18 NOTKS ON CAI'TAIN lU.lCll's Vl.SlTS TO TASMANIA, 



posed. Certain other remarks ccncernins: the aborigines are 

 worth repeating: — 



"It has been supposed from small baskets being found 

 "containing Hints, that they get fire by collision, but I have 

 "not heard of any fungus discovered or any substitute for it 

 "that will contain sparks made by collision. I have found 

 "rolls of peculiar bark which is taken from the trees of the 

 "smallest species of the Metrocedera that I conceived 

 "would have effected this pui'pose, but with the fairest trials 

 "I could not accomplish it, although a small particle of col- 

 "lected fire put among it will soon generate such a body as 

 "to secure the part ignited from being extinguished in the 

 "wettest weather. It appears that they have some trouble 

 "in making fire, for, besides this dry bark, there are shav- 

 "ings of some light wood which has the appearance of being 

 "taken off by a plane iron of one-eighth of an inch wide. 

 "Several handfuls of these shavings lay about most of the 

 "wigwams that I saw. I apprehend they are formed by the 

 "sharp end of a muscle shell." 



The foregoing passages throw some light upon the cus- 

 toms of the aborigines, but Bligh evidently mistook the 

 chipped stone "scrapers" and other such palaeolithic weapons, 

 of this primitive race for flints. As a matter of fact, there 

 is no true flint to be found in Tasmania, but many of the 

 stones from which the aborigines made their stone imple- 

 ments, with which they made their spears — and hence the 

 "handfuls of shavings" — were very like flint in appearance. 

 The idea that the natives ever obtained fire by means of flint 

 and tinder can be dismissed. The larger question as to 

 whether they were able to obtain fire by means of the stick 

 and groove is also open to doubt for several reasons. The 

 one fact we can be sure of is that fire was difficult to obtain, 

 and the aborigines, before the advent of the white settlers, 

 usually carried torches of bark with them, and set numerous 

 fires going along the course of their travels. In this manner 

 they not only cleared the country, but usually had some 

 trace of fire within a reasonable distance. 



PREVIOUS VISITORS TO TASMANIA AND OBSERVA- 

 TIONS REGARDING ANCHORAGES IN ADVEN- 

 TURE BAY. 



In order to place Bligh's visits in correct chronological 

 sequence, it is well to recall the previous explorers, as well 

 as those who followed soon after. The first, of course, was 



