onboard, refilling their casks with fresh water from a small stream, and casting nets
to collect the abundant fish and stingray in the shallow waters of the bay. Timber in
the form of the ‘gum’ trees was abundant and Cook described the timber available as:in great plenty yet there is very little variety; the largest trees are as large or larger than our
oaks in England, and grow a great deal like them, and yields a reddish gum; the wood itself
is heavy, hard and black.As soon as possible Banks and Solander went ashore to start collecting natural
history specimens. They were the first trained naturalists to land on the shores of the
continent, full of its ancient and unusual life forms, and they discovered a vast variety
of plants which they had never seen before. Banks wrote:The Captain, Dr Solander, myself and
some of the people, making in all ten
musquets, resolved to make an excursion
into the country. We accordingly did
so and walked till we completely tired
ourselves, which was in the evening;
seeing by the way only one Indian, who
ran from us as soon as he saw us. The
soil wherever we saw it consisted either
swamps or light sandy soil on which
grew very few species of trees, one of
which was large yielding a gum much
like Sanguis draconis; but every place
was covered with vast quantities of grass
... The trees over our heads abounded
with birds of various kinds, among which
were many of exquisite beauty.The botanical findings of Banks
and Solander were of great significance
since here were genera previously
unknown to science and they struggled
with how to classify these new plants.
They were the first to see the gnarled
bark and whiskered cobs of the Banksia Lithograph of a sulphur-crested cockatoo, Edward Lear34 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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