118 



portion of the expedition remained nearly a montli, and the 

 members of the scientific staff occupied themselves in investi- 

 gating the natural productions, though it is evident that no 

 attempt was made to penetrate beyond the immediate vicinity 

 of the shore line, else Cygnet River would most certainly have 

 been discovered. Peron remarks, that this island appeared 

 almost entirely wanting in fresh water, and it was only near 

 to the close of the circumnavigation that water was obtained 

 by digging wells at the east side of Hog Bay, which circum- 

 stance is recorded on the surface of a slab of mica slate, which 

 also marks the site of a well. The inscription was imperfectly 

 legible when I saw it in 1878. 



Peron's account of the natural history and physical features 

 of the island is not only graphic, but rich in details, and occu- 

 pies many pages of his second volume. It remains to this day 

 the only published general description of the island. 



Minders and Peron have each remarked on the absence of 

 any trace of man's sojourn on the island. 



After Baudin, the next visitor to the island was Captain 

 Sutherland, who published in 1819 " glowing and exaggerated 

 accounts of it." So writes John Stephens (" History of the 

 Eise and Progress of South Australia," p. 26 ; 1839). 



The first extensive settlement was by the South Australian 

 Company, who had selected 300 acres for their establishment, 

 and by virtue of which they leased 5,120 acres of pasturage. 

 The Company contemplated the salting and curing of beef and 

 pork, and the pursuit of whale, seal, and .other fisheries. They 

 fixed a station at Kingscote for the re-victualling and re-fitting 

 of their ships, and worked a farm on the Cygnet River, nine 

 miles off. During 1836 and 1837 several ships discharged the 

 Company's servants and emigrants at Kingscote ; but the great 

 bulk of the emigrants shortly afterwards proceeded to Adelaide, 

 leaving some of the Company's people to retain a settlement 

 on the island. (Abridged from Stephens's "History of South 

 Australia," 1839.) 



Settlement on a small scale had, however, taken place many 

 years before by sealers and runaway sailors, who cultivated a 

 little wheat, potatoes, turnips <fec., but subsisted largely by 

 sealing and kangaroo hunting — the skins being sold or ex- 

 changed to whalers. One settler on the Cygnet River had 

 been there since 1824 ; a party had settled at Western Kiver 

 about 1827, and resided there several years ; and another at 

 American River prior to 1836. These primitive settlers had 

 living with them a few aboriginals, whom they had induced to 

 follow them from the main. 



According to the testimony of Inspector Tolmer (see his 

 " Reminiscences," &c., 1882), Kangaroo Island, in the year 



