Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/271

 AND EXPLORATION. 1^5 determination to gain a satisfactory knowledge of the 1790-91 country some idea may be formed by the dotted lines marked July. on the chart, running from Rose Hill and Prospect Hill to the banks of the Hawkesbury and the Nepean. Dawes tells us that '^ the dotted lines show where it is intended to travel Proroective travels. in the course of the winter months ensuing, of May, June, July, and August.^' From which it may be seen that plans had been formed for a thorough examination of the country lying between those boundaries. Some portion of this work had been carried out in August, 1790 ; for it appears from the chart that an expedition had set out from Prospect Hill on the 1st August in that year ; Expeditions had passed beyond the '' probable course of the river ^^ ^Thul ' (Nepean) to within a short distance of Pyramid Hill to the south on the 3rd; had then turned back towards the river, crossed it, and moved in a north-east direction, where it came on the 5th to a  country of coppices," and thence homewards country of to Prospect Hill. Another expedition seems to have started from that point later in the same month, travelling north* west till it came to ^' a lake of muddy water about thirty feet wide, apparently deep ; in flood it rises twenty feet ; the opposite bank rises beautifully to the height of about fifty feet. Thence the party struck off towards the Hawkesbury, passing through '^ swampy country " till it reached the river at a point above Richmond Hill ; then following along the banks, where they found that '^ this bank is very sandy," and again, '^ sandy, the opposite bank is the same " ; turn- ing off towards home and passing through country described as '^ land various ; in some parts very good, in others indif- Land f erent " ; further on meeting with some better soil, " here the land in many places is very good " ; and finally reaching home on August 27. It was in this way that the early set- tlers got to know the nature of the country round about them. The last effort at exploration made by Tench and Dawes was in July, 1791, when they went in search of a large river supposed to exist a few miles to the southward of Rose Hill. Digitized by Google