ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 183 



belonging to this group occupied the country behind the 

 East Coast Tier — Eastern Marshes, Native Plains, and 

 Prosser's Plains. They were numerous in the Pittwater 

 district — comprising Coal River and Richmond, Sorell, 

 and South Arm. Mobs of 100 were seen at South Arm 

 and also at Kangaroo Point (opposite Hobart), and 300 

 at Risdon, in 1804. To this same group of tribes 

 doubtless belonged the natives who occupied the fine 

 hunting country in the Jordan Valley, about Bagdad, 

 Green Ponds, and Lovely Banks, towards the great 

 central divide. The names Hunting Ground, Native 

 Corners, Native Hut River, and others, indicate some 

 of their ordinary resorts. Brodribb (Evidence, Abori- 

 ginal Committee) says that the eastern natives did not 

 go further west than Abyssinia, near Bothwell. 



(b)—The Big River Tribe, 



The country to the west of the Central and Jordan 

 Valleys was occupied by the Big River tribe. They 

 took their name from the Big River, the early name of 

 the river, now known as the Ouse. They occupied the 

 valley of the Derwent, — with its tributaries, Ouse, Clyde, 

 and Shannon, — and the elevated plateau of the Lake 

 Country, 2000 to 2500 feet above sea level. They 

 travelled westward to Lake St. Clair and Mount King 

 William, and probably still further west beyond Mount 

 Arrowsmith. All this district abounds in game — kanga- 

 roo, wallaby, and opossum. At Split Rock (near the 

 Great Lake ), at the London Marshes (near Marlborough), 

 and at the N ative Tier, on the River Plenty, they found 

 stone suitable for their rude implements. From the 

 great central plateau they seem to have made descents 

 into the district between Bothwell and Oatlands. We 

 cannot determine the boundary between them and their 

 eastern neighbours, the Oyster Bay tribes. Brodribb 

 (Evidence Aboriginal Committee) says that he con- 

 sidered the Oyster Bay and Big River natives were one 

 tribe, though the eastern natives did not go further west 

 than Abyssinia. When harried by the whites the two 

 tribes made common cause against the strangers, and 

 finally the Oyster Bay natives took refuge in the Lake 

 Plateau, where Robinson captured them, not far from 

 Lake St: Clair or Mount Arrowsmith, It cannot, 



