Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 by John MacGillivray (recommended reading txt) 📖

the ship while approaching the island, quite resembled a flock of rooks. Here, as elsewhere on the mangrove-clad islands, a large honeysucker (Ptilotis chrysotis) filled the air with its loud and almost incessant, but varied and pleasing notes-I mention it, because it is the only bird we ever met with on the north-east coast of Australia which produced anything like a song.

CAPE MELVILLE.

August 21st.

We ran to the North-East about twenty-eight miles, and anchored off Cape Melville, a remarkable granitic promontory; here the Great Barrier Reef closely approaches the coast, being distant only ten miles, and visible from the ship. A few miles to the south some pine-trees were seen on the ridges, as had previously been noticed by Cunningham, during King's Voyage. They appeared to be the same kind as that formerly alluded to at the Percy Isles, in which case this useful tree has a range on the north-east coast of 500 miles of latitude, being found as far south as Port Bowen.

Next day we shifted our berth to a more secure anchorage under the neighbouring Pipon Islets, where the Bramble joined us in the evening. The schooner had been sent on in advance of the ship to the northward nearly a month before, in order to be at the head of Princess Charlotte's Bay during the first week in August, according to an arrangement made by Captain Stanley with Mr. Kennedy, but no signs of the overland expedition were met with during ten days spent at the rendezvous.*

(*Footnote. We afterwards learned that it was not until the middle of October (or two months afterwards) that Kennedy's party reached the latitude of Princess Charlotte Bay, at a considerable distance too, from the coast.)

While at this anchorage, the Bramble, being in want of water, filled up at a small stream, inside of Cape Melville, assisted by some of our boats and people. The party so employed was one day attacked by a number of natives, but, the usual precaution of having sentries posted and a guard of marines close at hand prevented the loss of life on our part.

PELICAN ISLAND.

August 28th.

After a run of 45 miles, we reached Pelican Island, the survey of the space thus rapidly gone over being left to Lieutenant Yule and the Bramble. The island is rather more than a quarter of a mile in length, with a large reef to windward; it is low and sandy, covered with coarse grass, and a bushy yellow-flowered Sida. Great numbers of birds frequent this place; of these the pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) are the most remarkable, but, incubation having ceased, they were so wary that it was not without some trouble that two were killed out of probably a hundred or more. A pair of sea-eagles had their nest here, placed on a low bush, an anomaly in the habits of the bird to be accounted for by the disappearance of the two clumps of trees, mentioned by King as formerly existing on the island, and the unwillingness of the birds to abandon the place. The shell collectors picked up nothing of consequence, but the sportsmen met with great success. On the 29th, about twenty brace of quail and as many landrail were shot, in addition to many oyster-catchers, plovers, godwits, and sandpipers. Shooting for the pot is engaged in with a degree of eagerness commensurate with its importance, now that our livestock has been exhausted, and we have little besides ship's provisions to live upon. Three turtles, averaging 250 pounds weight, were caught by a party sent for the purpose of searching for them, and it was supposed that one or two others which had come up to lay escaped detection from the darkness of the night.

CLAREMONT GROUP.

On August 31st, we removed to an anchorage under Number 5 of the Claremont group, and remained there during the following day. The island is about two-thirds of a mile in circumference, low and sandy, with a large reef extending to windward. The island is thinly covered with coarse grass and straggling bushes, with one large thicket containing a few trees, of which the tallest is a solitary Mimusops. We found quail here in great plenty, and they afforded good sport to a First of September shooting party, provided with a setter. At length the poor quail had their quarters so thoroughly beaten up, that several, in attempting to escape from the island, were observed to fall into the water from sheer exhaustion. Nor did the birds receive all the benefit of the shot, for Captain Stanley, while observing with the theodolite, became unwittingly a target for a juvenile shooter; but, fortunately, no damage was done. Some turtles were seen at night, but they were too wary to be taken. I found several nests with eggs, by probing in all the likely places near their tracks with my ramrod; in passing through an egg, the end of the rod becomes smeared with the contents, and comes up with a little sand adhering to it, directing one where to dig.

Number 6 of the Claremont group was next visited. This, which is only a quarter of a mile in length, is situated on the lee side of an extensive reef. It is quite low, being composed of heaped-up fragments of shells and coral, overrun with a suffruticose Sida, and stunted bushes of Clerodendrum and Premna, with a glossy-leaved euphorbiaceous plant occasionally forming small thickets. Seafowl and waders were very numerous, but the breeding season was over. Landrail existed in such great numbers that upwards of fifty were shot.

I cannot see the propriety of considering the sandbank, marked Number 7, as a member of the Claremont group, as, at high-water, it is a mere strip of sand 200 yards in length, with a few plants of Salsola on the highest part.

NIGHT ISLAND.

On September 8th, we anchored to the westward of the north end of Night Island, a mile off shore, and remained there for the two succeeding days. This island is two miles in length, and half a mile in breadth, surrounded by a narrow reef of dead coral and mud. With the exception of a very narrow portion fronted by a sandy beach, the place is densely covered with mangroves. A sandy portion, of about five acres in extent, is thickly covered with bushes and small trees, of which the most conspicuous is a Bombax or cotton-tree, 20 to 30 feet in height, with leafless horizontal branches bearing both flowers and fruit. Numbers of the Torres Strait Pigeon (Carpophaga luctuosa) crossed over from the mainland towards evening to roost; and at that time, and early in the morning, great havoc was usually made among them. Even this small spot produced a fine white, brown-banded Helix, not found elsewhere-it occurred on the branches of the cotton-trees.

SHERRARD ISLES.

Three days afterwards we ran to the northward ten miles, and anchored under the Sherrard Isles, where our stay was protracted until the 16th by blowing weather. These islets are two in number, a quarter of a mile apart, surrounded and connected by a reef. One is 120 yards in length, sandy, and thinly covered with coarse grass and maritime plants, with a few bushes; the other is only 30 yards across, and is covered by a clump of small trees of Pemphis acida and Suriana maritima, appearing at a distance like mangroves.

A small low wooded islet off Cape Direction, where I landed for a few hours, was found to be composed entirely of dead coral with thickets of mangrove and other bushes, and presented no feature worthy of further notice. We were detained at an anchorage near Cape Weymouth for seven days by the haziness of the weather, which obscured distant points essential to the connexion of the survey.

PIPER ISLETS.

After having anchored once for the night under the lee of reef e of King's chart-one of the most extensive we had hitherto seen, being fourteen miles in length-on September 26th, the ship anchored under the largest of the Piper Islets.

This group consists of four low bushy and wooded islets, situated on two reefs separated by a deep channel. The larger of the two on the south-eastern reef, off which the ship lay, is about half a mile in circumference. The trees are chiefly a kind of Erythrina, conspicuous from its light-coloured trunk and leafless branches; one of the most abundant plants is a Capparis, with long drooping branches, occasionally assisted by a Cissus and a Melotria, in forming small shady harbours. In the evening, vast numbers of white pigeons came over from the mainland to roost, and of course, all the fowling-pieces were put in requisition. Some deep pits dug in the centre of the island were perfectly dry, and are probably so during the latter half of the dry season, or after the month of July. On this island we observed the remains of a small establishment for curing trepang-a large seaslug found on the reefs and in shoal water, constituting a valuable article of commerce in the China market, where in a dried state it fetches, according to quality, from 5 to 200 pounds a ton. This establishment had been put up by the crew of a small vessel from Sydney, and several such have at various times made voyages along this coast and in Torres Strait, collecting trepang and tortoiseshell, the latter procured from the natives by barter.

YOUNG ISLAND.

September 28th.

On our way to the northward today, we passed Young Island, of King, which had been previously examined in one of our boats, and found to be merely a reef covered at high-water. Twenty-nine years before it was an embryo islet with two small trees upon it. And as the subject of the rate of increase of a coral reef, and of the formation of an island upon it, is a subject of interest and of great practical importance, I give below in a note* two records of the former appearance of Young Island.

(*Footnote. "...Passed at about three-quarters of a mile to the northward of a small rocky shoal, on which were two small trees. This particular is recorded as it may be interesting at some future time, to watch the progress of this islet, which is now in an infant state; it was named on the occasion Young Island." Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia, performed between the years 1818 and 1822, by Captain P.P. King, R.N., volume 1 page 226. Its appearance in 1839 is described as "an elevated reef, with one small mangrove growing on the highest part." Stokes' Voyage of the Beagle volume 1 page 57.)

September 29th.

Passing inside of Haggerstone Island, we rounded Sir Everard Home's group and anchored under Sunday Island, where the Bramble joined us after a month's absence. This is a small, high, rocky island, of flesh-coloured compact felspar. On one side is a large patch of brush with some mangroves and a coral reef.

BIRD ISLES.

A few days afterwards we ran down to the Bird Isles, and anchored. They are three low, wooded islets, one detached from the other two, which are situated on the margin of a circular reef.

NATIVES IN DISTRESS.

On the north-west island we saw a small party of natives from the mainland, consisting of two men and a boy, in great distress from want of water, until Lieutenant Yule kindly supplied their wants. They had been wind-bound here for several days, the weather for some time previously having been too boisterous to admit of attempting to reach the shore, although only a few miles distant, in their split and patched-up canoe. This was of small size, the