The different species or varieties of the albatross, are but little understood; in the course of a long voyage but few opportunities occur to any person acquainted with natural history to examine specimens, and consequently our knowledge respecting them is limited to a very few facts. It is not in many instances that a new species can be defined; age and sex often producing differences which are frequently regarded as specific characters. If persons, who may feel an interest, or have studied this interesting science, would note down the differences of plumage, size, and sex, &c. of the birds captured, in course of time a mass of information might be collected, which would serve, in some degree, to determine the different changes of plumage undergone by the various species.[23]
On the 21st of August, the south end of King’s Island was seen, bearing east-north-east, by compass, at a distance of thirty miles. We entered Bass’s Straits on the same night, and anchored in Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, on the morning of the 25th of August.
CHAPTER III.
Sombre appearance of the Australian coast—Feelings of an emigrant on approaching it—Improvement of Sydney—Fruits produced in the colony—Extent of the town—Cultivation of flowers and culinary vegetables—House-rent—The streets—Parrots—Shops—Impolicy of continuing the colony as a penal settlement—The theatre—Aspect of the country in the vicinity of Sydney—The grass tree—Floral beauties—Larva of a curious insect—The colonial museum—Visit to Elizabeth Bay—Valuable botanical specimens in the garden of the Honourable Alexander Macleay—New Zealand flax—Articles manufactured from that vegetable—Leave Sydney—Residence of Mr. M’Arthur—Forest flowers—Acacias—Paramatta—Swallows.
As we sailed by the Australian coast, its barren aspect neither cheered or invited the stranger’s eye; even where vegetation grew upon its shores, it displayed so sombre an appearance as to impart no animation to the scenery of the coast. To an emigrant, one who has left the land of his fathers, to rear his family and lay his bones in a distant soil, the first view of this, his adopted country, cannot excite in his bosom any emotions of pleasurable gratification; despondency succeeds the bright rays of hope, and he compares with heartfelt regret the arid land before him with the fertile country he has forsaken, because it afforded not sustenance for himself and family, and thus reluctantly caused him to sever the affectionate ties that united him to dear friends in his native land—the place of his birth—the soil and habitation of his forefathers for centuries.
One does not behold the graceful waving of the cocoa palm, the broad and vivid green foliage of the plantain, nor the beautiful luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, which delight the vision of the wearied voyager on a first approach to a tropical region, where the soil teems with cultivation, or a profuse natural vegetation extending from the loftiest mountains even to the ocean’s brink. But on landing and viewing the interior of Australia, the wanderer, although seeing much to confirm his first impressions, will also view many parts of the country recalling to his memory features resembling the land he has left; and as industry gives him wealth and independence, and he finds his family easily maintained, he becomes reconciled to his choice, and remains comparatively if not entirely happy.
Sydney was much improved and enlarged since my last visit in 1829; provisions were abundant and exceedingly cheap, the shipping being supplied with fresh beef at one penny a pound, and even less; vegetables are also very abundant, except in the most arid of the summer months; and fruit is, during the summer months, plentiful, and a great portion of excellent quality, consisting of several varieties of peaches, apricots, apples, pears, water-melons, loquats, grapes, plums, and strawberries, &c. Fruit of a superior kind obtains a high price, but the common kinds are very cheap; peaches for preserves or tarts being hawked about the streets at a penny a dozen. Gooseberries will not succeed in the vicinity of Sydney, but this fruit has been produced in the Argyle and Bathurst districts. Grapes have lately been perfected in the colony in great abundance, both as to size and flavour; and much attention is now devoted by the colonists to the cultivation of the vine; for which, from its prolific and early bearing, the Australian soil seems to be exceedingly well calculated.
Several enterprising individuals have introduced the different species and varieties of vines from Spain, France, Portugal, &c. &c. producing grapes, valuable in the manufacture of wine, as also for the dessert; and we may hope that the time is not distant when grapes will abound in Australia as they at present do at the Cape, and that wine both for home-consumption and exportation will be made from them. The immense increase of grapes in the colony during the last two or three years, leads one to suppose that the above opinion will speedily be confirmed.