terext, Along the Snores of Adventure 
Bay are to be found several places where 
the dusky natives used to meet and con 
sume their shellfish. In such places to-day 
wo find their rude stone implements of 
palaeolithic type. It is much to be regret¬ 
ted that so little attention was paid to 
the Tasmanian aborigine® by scientific 
observers in the short time in which the 
original type of the race was to be 
studied in its natural surroundings. 
Many of the published note9 concern¬ 
ing their customs were made years afte ■ 
their contact with the wh'te race, and 
on the eve of their extinction. To a 
very large extent, for a true picture ot 
this primitive race we have to turn 
to the meagre accounts of* the early ex¬ 
plorers of our island state. Only an 
outline idea can be gathered in this 
manner, and it is to lie feared that man, 
details concerning the original inhabi¬ 
tants are entirely lost. It was with add¬ 
ed interest, therefore, that we searche 1 
the localities near the camp for relics 
of a lost race, and recalled to mind the 
fact that a little more than a century 
ago the sole inhabitants of this area 
were dusky natives, who spent their days 
in search of shellfish and opossums, or 
other game which they could capture. 
An additional interest was added 1 1 
our camp site, owing to tlie fact that, 
it was situated very near to where Klig i 
had planted a garden in 1702. The beach 
is shown as Hast Cove on B i h's charts, 
and. as we had with us a photostat copy 
of his log book, we were able to re¬ 
construct liis doings in a fairly exact 
manner. At the end of the bcacli there 
are the remains of a large tree. Only 
the lnitt now remains standing, and this 
is much charred by fire, but it can clearlv 
he seen that this forest giant must have 
been easily the largest tree near the end 
of the handy beach known to Bligh as 
East Cove. Why the tree is referred to 
as Cook's tree is not perfectly clear, al¬ 
though it has been assumed for many 
years that the inscription cut there con¬ 
tained the names of Cook’s vessels, but 
it appears that Cook's records would be 
left further towards the main river, and 
that this tree probably bore the in¬ 
scription recorded by Bligh, and referred 
to by the French explorers after their 
visit to this locality. Mr. H. W. Knight 
stated that for many years his father 
had in his possession a slab containing 
an inscription which had been given to 
him by one of the early whaling skip¬ 
pers, and that the slab was supposed 
to have come from a tree near the lo¬ 
cality where we were camped. Unfor¬ 
tunately*. this slab of timber was des¬ 
troyed by accident, and we have no 
means of saying with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty’ exactly what inscription it bore. 
Amid such historic surroundings as this 
the various parties spent tlieir Easter 
days. On Friday a large party visited 
Penguin island and Fluted Cape, whilst 
others searched the shore for biological 
or ethnological specimens. Others jour¬ 
neyed far into the thick forest country 
in search of plants dear to the botanist’s 
In art. The first two days of the camp 
were slightly overvast an 1 windy, hut 
the remaining period was true autumn 
weather, which allowed full advantage 
to he taken of our open-air holidays. 
•Some made long tramps to "The Neck," 
the sandy connecting link between North 
and South Bruny; others, under the 
guidance of Mr. Pybue, ox 1 lored the local 
coal mine. The rugged outlines of Cape 
Connella tempted several members of the 
party to tramp for some miles down 
the coast, securing pi otographs of the 
cliff scenery, Which ill this locality 
stretches for several miles, a jumbled 
mass of rugged cliffs averaging a thou¬ 
sand feet in altitude, and forming a great 
strong basition of unique and awe-inspir. 
ing grandeur. 
In contrast to this were the low, soft, 
sandy beaches, and the overgrown fern 
gullies. In one of the latter the Mavista 
Waterfall is situated —a silver gleam in 
a setting of giant dicksonias and other 
ferns. It is a scenic gem. and well worth 
preserving in its natural beauty, but it 
is to he regretted that the hand of the 
vandal is already to he noticed here, 
it is to be hoped that action will be 
taken to prevent further disfigurement 
of the locality, owing to the reprehen¬ 
sible habit of turning every scenic re¬ 
treat into a giant autograph book. 
Away in the distance the conical shape 
of Cook’s Lookout tempted the moun- 
II 
