clay Mr. Cunningham landed, and collected a variety of interesting
plants. The open banks of the river were covered with salicorniae and
other common chenopodeae; and, in the midst of the usual assemblage of
rhizophoreae, the Avicennia tomentosa, Linn. was observed of remarkable
growth, being in many parts from fifty to sixty feet high, three feet in
diameter at the base, and of a straight tapering poplar shape.

Fish was plentiful and on the muddy banks, as the water fell, we saw
myriads of small amphibious fishes skipping about: they are probably of
the same kind as those seen by Captain Cook at Thirsty Sound and by
Captain Flinders at Keppel Bay,* on the east coast. Captain Cook
describes the species he saw to be a small fish, about the size of a
minnow, furnished with two very strong breast fins, by the assistance of
which it leaped away upon being approached, as nimbly as a frog. The fish
I have just noticed appeared to be of a very similar description,
excepting that it did not seem to avoid the water as that of Thirsty
Sound; for Captain Cook says in a subsequent paragraph that it preferred
the land to water; for it frequently leaped out of the sea, and pursued
its way upon dry ground, and chose rather to leap from stone to stone
than pass through the puddles of water in its way.**

(*Footnote. Flinders Terra Australis volume 2 page 26.)

(**Footnote. Hawkesworth volume 3 page 125.)

The egret that we had seen last voyage in the Alligator River was also
seen here; and white cockatoos were in large flights, but hawks were
unusually rare. The bird, called by the colonists at Port Jackson the
native companion (Ardea antigone, Linn.) was seen where the natives were.
As we returned several alligators swam past the boat; but they were