"It was emerging onto a small plain which is situated about a mile north from the cast end of the Black Bluff Mountain, when I saw the bushes in motion a short distance in front of me.  I thought the movement was caused by a number of the wombat tribe, the flesh of which is considered to be good eating by travellers in the bush, to whom meat is a luxury, and I sent forward my young - though nearly full grown dog - a setter spaniel thinking that he might chase the supposed wombat into an hollow tree, where it could be easily captured.  But just at the moment two tigers emerged into the open space, and one of them made off, while the other turned fiercely upon the dog, which running back regarded me with an expression which seemed to ask as clearly as instinct could, whether he was to attack in earnest.  Again I sent him forward, and this time he advanced with such a display of determination, that the tiger, after a faint show of resistance, began to retreat, when the dog, seizing it by the tail, suffered himself to be led along at a quickish pace, while I followed with the view of overtaking them, till I stumbled and fell, and narrowly escaped being cut by a tomahawk which I held in my hand.  Here the dog rushed back as if to see what was the matter; but I again sent him forward, sad the tiger, now finding escape impossible, turned upon its assailant, and both fought with the utmost ferocity for about two minutes, when the dog seizing the tiger by the throat and keeping his hold overpowered it in a few seconds, and I then knocked it on the head, thinking I was doing right in destroying one of a kind of animal which is often very destructive to sheep and lambs.  The tiger was sixteen inches high and two feet six inches long from the nose to the tail which, was fourteen inches in length.  A short time after the incident above mentioned I was on the north side of the River Leon, and seeing my dog suddenly bound off I looked in the direction he had taken, and saw him approaching the largest tiger I had ever seen, and which seemed disposed to treat  him with the utmost defiance, rushing at and driving him off whenever he approached within a few feet, and then steadily resuming its course.  Thinking, from the size of the tiger, that it might prove dangerous even to a man, should it meet one when without a weapon wherewith to defend himself; and thinking that if it effectually intimidated the dog it might return in the night with its mate for they often go in pairs and cause me some annoyance, I resolved upon attempting its destruction, and I ran forward for this purpose, tomahawk in hand; but the moment it saw me advancing it reversed its course, and made for a scrub at the margin of the river; but the dog being encouraged by my voice and presence rushed at and fastened upon it repeatedly, but was as often repulsed with a sharp bite; he, however, so retarded its progress that I was enabled to overtake it when, thinking to despatch it at a single blow, I struck it on the head with my tomahawk and fractured its skull; but, notwithstanding this, it reeling and staggering, fought the dog for fully two minutes, inflicting bite after bite in fully two minutes, inflicting bite after bite in his neck in rapid succession; and placing its fore feet against the upper part of his breast pushed him off by main strength whenever he fastened upon its throat.  While this was going on I could not strike a second blow for fear of wounding the dog, at such a rate did they roll about; at length, however, seeing that the tiger was becoming weak, I seized it by the hind legs, and, placing my foot on the dog to keep him steady, I struck it again with my tomahawk severing the spine of its neck and causing its instant death.  The height of this tiger to the lowest part of the top of the back was twenty one inches; the length of the head and body, three feet four inches; of the tail, seventeen inches.  It was a female and had in its false belly four young ones, each adhering firmly to a teat and well covered with hair, and just able to walk.  I would have kept these young tigers as specimens of animated nature if I had not found that they would not live on the rough food which alone I had to give them.  From what I know of the Tasmanian tiger, I believe that whenever it finds itself menaced by superior force it retreats for its den, and if it succeeds in this it faces about, and being secure from attack except in front, it defends itself with the utmost ferocity, inflicting severe wounds on any assailant that ventures to close with it.  I have only heard of one contest between a sheep dog and a large tiger, and in that the former prevailed, though not without being fearfully lacerated by the teeth of the tiger.  With a kangaroo dog

I do not think that any tiger would be able to contend long owing chiefly to the superior mode of fighting of the former.  I have never known a tiger to attack a man - although I once knew one to walk up to two in the bush, but in this case the intruder was knocked on the head before he had a shown any aggressive intentions.  I have also known a tiger to follow a man for a considerable distance at night, though not attempting to molest him" - J. S. Forth. Launceston Examiner, 22nd November 1862 (p. 2).     "A few nights ago, a hyena tiger, an animal so rarely seen in this Colony, but of the largest size, was found in the sheep-fold of G. W. Gunning, Esq. J. P. Coal River.  Four kangaroo dogs, which were thrown in upon him, refused to fight, and he had seized a lamb, when a small terrier of the Scotch breed was put in and instantly seized the animal, and, after a severe fight, to the astonishment of every one present, the terrier succeeded in killing his adversary". Hobart Town Gazette & Van Diemen's Land Advertiser, 2nd August 1823 (p. 2). . . Map of "Van Diemen's Island" (Tasmania) drawn by John Rapkin. Printed by John Tallis & Company of London & New York (1851). Place your pointer over the map to magnify.  Note illustration of a thylacine (curiously, depicted without stripes) in the lower right corner, and of Hobart Town at top centre.

    One of the earliest accounts of the sighting of thylacines in the wild was printed in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on the 30th November 1811 (p. 2); it notes:

    "Two animals of the hyena kind were seen at Campbell island by hunting parties belonging to the Mary and Sally; from the description given of which they appear to have been of the same species with an animal killed at Port Phillip in 1803".

    In the Colonial Times of the 7th December 1844 (p. 2), in an article on the amusements available at the annual Hobart Regatta, a children's penny thylacine attraction is noted:

    "For the youngsters there was amusement in plenty.  There was a savage hyena, who eats off its own nose when it's hungry, for the small price of 1d.  The same hyena, be it known, being a "native tiger," but nevertheless a very savage, and therefore, a very amusing creature".