btit equally covered with timber. Trees o f g feat ftze grow on
the tops o f the mod inacceffible mountains. The country was
populous ; and it was obferved that moft of the women had the
two joints of the little fihger cut dff: moil o f the men Wanted
the right front tooth ; ‘their fepium narium was pèrfûfated, and
had a bone or ilick thruft through it. The want o f language
kept our voyagers ignorant o f the càule o f thefe ftrange cuf-
torus. Their ikiiis were Angularly ïfcafred from the crown o f
the head to their feet ; the fears prominent, and feemed as i f
filled with wind.
Haitkesbury In another uxcurfion Mr. Phillip made to this bay:, he difco-
vered a very confiderable river, which he named the Htnvkef-
bury ; it was from three hundred to eight hundred feet wide,
and navigable for the largeit merchant ihips as far as a hill named
'Richmond Hill, about forty-five miles from its difcharge into
the bay : but it is not fafe for ihips to go fo high up, becâufe o f
the heavy rains ; the water rifes thirty fèet above its ufual level s
the veflels therefore ought not to approach nearer than fifteen or
twenty miles from the foot of the hill, where they may lie fecure
in freih water. Richmond Hill is called the head o f the r iv e r ,
for there it divides into two branches, grows ih allow, and was-
feen for fbrne way, till loft in the wooded rocks o f the-
country.
Ne te a k R iy s r . A nother river was difcovered, which Mr. Phillip named the
Nepean, from three to four hundred feet broad, which alfo overflows
its banks in hard rains, to the fame height as the former,
into which it is fuppofed to fall. The foil on both thefe rivers
is excellent ; the banks well wooded. Wild ducks inhabit thefe
waters
waters in great numbers; and here were firft feen the black
fwans. A cataradl at the foot o f Richmond hill prevented the
party from proceeding any further in boats. That hill is the
termination o f a chain o f mountains, which runs northward, and
probably joins thofethat range nearly parallel to die coaft from
fifty to fixty miles inland. The difficulty of reaching thefe hills
is very g re a t; for after the firft day’s jomraey, is fuch a fuccef-
fion o f ravines, many with fides inacceffible, that our people
could not proceed above fifteen miles in five days. Th#y
therefore returned, to await the arrival o f the floods, to fwell the
Nepean, when they hoped they could reach thefe mountains
by Water.
F r o m the entrance into Port Jackfon, as far as Lat. 250 f ,
the coaft keeps due north; from a point cdtledlndian Head it
begins to incline to the weft.
A l i t t l e farther is Buftard Bay, in Lat. 24° 4', which takes
its name from a new fpecies o f buftard ihot there, with a black
band acrofs its breaft. Its weight was feventeen pounds. It
proved excellent eating. Mr. Latham mentions it in vol. viL
p. 227.
A t -KeppePs Bay, in Lat. 22" 50-, the coaft begins to be filled
more or lefs with iflands. In about Lat. 21“ 27' is the bay o f
Inlets, from the various founds that feem to penetrate deeply into1
the land, between the iflands. After a long range of coaft,
partly impeded with ifles, and partly free, in Lat. 16° 6', is cape
Tribulation. Off this cape the Endeavour, on Sunday June 10th
1770, ftruck on a coral rock, and remained immoveable, except
by that fpecies of motion which ground away the fheathings,
and
I n d i a n
H e a d .
B u s t a r d Ba t .
K e p p e l’ s Ba y .
P r o v id e n t ia l
E s c a p e ,