woods are free from underwood of every kind, and the trees are at such a
distance from one another, that the whole country, or at least a great
part of it, might be cultivated without having to cut down a single
tree. We found the soil everywhere, except in the marshes, to be a light
white sand, and produceth a quantity of good grass, which grows in
little tufts about as big as one can hold in one's hands, and pretty
close to one another; in this manner the surface of the ground is
coated. In the woods between the trees, Dr. Solander had a bare sight of
a small animal something like a rabbit, and we found the dung of an
animal which must feed upon grass, and which, we judge, could not be
less than a deer; we also saw the track of a dog, or some such like
animal. We met with some huts and places where the natives had been, and
at our first setting out one of them was seen; the others had, I
suppose, fled upon our approach. I saw some trees that had been cut down
by the natives with some sort of a blunt instrument, and several trees
that were barked, the bark of which had been cut by the same instrument;
in many of the trees, especially the Palms, were cut steps of about 3 or
4 feet asunder for the conveniency of climbing them. We found 2 sorts of
gum, one sort of which is like gum-dragon, and is the same, I suppose,
Tasman took for gum-lac; it is extracted from the largest tree in the
woods.

_Thursday, 3rd._ After this we took water, and went almost to the head
of the Inlet, where we landed and travelled some distance inland. We
found the face of the country much the same as I have before described,
but the land much richer, for instead of sand, I found in many places a
deep black soil, which we thought was capable of producing any kind of
grain. At present it produceth besides timber, as fine meadow as ever
was seen; however, we found it not all like this, some few places were
very rocky, but this, I believe to be uncommon.