urled, they did not think
it woolly.* He was armed with two ill made spears of solid wood.

[* Mr. Raven, on his return to England in the _Buffalo_, putting into
Adventure Bay, close by where this man was seen, cut off some undoubted
wool from the head of a native that he fell in with there. This
circumstance was unknown to Mr. Bass.]

No part of their dress attracted his attention, except the red silk
handkerchief round their necks. Their fire arms were to him objects
neither of curiosity nor fear.

This was the first man they had spoken with in Van Diemen's land, and his
frank and open deportment led them not only to form a favourable opinion
of the disposition of its inhabitants, but to conjecture that if the
country was peopled in the usual numbers, he would not have been the only
one whom they would have met. A circumstance which corroborated this
supposition was, that in the excursions made by Mr. Bass into the
country, having seldom any other society than his two dogs, he could have
been no great object of dread to a people ignorant of the effects of fire
arms, and would certainly have been hailed by any one who might have seen
him.

They fell in with many huts along the different shores of the river, of
the same bad construction as those of Port Dalrymple, but with fewer
heaps of mussel shells lying near them. The natives of this place,
probably, draw the principal part of their food from the woods; the bones
of small animals, such as opossums, squirrels, kangaroo rats, and
bandicoots, were numerous round their deserted fire-places; and the two
spears which they saw in the hands of the man were similar to those used
for hunting in other parts. Many trees also were observed to be notched.

No canoes were ever seen, nor any tree so barked as to answer that
purpose. And yet all the islands in Frederick Henry Bay had evidently
been visited.

Besides the small quadrupeds already mentioned, they observed the grey
and red kangaroo, but not in any numbers, and once they heard the tread
of an emu.

The feathered tribes were apparently similar to those of Port Dalrymple.
Here again they daily ate their swan, the flocks of which even exceeded
those that they had before met with.

The most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake with venomous
fangs, and so much in colour resembling a burnt stick, that a close
inspection only could detect the difference. Mr. Bass once, with his eyes
cautiously directed to