Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/27

] wood roused the ardour of two of our shooters, who were with us; and they soon got sight of several of these animals in the midst of a meadow watered by a delightful rivulet, but all of them were too shy to be approached.

At length we got on board, greatly fatigued for want of sleep, as we had not closed our eyes for more than forty hours.

29th. The four subsequent days I employed in visiting the environs of the place where we lay at anchor. Toward the south-south-east I found a fine tree, which appeared to me to belong to the family of coniferæ, judging by the disposition of its stamens, and the resinous smell of every part: but I was never able to procure any of its fruit, though I afterwards saw several trees of the same kind. No doubt the season was not yet far enough advanced; and the stamens, which I observed, appeared to have remained ever since the preceding year. I mention this tree, not only on account of the singularity of its leaves for a tree of this family, for they are broad, and deeply indented on their edges, but for their utility in making beer. They afforded a bitter and aromatic extract, which I imagined might be used as that of spruce; and on making a trial of it with malt, I found that I was not mistaken.

This fine tree is often a yard in thickness, and twenty