Page 441

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

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Trees, plants &c. (continued) Among the vegetable productions of this country, the trees claim a principal place; for here are forests of vast extent, full of the straitest, the cleanest, and the largest timber trees that we had ever seen; their size, their grain, and apparent durability, render them fit for any kind of building, and indeed for every other purpose except masts; for which, as I have already observed, they are too hard, and too heavy: there is one in particular which, when we were upon the coast, was rendered conspicuous by a scarlet flower, that seemed to be a compendage of many fibres; it is about as large as an oak, and the wood is exceedingly hard and heavy, and excellently adapted to the use of the mill-wright. There is another which grows in the swamps, remarkably tall and strait, thick enough to make masts for vessels of any size, and, if a judgment may be formed by the direction of its grain, very tough: this, which, as has been before remarked, our carpenter thought to resemble the pitch-pine, may probably be lightened by tapping, and it will then make the finest masts in the world: it has a leaf not unlike a yew, and bears berries in small bunches. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 441, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/441.html