Tovy Poenammoo is for the most part a mountainous, and to all appearance a barren country; and the people whom we saw in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, those that came off to us under the snowy mountains, and the fires to the west of Cape Saunders, were all the inhabitants, and signs of inhabitants, that we discovered upon the whole island.
Eaheinomauwe has a much better appearance; it is indeed not only hilly but mountainous, yet even the hills and mountains are covered with wood, and every valley has a rivulet of water: the soil in these valleys, and in the plains, of which there are many that are not overgrown with wood, is in general light but fertile, and in the opinion of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, as well as of every other gentleman on board, all kinds of European grain, plants, and fruit, would flourish here in the utmost luxuriance: from the vegetables that we found here, there is reason to conclude, that the winters are milder than those in England, and we found the summer not hotter, though it was more equally warm; so that if this country should be settled by people from Europe, they would, with a little industry, be very soon supplied not only with the necessaries, but the luxuries of life in great abundance.
In this country there are no quadrupeds but dogs and rats, at least we saw no other, and the rats are so scarce that many of us never saw them. The dogs live with the people, who breed them for no other purpose than to eat: there might indeed be quadrupeds that we did not see; but this is not probable, because the chief pride of the natives, with respect to their dress, is in the skins and hair of such animals as they have, and we never saw the skin of any animal about them but those of dogs and birds: there are indeed seals upon the coast, and we once saw a sea lion, but we imagine they are seldom caught, for though we saw some of their teeth, which were fashioned into an ornament like a bodkin, and worn by the natives at their breast, and highly valued, we saw none of their skins: there are whales also upon this coast, and though the people did not appear to have any art or instrument by which such an animal could be taken and killed, we saw pattoo-pattoos in the possession of some of them, which were made of the bone of a whale, or of some other animal whose bone had exactly the same appearance.