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The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee
page 63 of 327 (19%)
had the satisfaction to see her sail with a cargo of both on June 26th,
eleven days after her arrival.

"It may be imagined that coals were found in great plenty when I mention
that the schooner sailed with forty tons, and that we had only one man
employed to dig the mine. The spot where these coals are found is clear
of trees or bush for the space of many acres, which are covered with a
short tender grass very proper for grazing sheep, the ground rising with
a gradual ascent intersected with valleys on which wood grows in plenty,
sheltered from the winds, forming the most delightful prospect. This
place might serve as a station for the woodcutters and colliers.* (* The
point of land where the colliers were put to work was named Collier's
Point by Colonel Paterson. Newcastle now stands on this site.) It affords
pasture for sheep, its soil in general being good...Dr. Harris and Mr.
Barrallier penetrated to some distance inland and met a native who
followed them for some time and left them. Our native Dick also thought
proper to leave us in an excursion we made with him into the country.
Colonel Paterson discovered some copper and iron ores, the latter
strongly impregnated and rich in metal. The seine was hauled and plenty
of excellent fish caught, particularly mullet, with a fish much
resembling the herring which I am inclined to think go in shoals. On an
island in the harbour a tree is found, the quality of whose timber much
resembles that of the ash, and from the great numbers growing there has
given this name to the island.

"Of this timber I had orders to send a quantity to Sydney, and had
brought out sawyers for that purpose, but as every object could not be at
once accomplished they were employed in the meantime in cutting down and
sawing into planks a tree, the bark of which is much like cork. The
timber...is light, close, and durable, and promises to stand against the
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