Nothing is more certain than that the
sound of a gun had never before been heard within many a mile of this
spot."
A short description of the hunting practices of the natives here follows,
and the explorer then continues:--
"Having remained out three days, we returned to our quarters at Rose Hill
with the pleasing intelligence of our discovery. The country we had
passed through we found tolerably plain, and little encumbered with
underwood, except near the riverside. It is entirely covered with the
same sort of trees as grow near Sydney; and in some places grass springs
up luxuriantly; other places are quite bare of it. The soil is various;
in many places a stiff, arid clay, covered with small pebbles; in other
places, of a soft, loamy nature; but invariably in every part near the
river it is a coarse, sterile sand. Our observations on it (particularly
mine, from carrying the compass with which we steered) were not so
numerous as might have been wished. But, certainly, if the qualities of
it be such as to deserve future cultivation, no impediment of surface but
that of cutting down and burning the trees exists to prevent its being
tilled.
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