14 Inaugural Address.. 



which prevented the early resuscitation spoken of by Judge 

 Field. And I know personally that, at the time when the 

 Australian Society was projected, there was such a difference 

 between the gallant Admiral and the former Secretary as to pre- 

 vent cordial working in behalf of that Society. 



One other fact requires to be noticed here. The erection of 

 the tablet of brass, which is affixed to Cape Solander, the southern 

 head of Botany Bay, was the act of the Philosophical Society. 

 The members — headed by their President, Sir Thomas Brisbane, 

 — made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Heads on the 13th 

 March, 1822, but succeeded completely on the 20th March, in 

 affixing the tablet 25 feet above the sea level against the rock on 

 which Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks first landed in 

 1770. And in the inscription itself it is expressly stated that the 

 transaction occurred " in the first year of the Philosophical 

 Society of Australasia." 



It will be recollected, that this was discussed in the public 

 journals not very long ago in connection with the names of Mr. 

 Berry and Dr. Douglass, when an attempt was make to do further 

 honour to the memory of Cook by the erection of a statue. 



May it be asked, whether it would be unworthy of the present 

 Society to assist in the completion of what was begun by its' 

 predecessor forty-five years ago ? Perhaps, it might be more 

 properly deferred till the centenary shall be complete, i. e., if our 

 Society be then in existence, three years hence or in A. D. 1870. 



Incidentally referring to Judge Field's volume, I find in it 

 many traces of the accomplishments of its Editor. His own 

 labours were not confined to the more scientific memoirs, but he 

 gives a narrative of voyages between England and New South 

 "Wales, to and fro; Journals of excursions to the Blue Moun- 

 tains and to the Illawarra ; a selection of poems, the " First 

 Fruits of Australian Poetry ;" and a brief Glossary of natural 

 productions. In reading these, I came upon the mention of a 

 fact which just at this time, when the flood of last month, which 

 raised the Nepean or Hawkesbury sixty feet above its level, is so 

 fresh in our memory, may be of use to speculators on the char- 

 acter of that visitation. The writer says, " It is this river, 

 whether we call it Hawkesbury or Nepean, that is the Nile of 

 Botany Bay ; for the land on its banks owes its fertility to the 



