AND EXPLORATION. . 153 thence making their way to Sirius Cove. '^ I cannot help here 1759 remarking," says Captain Hunter, " how providential it was jtme. tliat we did not all agree to walk round the north-west harbour; «nd he then proceeds to describe their meeting with the unfortunate saihnaker of the Sirius, who had been four days lost in the bush, and was nearly dying from hun- Lortinthe ger and exhaustion. The picturesque places about the har- ^^ hour, now so easily visited by holiday parties in the course of a day, were then traversed with very great fatigue and no little danger of being lost in the bush and starved to death.* The little journeys undertaken by Phillip from time to time may seem very small performances at the present day; but the difficulty of penetrating the country even for twenty or thirty miles inland can only be understood when we have fully realised the struggles of our hardy pioneers to reach the great barrier which blocked the way to the The Barrier unknown plains of the west. It was only by repeated efforts ^ to reach the mountains that the nature of the task was really comprehended. How little was known of it in the first in- stance may be seen in Captain Tenches unsuspecting allusion to it : — At the distance of sixty miles inland, a prodigious chain of lofty moontains runs nearly in a north and south direction, further than the eye can trace them. Should nothing intervene to prevent it, the Governor intends shortly to explore their summits; and I think there can be little doubt that his curiosity will not go unrewarded, t It took twenty-five years, and many painful efforts, to reach Twen ty-uve those summits. Phillip seems to have satisfied himself during his exploration of the Hawkesbury that in his weakened state of health the task was beyond his powers ; at any rate he made no serious attempt to scale the mountains himself. But
- "In many of these anna (of the harbour), when aitting with my 00m-
panion at mv eaae in a boat, I have been struck with horror at the bare idea of my being lost in them ; as, from the great similarity of one cove to another, the recollection would be boM-ildered in attempting to determine any relative sitoatiofD. It is certain that if destroyed by no other means, insamty would acoelenite the miserable end that would ensue."— Ck)llin8, p. 69. t Kanative, p. 118. Digitized by Google
