Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake Volume I Part 8

The seine was frequently hauled upon the beach with great success--one evening, through its means, in addition to plenty of fish, no less than five kinds of star-fishes, and twelve of crustacea, several of which are quite new, were brought on sh.o.r.e.

Among the plants of the island the most important is a wild species of plantain or banana, afterwards found to range along the North-East coast and its islands as far as Cape York. Here I saw for the first time a species of Sciadophyllum, one of the most singular trees of the eastern coastline of tropical Australia; a slender stem, about thirty feet in height, gives off a few branches with immense digitate dark and glossy leaves and long spike-like racemes of small scarlet flowers, a great resort for insects and insect-feeding birds.

COMMUNICATION WITH NATIVES STOPPED.

Soon after the s.h.i.+p had come to an anchor, some natives came off in their canoes and paid us a visit, bringing with them a quant.i.ty of sh.e.l.lfish (Sanguinolaria rugosa) which they eagerly exchanged for biscuit. For a few days afterwards we occasionally met them on the beach, but at length they disappeared altogether, in consequence of having been fired at with shot by one of two of the young gentlemen of the Bramble, on a shooting excursion, whom they wished to prevent from approaching too closely a small village, where they had their wives and children. Immediate steps were taken, in consequence, to prevent the recurrence of such collisions, when thoughtless curiosity on one side is apt to be promptly resented on the other, if numerically superior in force. I saw nothing in the appearance of these natives to distinguish them from those of Goold Island, and the canoes are the same. The men had large prominent cicatrices on the shoulders, and across the breast and belly, the septum of the nose was perforated, and none of the teeth had been removed. I saw no weapons, and some rude armlets were their only ornaments.

THE BARNARD ISLES.

On June 6th we ran to the northward 15 1/2 miles, and anch.o.r.ed at noon under Number 3 of the Barnard Isles, a group consisting of six high rocky wooded isles, the two southernmost of which are separated from the rest by an interval of four miles. I landed upon the two largest (1 and 3 of the charts) on the first only once. I there found nothing of much interest, except some very thick beds of conglomerate superimposed upon a compact basaltic-looking rock. Number 3, on the other hand, consists of mica slate, much contorted, and altered from its usual appearance, and containing lead ore (galena) with several veins of quartz, one of which, about two feet in thickness, traverses the island from side to side.

BOTANY OF THE BARNARD ISLES.

The islands of the North-East coast of Australia hitherto and subsequently visited during the survey, afford all the gradations between the simplest form of a sandbank upon a coral reef scantily covered with gra.s.s, a few creeping plants and stunted bushes on one hand--and on the other a high, rocky, well-wooded island with an undulating succession of hills and valleys. In those of the latter cla.s.s, to a certain extent only in the islands of Rockingham Bay, but in a very striking degree in those to the northward, there is so great a similarity in the vegetation, that an ill.u.s.tration of the botany may be taken from one of the Barnard Isles, Number 3--exhibiting what may be termed an Indo-Australian Flora.

The upper margin of the coral beach is overrun with Ipomoea maritima, a large purple-flowered Bossiaea, and some other leguminous plants, of which the handsomest is Canvallia baueriana, a runner with large rose-coloured flowers. To these succeeds a row of bushes of Scaevola koenigii, and Tournefortia argentea, with an occasional Guettarda speciosa, or Morinda citrifolia, backed by thickets of Paritium tiliaceum, and other shrubs supporting large Convolvulaceae, vine-like species of Cissus; Guilandina bonduc, a p.r.i.c.kly Caesalpinia, Deeringia coelosioides, and a variety of other climbers. Penetrating this shrubby border, one finds himself in what in New South Wales would be called a brush or scrub, and in India a jungle, extending over the greater part of the island. Overhead are trees of moderate size, whose general character is const.i.tuted by a nearly straight stem, seldom branching except near the top, and furnished with glossy dark-green leaves. Interspersed with them there are many which attain an enormous size, as in the case of a Hernanda, a Castanospermum, two fabaceous trees, and others of which neither flowers nor fruit were observed. Two palms, Seaforthia elegans, and Livistona inermis, also occur here. By far the most remarkable vegetable productions are the larger kinds of climbers. The princ.i.p.al of these, with a leafless and almost branchless cable-like stem, sometimes two or three hundred yards in length, rises over the summits of the tallest trees, and connects one with another in its powerful folds, occasionally descending to the ground. Another climber, Lestibudesia arborescens, rises by its slender stems to the tops of the trees, hiding them in its cascade-like ma.s.ses and graceful festoons of exuberant foliage. Besides several other exogenous woody climbers, of which a very remarkable one is a Bauhinia, with a compressed stem spirally twisted round its axis--the most interesting is Calamus australis, rising in a clump, then arching along the ground and from tree to tree in a similar manner to Flagellaria indica, here also abundant. Among the other plants of these brushes, are the curious Dracontium polyphyllum, with large simple and pinnatifid leaves, creeping like ivy up the trunks and lower branches of the trees--parasitical Loranthaceae, with long dependent tufts of rush-like leaves--enormous ma.s.ses of Acrostic.u.m alcicorne and A.

grande, with an occasional Hoya carnosa, Dendrobium, or other epiphyte.

When the soil is rich Caladium macrorhizon grows gregariously in shady places, and h.e.l.lenia coerulea on their margins--and among stones and sometimes on trees, tufts of Grammitis australis spread out their large and handsome undivided fronds.

VICTORIA RIFLE-BIRD.

Two species of rat occur here--one is the large bandicoot of India, Mus giganteus, doubtless introduced by some wrecked vessel, the other is the pretty little Mus indicus, found on all the islands of the north-east coast and Torres Strait. Among the birds, we found numbers of the Megapodius, always a welcome addition to our bill of fare; but our greatest prize was a new and splendid rifle-bird, which Mr. Gould has since described from my specimens and named Ptiloris victoriae, as a mark of respect and grat.i.tude for the patronage bestowed upon his great work on the Birds of Australia, in the forthcoming supplement to which it will be figured along with some other novelties of the Voyage of the Rattlesnake.

Before taking leave of the natural history of the Barnard Group, I must not omit a pretty b.u.t.terfly inhabiting the densest parts of the brush; it is the Hamadryas zoilus of the Voyage of the Astrolabe, erroneously supposed in that work to be a native of New Zealand.

EXAMINE A NEW RIVER.

One day I crossed over to the mainland in a boat sent for the purpose of examining a small river seen there to open upon a long sandy beach. We found a depth of four feet on the bar at low-water, so had no difficulty in entering--at a quarter of a mile from the mouth the water was quite fresh. We ascended about two miles and a half, when it became necessary to return on account of the shoalness of the stream, the boat* having grounded repeatedly. A party of about twenty natives made their appearance as soon as we entered the river, and after making ineffectual and repeated attempts to induce us to land, two or three of their number followed us along the bank, while the others made a straight course so as to cut off the windings and meet us at our turning place. The current here ran one and a half knots, but the quant.i.ty of water was trifling and the channel throughout very narrow, at times sweeping under the bank, so as not to allow room for the oars. At first the river was fringed with mangroves, afterwards with dense brush. The natives followed us down until we anch.o.r.ed for dinner in one of the reaches, when they all left on hearing the report of my gun while shooting on sh.o.r.e. They were painted with red and white, two of them being smeared all over with the former colour, mixed up with some greasy substance. They seemed peaceably disposed, as we saw no arms among them, and they approached close enough to take biscuit from our hands.

(*Footnote. Our first cutter, very serviceable on such occasions from her light draught; with fourteen men, arms, provisions, and stove for cooking, etc. she drew only a foot of water.)

NATIVE VILLAGE.

Near the mouth we again landed for half an hour, and found a cl.u.s.ter of three or four dome-shaped huts, large and roomy, of neat construction, covered with sheets of melaleuca bark, and having one, sometimes two entrances. Some fis.h.i.+ng nets, similar to those used at Moreton Bay, were seen. The men retired into the bush when we landed, nor would they come out to me when I advanced alone towards them, in order to look at the huts. We anch.o.r.ed for the night under Number 1 of the Barnard Isles.

Megapodii were here very plentiful, and about daylight very noisy, running about in all directions, repeating their loud call of chro-co--chro-co. Some of the bushes presented a fine show of the scarlet flowers of Disemma coccinea, a kind of pa.s.sion-flower, before only found at Endeavour River by Sir Joseph Banks, during Cook's first voyage. In the morning we returned to the s.h.i.+p.

On June 12th, while pa.s.sing a small opening in the land, a little to the northward of Double Point, the Asp was observed on sh.o.r.e with a signal for a.s.sistance, which was immediately sent, when she was got off without damage. At this place, as Lieutenant Simpson informed me, a boomerang was obtained from the natives; we had not before observed this singular weapon upon the north-east coast, and its use is quite unknown on the north coast from Cape York to Port Essington. This one too was painted green, a colour which I never heard of elsewhere among the Australians, whose pigments are black, white, yellow, and red.

Near this place, while tacking close in sh.o.r.e, a native dog was seen by Lieutenant Simpson, in chase of a small kangaroo, which, on being close pressed, plunged into the water and swam out to sea, when it was picked up by the boat, leaving its pursuer standing on a rock gazing wistfully at its intended prey, until a musket ball, which went very near its mark, sent it off at a trot. The kangaroo lived on board for a few days, and proved to const.i.tute quite a new kind, closely allied to Halmaturus thetidis.

FRANKLAND ISLES.

We anch.o.r.ed in the evening off the northern extreme of Frankland Isle, Number 4 about three quarters of a mile off sh.o.r.e. At night a party was sent on sh.o.r.e to look for turtles, but, after remaining there for three hours, having walked several times round the island, they returned without having seen the slightest trace of these animals.

The Frankland Group consists of four islands, two of which are very small, and each of the other two (1 and 4) about a mile in length. To these may or may not be added another high and much larger detached island situated about five miles to the North-West, about midway between the remainder of the group and the mainland. Number 4 is formed of two wooded rocky eminences at its extremes, connected by level ground, consisting of dead coral and sand, thickly covered with trees at one part, and scattered bushes at another. The low woody portion of this island is strewed with flat blocks of the same kind of recent coral conglomerate that occurs in situ on the beach, also with quant.i.ties of pumice twelve feet above high-water mark of spring tides. There is little underwood, the trees overhead forming a shady grove. Herbaceous plants are few in number--of the others I shall only mention a wild nutmeg, Myristica cimicifera, not, however, of any commercial importance.

Sh.e.l.l-COLLECTING.

The Torres Strait rat was exceedingly plentiful here, in hollow trees and logs, also about the roots of the panda.n.u.s trees and under blocks of coral. Our dogs caught many, as they do not show so much agility as is usual in the genus. The princ.i.p.al bird is the megapodius--a gecko, and another small lizard are abundant--of landsh.e.l.ls we found a new Scarabus and a small brown Helix, in great abundance under blocks of coral, and on the trunks and branches of trees, a pretty Cyclostoma (C. vitreum) formerly found by the French in New Caledonia, also a new and pretty Helix, remarkable for its angular sinuated mouth and conical spire--this last has been named H. macgillivrayi by Professor E. Forbes. The reef furnished many radiata and crustacea, and as usual the sh.e.l.l collectors--consisting of about one-half the s.h.i.+p's company, reaped a rich harvest of cowries, cones, and spider sh.e.l.ls, amounting to several hundredweight. One day I was much amused when, on hailing one of our men whom I observed perched up among the top branches of a tree, and asking whether it was a nest that he had found, the answer returned was: "Oh no, Sir, its these geotrochuses that I am after."

THE COCONUT PALM.

The southernmost island of the group differs from Number 4 in being higher and more rocky. Many of the trees here were very large, straight, and branching only near the top. It appeared to me that they would be highly useful as timber, and so regretted being unable to procure specimens, on account of their great height. With the exception of a low sandy portion, overgrown with shrubs and small trees, the remainder of the island is quite free from underwood. Two small clumps of coconut-trees, loaded with fruit, were found on the eastern side of the island, within reach of the spray, in a place where they might have originated from a floating nut or two thrown upon the beach. This is the only instance in which I have seen this useful plant growing wild in any part of Australia, or the islands strictly belonging to it. We succeeded in shooting down a number, and I know no more grateful beverage than the milk of a young coconut, especially under the influence of tropical noonday heat, on an island where there was not a drop of fresh water to be found. As usual the megapodius was plentiful, and one of our party killed six in a few hours. I also shot a fine large crested pigeon, of a species. .h.i.therto considered peculiar to the settled parts of New South Wales, and to which the singularly inappropriate specific name of antarcticus is applied; it thus ranges 380 miles within the tropics.

FITZROY ISLAND.

June 20th.

After anchoring for a short time to form a station, we finally came to under Fitzroy Island, half a mile from the sh.o.r.e. This island is about five miles in circ.u.mference, high and well-wooded, with two peaks, one of which is 861 feet in height. The rock, when exposed, is granitic. The small bay on the western side of the island, where the s.h.i.+p lay, has a steep beach of fragments of dead coral, through which oozes the water of two streamlets, at one of which the s.h.i.+p completed her stock with great facility. Following upwards one of the two branches of the princ.i.p.al stream through a narrow gully, one reaches a small basin-like valley, filled with dense brush, through which it is difficult to pa.s.s, on account of the unusual quant.i.ty of the p.r.i.c.kly Calamus palm. Several trees of the pomegranate (Punica granatum) were met with bearing fruit; as this plant is found wild in India, and here occurred in the centre of a thick brush not likely to have been visited by Europeans, it is probably indigenous. A kind of yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) was found here, and proved good eating. In consequence of this, a party from the s.h.i.+p was sent to dig for more, but, having mistaken the plant, they expended all their time and trouble in rooting up a convolvulus, with small, inedible, and probably cathartic tubers.

FIND A NEW VAMPIRE BAT.

A new species of large fruit-eating bat, or flying-fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) making the third Australian member of the genus, was discovered here. On the wooded slope of a hill I one day fell in with this bat in prodigious numbers, presenting the appearance, while flying along in the bright suns.h.i.+ne, so unusual in a nocturnal animal, of a large flock of rooks. On close approach a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering was heard. Many of the branches were bending under their loads of bats, some in a state of inactivity, suspended by their hind claws, others scrambling along among the boughs, and taking to wing when disturbed. In a very short time I procured as many specimens as I wished, three or four at a shot, for they hung in cl.u.s.ters--but, unless killed outright, they remained suspended for some time--when wounded they are to be handled with difficulty, as they bite severely, and on such occasions their cry reminds one of the squalling of a child. The flesh of these large bats is reported excellent; it is a favourite food with the natives, and more than once furnished a welcome meal to Leichhardt and his little party, during their adventurous journey to Port Essington.

One day we were surprised to see a small vessel approaching the anchorage from the southward. She proved to be a cutter of twenty-five tons, called the Will-o-the-Wisp, fitted out by a merchant in Sydney, and sent in a somewhat mysterious way (so as to ensure secrecy) to search for sandalwood upon the north-east coast of Australia. If found in sufficient quant.i.ty, a party was to be left to cut it, while the vessel returned to Moreton Bay with the news, and communicated with the owner, who was to send a larger vessel to pick it up and convey it at once to the China market.* An inferior kind of sandalwood, the produce of Exocarpus latifolia (but which afterwards turned out to be useless) was met with in several localities--as the Percy Isles, Repulse Bay, Cape Upstart, Palm Islands, etc. At this last place they had much friendly intercourse with the natives, who were liberally treated with presents.

(*Footnote. In 1847 nearly 1000 tons of this wood, procured chiefly from New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, etc. were exported from Sydney to China, where it is burnt with other incense in the temples. The sandalwood trade in these islands gives employment to about six small vessels, belonging to Sydney. In China it realises about 30 pounds per ton.)

AFFRAY WITH NATIVES.

It is supposed that the sight of so many valuable articles had excited the cupidity of these savages, for, one morning, at half-past three o'clock, a party came off in large canoes with outriggers, and boarded the cutter when all hands were below. Their first act was to throw into the cabin and down the fore hatchway some lighted bark, and when the master and one of the crew rushed on deck in a state of confusion, they were instantly knocked on the head with boomerangs and rendered insensible. At this crisis, had it not been for the successful courage of the mate, who cleared the deck with a sword, and allowed the remainder of the crew to come up to his a.s.sistance, the natives would probably have obtained possession of the vessel; as it was the survivors retired in confusion, which was further increased by the discharge among them of a swivel gun, mounted on a pivot amids.h.i.+ps.

At Goold Island, where the Will-o-the-Wisp next went in search of water, they had another affray with the natives, of whom several were shot, but whether justifiably, or from revengeful motives, is known to themselves only. Knowing that the Rattlesnake was upon the coast they proceeded in search of her to obtain surgical and other a.s.sistance, and, meeting two of the surveying boats, they were directed to Fitzroy Island.

Some parts of this account appeared so extraordinary, and others so improbable, that Captain Stanley felt it his duty to report it to the Colonial Government, along with the depositions of the men. Some days afterwards, the master, whose skull had been fractured, being p.r.o.nounced to be in as fair a way to recovery as was possible under the circ.u.mstances the Will-o-the-Wisp sailed for Moreton Bay, which we afterwards learned she reached in safety.

EXAMINE TRINITY BAY.

June 26th.

A party left before daylight in the pinnace and first galley, to examine an opening in Trinity Bay, marked upon King's chart. We found it to present the appearance of a wide creek running through low mangrove swamps, and with the eye could trace its windings for the distance of two or three miles. In all probability this is the embouchure of a considerable freshwater stream, but the shallowness of the head of the bay and the usual bar off the mouth of the supposed river, determined Captain Stanley to return to the s.h.i.+p, as the time which would otherwise have been spent in exploring a useless creek might be devoted to some better purpose.

CROCODILES.

June 29th.

Left Fitzroy Island for an anchorage under Cape Grafton, where we remained for the three following days. While running down to the anchorage we entered a large patch of discoloured water, with a perfectly defined margin, yet the lead showed no difference in the depth or nature of the bottom. It would also appear that since Captain King's survey the water has been shoaling hereabouts. On a small island insh.o.r.e, the skull of a crocodile was found upon the beach, and this reminds me that several of these animals were seen in one of the rivers of Rockingham Bay. The Australian alligator, as it is usually called, is a true crocodile, identical, according to Mr. Gray, with the common Indian species.

ISLET IN TRINITY BAY.

July 3rd.

Ran to the north-west fifteen miles, and, after having anch.o.r.ed midway to form a surveying station, brought up finally under a small unnamed islet in Trinity Bay. This island, viewed from our anchorage on its north-west side, presents the appearance of a ridge connecting two rounded eminences, with a sharp sea-face exposing the stratification of the rock.

This is a micaceous rock, a.s.suming at one place the appearance of mica slate, and at another being a conglomerate, with frequent veins of quartz. The strata, which are often flexuous, or slightly contorted, have a westerly dip of 60 degrees, and the strike is North-North-West and South-South-East. On the windward side there is a long gradual slope, covered with tall coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, among which many quail were found. The sh.o.r.e is fringed with the usual maritime trees and bushes, and an extensive mangrove bed runs out upon the reef in one place. This reef is of great extent, stretching out to windward upwards of a mile, as far as a small rocky isle like a hayc.o.c.k.

LOW ISLES.

On July 7th we anch.o.r.ed to leeward of the Low Isles, in the northern part of Trinity Bay, in eight fathoms, mud, half a mile from the sh.o.r.e, and remained there for the four succeeding days. This small group may be said to consist of three islets. One is low, sandy, and well wooded, about 300 yards in diameter, and is situated at the north-west extremity of a horse-shoe reef, with its concavity to leeward; the other two may be looked upon as merely groves of mangroves on the reef, the roots of which are washed at high-water, except in a few places, where narrow ridges of dead coral have afforded footing for the growth of a samphire-looking plant (Salicornia indica). The sandy islet presents no remarkable feature. The remains of burnt turtle bones indicate the occasional visits of natives from the mainland. A solitary megapodius was shot, but the only other land-birds are a little yellow Zosterops, and the larger ground-dove (Geopelia humeralis).