Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/260

156 PHILLIP 1780-90 the banks of a river, nearly as broad as the Thames at Ptttney, and apparently of great depth, the current running very slowly in a northerly direction. Yast flocks of wild ducks were swimming in First view of the Stream ; but after being once fired at, they grew so shy that we could not get near them a second time. Nothing is more cer- tain than that the sound of a gun had never before been heard within many miles of this spot. They followed the course of the river for the rest of that day, making slow progress " through reeds, thickets, and a thousand other obstacles, over coarse sandy ground which had been recently inundated, though full forty feet above the present level of the river." They came upon Tnwes of the many traces of the natives, ^^ sometimes in their hunting- huts — sometimes in marks on trees which they had climbed in squirrel-traps — or in decoys for ensnaring birds." Having remained out for three days, Tench returned to Eose Hill " with the pleasing intelligence of our discovery." The river was then named the Nepean by Phillip, after his friend Evan Nepean. The country they passed through was described as tolerably plain and little encumbered with underwood, except near the river side.* The next attempt to penetrate the country was again Tench'B ^ made by Tench in August, 1790. In company with Dawes pSuionk *^^ Worgan, formerly surgeon of the Sirius, he proceeded in a south-west direction as far as a hill which he called Pyramid Hill. They came upon a river — " unquestionably the Nepean at its source " — to which they gave the name of the Worgan. Towards the end of the month, the same party made another excursion to the north-west of Rose Hill, when they again fell in with the Nepean, and traced it to the spot where Tench discovered it fourteen months before. No discoveries were made on these occasions, but something was added to the knowledge of the country.f • Complete Aooount, p. 27. t lb., pp. 52, 53. P^ron, the naturalist of the French Expedition of 1801, wrote an amusiBgly inaccurate aoooont of these excnnions :— -Ce ne Hi qu'au mois de d^cembre 1789 que le Ctouvemement lui-m^me omt devoir 8 occuper, d'une mani^re particuli^re, des montagnes de Tonest. Le lioi- Digitized by VjOOQIC