Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/258

 154 PHILLIP 1789 in December, 1 789, a few months after his return from his December, last expedition, he despatched a small party under Lieu- tenant Dawes* for that purpose. They were out for nine days, and were then obliged to return ; for in that time they had done nothing beyond struggling through the gullies and A trip to the up the Tocky hiUs which met them everywhere. Dawes cal- culated that he had reached within eleven miles of the range, and seemed to think that he had done something in getting so far — as no doubt he had ; but the mountains were practi- cally as far oflf as ever. Collins (p. 89) gives the following account of this expedition : — Dawes's Early in this month, Lieutenant Dawes, with a small partv, expedition. ^, . .,, ., . . , . . , ,, . takmg with them just as much provisions as they could conveni- ently carry, set off on an attempt to reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the freshwater river, first seen some time since by Captain Tench, and supposed to be a branch of The Nepean. the Hawkesbuiy. From this excursion he returned on the ninth day without accomplishing his design, meeting with nothing after quitting the river but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had, notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a country, reached within eleven miles of the mountains, by computation. During his toilsome march he met with nothing very remarkable, except the impressions of a cloven Cloven foot of an animal, differing from other cloven feet by the great width of the division in each He was not fortunate enough to see the animal that had made them.f Maskelyne — so named after Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Koyal of the time — but afterwards called Dawes' Point, **to receive the astronomical instruments which had been sent out by the Board of Longitude for the pur- pose of observing the comet which was expected to be seen about the end of this year." — Collins, p. 15. Dawes was also " directed in public orders to act as officer of artillery and engineers ; in consequence of which the ord- nance of the settlement, and the constructing of a small redoubt on the east side, were put under his directions " ; p. 26. The small redoubt was long afterwards Known as Dawes' Battery. t Captain Grey came upon similar tracks while exploring in the north-west, between Hanover Bay and the river Glenelg: — "I have to record the re- markable fact of the existence in these parts of a large quadruped with a divided hoof. This animal I have never seen, but twice came upon its traces. On one occasion I followed its track for above a mile and a half, and at last altogether lost it in rocky ground. The foot-marks exceeded in size those of a buffalo, and it wajs apparently much larger, for where it had passed Digitized by Google
 * Then in charge of the ohservatory which had been put up on Point