Farther North Than This Point, There Can Be No Reasonable
Expectation Of Finding Either Waters Or An Outlet.
[Note: The observations made in the recent voyage of Lieutenant King
along the west and north coasts preclude every reasonable hope of any
opening being found on those coasts.
The voyage which he is at present
prosecuting will doubtless determine that point beyond all future
question.]
So few natives were seen in the interior, that those extensive regions
can scarcely be described as inhabited; some scattered families comprise
the entire population, and the scanty remarks we were enabled to make
satisfied us of the strict identity of this race of human beings with
those of the coast. The same method of procuring their food, the same
arms and utensils, are common to both. This remarkable similarity in the
natives of different tribes extends also to the animal and vegetable
productions of the country: the eucalyptus and casuarina; the kangaroo
and the emu, with their various species, alike inhabit the cold regions
of Van Diemen's land, and the warmer latitudes within the tropics.
A short description of the most remarkable plants collected during the
expedition by Mr. Charles Frazier, the government collector, is added to
this Journal; and although the result as to the principal object of the
expedition has not been answerable to the expectation which was
entertained when it set out, yet when the general knowledge obtained of
so considerable a portion of this extensive country is considered, it is
hoped that it has not been undertaken and performed in vain; and that
the field which it has opened to the colonists will be attended with
ultimate benefit both to them and to the parent country.
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