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The following extract is taken from Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. III. - Hunter. 1786-1799., ed. F.M. Bladen, N.S.W. Government, 1895.
p. 331
“Amongst the general remarks, I would first observe, that extraordinary as it may appear, that in the length of coast we have sailed along no more harbours should be found. I will venture to affirm that whoever may in future look there for any will look in vain, with the exception of those lagoons whose mouths may, perhaps, at wet seasons be unbarred. We were frequently passing those places, and for some time examined them with care, but finding them all barred, and in every other respect perfectly similar to each other, we at last paid no attention to any one we saw after having ascertained the certainty of its breaking across.
“The country is too low and the ridges and hills too small for rivers of any size to be formed, it being a well known truth that mountains are the parents of rivers, and that, as is the parent, so is the offspring. As to the nature of the ground, it may be said that it is either swampy or sandy, for the small hills, notwithstanding they are incapable of forming rivers, have nevertheless the power of forming swamps, into which, when after heavy rains they overflow and break through the beaches, the sea enters, and thus between them are made lagoons of salt or brackish water. Those lagoons, into which there is a constant drain of fresh water, keep their inlets always open, but have not force enough at all seasons to clear away from their mouths the sand that is constantly accumulating there by the washing up of the surf. Others again, being situated in the neighbourhood of smaller hills, and having at dry times, especially, little or no drain of freshes into them, have their outlets, made in the wet seasons. very soon choaked [sic] up by the surf, and in time banked in even with the rest of the beach.
“In the vegetable productions I could observe but little variety. There are, however, several plants not to be found about Port Jackson, some of which I collected, but lost by wet and damp in the boat.
“The animals have nothing new in them worth mentioning, with these exceptions - that the men, though thieves, are kind and friendly, and that the birds upon Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory] have a sweetness of note unknown here.
“Of what the mineral productions may be, as I am not able to speak with precision, I will say nothing; but if ever a mineralogical expedition should be undertaken to the southward, whoever went would do well to examine more particularly the coast between the islands [Five Islands] lying off Hat Hill [Mount Kembla] and Long Nose Point, especially in those places where the surface of the earth has been disturbed by sunterraneous fires, and likewise the whole of Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory] and the isles adjacent. Even in those place the prospect of a successful research is but very doubtful.
GEORGE BASS.”
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