390 PORT ESSINGTON. 



few fowls, five ponies, and thirty half-greyhounds 

 for catching kangaroos. Some of these were 

 private, others public property. Several cattle 

 have been lost, on hearing which, a plan that 

 had before suggested itself, recurred vividly to my 

 mind. I once thought the herds of buffalo and 

 other animals might be prevented from straying, by 

 a fence run across the Peninsula, between Mount 

 Norris Bay, and the north-east corner of Van Die- 

 men's Gulf. The width is only three miles, and the 

 rude Micmac Indians of Newfoundland, have car- 

 ried fences for a similar purpose many times that 

 extent. The necessity of so doing became more 

 apparent each time I visited the place, especially 

 when I heard of herds of buffaloes being seen upon 

 the main. Another advantage which occurred to 

 me in connection with this subject, was, that it 

 would have rendered an out-station necessarv, and 

 have thus led to a further communication with the 

 natives, which would ultimately tend to increase 

 our knowledge of them and the interior ; this after 

 our subsequent discovery of Adelaide river became 

 of still greater moment. The existence of the out- 

 station would also form a change for the settlers, 

 and journeys thither would remove the dreary inac- 

 tivity of a new settlement at certain periods. The 

 absence of this fence may account for Captain 

 Grey's party having seen signs of buffalo on the 

 main land ; he discovered the tracks of a cloven 

 footed animal, which one of his men who had been 



