BY JAMES ANDREW. 61 



wards to Mount Heemskirk, another along our route westerly 

 to the summit of Mount Dundas, and the third towards 

 home, giving the distance from Hobart as 176 miles. 



On the 3rd April I again left my companions, and thus 

 had no opportunity of learning how far Mr. Scott had pro- 

 ceeded before they overtook him, but as both parties camped 

 together that evening, the distance could not have been very 

 great, nor was the country difficult. 



It was on the 13th May that I next joined my comrades, 

 and I then learnt that they and Mr. Scott's party had com- 

 bined to cut the track down the spur of Mount Dundas to the 

 open coast country, and that they had separated on the 6th 

 April. 



Of the remainder of Mr. Scott's journey I need only make 

 brief mention. At Mount Heemskirk and on the Pieman he 

 fell in with Donnelly's party and the Bi-others Meredith — 

 besides ourselves, the only prospectors up to that time on the 

 coast — and he naturally availed himself of their tracks, as far 

 as available, for the completion of the round journey to 

 Mount Bischoff. I am not aware, however, that this portion 

 of his route has ever been charted or referred to as " Scott's 

 Track." 



Upon our return to Hobart at the end of May, 1877, some 

 notes of the expedition were communicated by Mr. John A. 

 Moore to the Lands Department, and I quote his remarks so 

 far as they bear on the subject dealt with. Mr. Moore 

 states : — 



" Our i)arty had reached Dundas with our track, and went 

 back for provisions to what Scott had named Lake Dora 

 before we met him on his way out, being quite six weeks 

 through that counti-y before he was. We were the first 

 white men ever on Dundas, and I doubt whether a black- 

 fellow ever was there, judging from the look of the country." 



He adds : " It took ten days to get froni the foot of Mount 

 Read to the top of Dundas, and hai'd work, too." 



The Hon. Nicholas J. Brown, then Minister of Lands and 

 Works, supplied a copy of these notes, witli a map, to the 

 Editor of the Hobart Mercury, and wrote tliat "with reference 

 to the statement made in the latter portion of Mr. Moore's 

 notes as to his party having been through a considerable 

 portion of the western country before the late Hon. James 

 Keid Scott, I can assert that from my own knowledge this 

 statement is correct, and I am quite sure that but for the 

 premature death of that lamented gentleman, the claims of 

 the Messrs. Moore to some credit for having materially 

 assisted in exploring that hitherto almost unknown region 

 would have been fully recognised and borne out by him." 

 (Jidc Mercury 26th November, 1877). 



