the border.) After resting the men then all set out to march along the
coast to Sydney.

Sixty days later three exhausted creatures reached Wattamolla harbour,
near what is now the National Park of New South Wales, about 18 miles
south of Sydney. The remainder of the castaways had dropped and died of
exhaustion on the march, or had been speared by the blacks. Those who
survived had purchased their lives from the savages with shreds of cloth
and buttons from their ragged clothing, and had kept themselves alive
with such shell-fish as they could find upon the beaches. At Wattamolla
they had halted to cook a scanty meal of shell-fish, and the smoke of
their fire revealed their presence to a fishing boat from the settlement
at Port Jackson. The fire by which this cooking was done was made from
coal found on the beach there; so reported brave Clarke, the supercargo of
the _Sydney Cove_, who found it.

As soon as Hunter heard of the discovery he determined to examine the
place. In a despatch home he says:--

"So I have lately sent a boat to that part of the coast, in which
went Mr. Bass, surgeon of the _Reliance_. He was fortunate in
discovering the place, and informed me he found a stratum six feet
deep in the face of a steep cliff, which was traced for eight
miles in length; but this was not the only coal they discovered,
for it was seen in various places."

The place was named Coalcliff, and this was the first discovery of the
great southern coalfields of New South Wales. Hunter, writing to the Duke
of Portland under date of March 1st, 1798, shall tell the next incident of
Bass' career:--