and the shells of lobsters and other fish which we found there.

Several inscriptions, engraved on the trunks