We had no thermometer with us that could measure the heat of the sand upon which our tents were erected. Mr. Hunter placed his pocket-thermometer in it but the mercury reaching the top of the tube, which was graduated to 130 degrees, he was obliged to withdraw it to preserve the instrument from being damaged. On one occasion we had a hot land-wind from the South-East that veered round as the day advanced to North-East, during which the thermometer stood at 96 degrees; generally however we had a fresh sea-breeze from the north-west, with clear and fine weather; but towards the latter part of our visit we had some very cloudy dull days and a few showers of rain: this change hurried my departure; and we considered ourselves fortunate in embarking our provisions and bread without getting them wetted.
On the 5th, after two ineffectual attempts to heave the cutter off the ground, she floated.
October 8.
And by the 8th, everything being embarked, we made preparations to quit this place which had afforded us the means of repairing our damage and stopping for the present the progress of an injury which had been every day assuming a more serious aspect.
The country in the vicinity of the bay which, from the use we made of it, was called Careening Bay, is only slightly covered with a poor, stony soil; but notwithstanding this drawback the hills are well wooded and vegetation so abundant that, had it not been for the conflagration which has lately spoiled the trees of their leaves, the country would have appeared pleasing and verdant.
The following is a list of some of the trees indigenous to the shores and neighbourhood of Careening Bay, for which I am indebted to Mr. Cunningham:--
"From the summit of the ridge," says Mr. Cunningham, "immediately above Careening Bay, the country continues in a series of barren, stony hills of ordinary elevation, divided by small valleys equally sterile and rugged; clothed, nevertheless, with small trees of a stunted growth, and of species common to the bay of our encampment; nor was there remarked the least change in the habit or state of fructification of the several plants, throughout the whole space of an estimated distance of six miles south of the tents.
"The summits of the hills are, for the most part, very rocky and bare of soil; and that of the valleys, or lower lands, appeared very shallow, of a reddish colour, and of a very poor, hungry nature. The rocks, with which the ground is very generally covered, are of the same sort of sandstone as is found upon the hills above the encampment; but among them we observed a good deal of quartz, remarkable for its purity, of which some specimens were observed in a crystallized state."