# Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies/Chapter 12

CHAPTER XII.
Soon after returning to Hobart Town, where we remained nine weeks, we spent an evening with the Lieut. Governor and his family, and renewed the Christian intercourse which we had often enjoyed in their company. It was gratifying to see the anxiety exhibited by Colonel Arthur, to rule on Christian principles, and to prosecute the work of reformation among the prisoners, according to the same unerring standard.—Mankind have too long striven to prevent crime by visiting it with vengeance, under the delusive hope that vengeance upon the criminal would deter others. The effect of this system was unsuccessful, as the means is unauthorized by the Gospel, which says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom. xii. 19—21.) No doubt but these principles, if acted upon, would promote reformation and reduce crime, more than any others, whether by individuals or by governments; and they would not ​prevent a salutary restraint being placed upon transgressors, till these kindly principles could be made to bear efficaciously upon them.
Several persons called upon us to obtain tracts: some of these were reformed prisoners, who were diligent in distributing them, sticking up in cottages the broad sheets containing the Ten Commandments, &c. and in other ways endeavouring to do good.—One of them said he had reason to bless God, day and night, for having caused him to be sent to this colony; for by this means he had been broken off from his evil associates: he attributed his change to the labours of Benjamin Carvosso, a Wesleyan minister, whom he heard preaching to condemned criminals in Hobart Town Jail; and he said he was much confirmed by reading religious tracts.—Another told us that he was distinguished as an audacious sinner, and a pugilist; he was awakened to a sense of his undone state about a year and a half ago; he is now distinguished among the Wesleyans for his great fervency in prayer.
Intemperance, and a disposition to embark in business beyond the capital of the parties engaging in it, are prevailing evils in V. D. Land. The consequences are such as might naturally be expected. In addition to premature death, and other awful effects of intemperance, distress and ruin in temporal concerns, are of frequent occurrence. Upwards of four hundred writs have passed through the Sheriffs Office within the last three months.
In a walk in the forest embosoming Mount Wellington, I was attracted to a timber-feller's hut, by the singing of two men, the father of one of whom was a Wesleyan class-leader. This young man said he was sure they were not singing because they were comfortable, but because, having finished their work, they had nothing to do; they had no books, and he assured me that he was very uncomfortable in his mind; he said he had been thinking in the night, how easily one of the trees, such as they are surrounded by, might have fallen upon their hut, and crushed them to death, and he was sure he was not prepared to die. The scrub was burning near to the place: their little bark hovel had narrowly escaped the flames, which had communicated to the lofty ​Stringybark trees, and charred them to the top. The fire had also burnt into the butts of some of them, and had loosened them, and in some instances, brought them down. The young man repeatedly pointed to these trees, which were a hundred and fifty feet high, and some of them nearly thirty feet in circumference, and said, "You see, sir, we cannot tell but at any hour of the day or night, one of these great trees may fall upon us, and crush us; but we are prisoners, sent here to work, and cannot help it:" he did not complain of this as an undue hardship, but spoke of it as giving a sense of the necessity of being prepared for death. He told me that he had slighted the counsel of his father, but said "Now I begin to think of what my father used to say to me." Sometimes his emotion almost choked his utterance. I encouraged him to cherish these feelings, and to be willing to understand his errors; to attend to the convictions of the Holy Spirit, by which he was given to see his unfitness to die, assuring him, that if he kept under this holy influence, he would be led to repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus, by which he would know his sin to be blotted out, and ability to be given, to walk in holiness before the Lord.
Our meetings for worship at Hobart Town, were often favoured with a solemn sense of divine influence, bowing our hearts before the Lord; and sometimes raising a vocal testimony to his goodness, both from ourselves and from pious persons who were casually present. The number who regularly met, became a little augmented. Among these were two persons from England, members of the Society of Friends; one of whom had been several years in the Colony. A man also became one of our congregation, who had had his education among Friends, but had committed a crime for which he was transported when young, and who in his old age had been stirred up to seek the Lord in earnest. With these we had a conference, on the subject of continuing to assemble regularly for worship when we were absent from the town; and they being desirous to do so, a room in a private house was hired for the purpose, as they united with us in the judgment, that they were not in a state to open a ​house for public worship, notwithstanding it might be to their edification to meet more retiredly. The room, hired for this purpose was in the upper part of Macquarie Street. The first meeting was held in it on the 7th of the 4th month. The congregation consisted of fifteen persons, including some children. On this occasion I had much to express in doctrine and exhortation; and especially to point out the necessity of the superstructure of a religious profession, being raised upon the solid foundation of repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.—In consequence of several of the children having had but little religious instruction, it was determined, temporarily to hold a meeting for religious reading in the afternoons; and on this day a chapter of "Tuke's Principles of Friends," a part of "Chalkley's Observations on Christ's Sermon on the Mount," and a portion of Scripture were read.
4th mo. 8th. We set out on another long journey among the settlers.—Crossing the Derwent to Kangaroo Point, we proceeded over a woody steep called Breakneck Hill, to Richmond, where we were again kindly welcomed by W. T. Parramore and J. H. Butcher.
9 th. W. T. Parramore, furnished us with a guide, who took us through among the woody hills, by a narrow winding track, called Black Charleys Opening, to the Brushy Plains; where the path joined the cart track from Sorell Town. Here we parted from our guide, who was a prisoner in the field-police, and was anxiously looking forward toward restoration to liberty. This is indeed universally the case, except with such prisoners as are sentenced for life, or have become reckless. Our guide assured us that many of the latter class were infidels, and of this we afterwards had much proof.—Brushy Plains is an extensive flat of open forest, bearing grass and sedgy herbage, intermingled with scrub, and joining some swampy land, called The White Marsh. Here, we found a young prisoner, in charge of a settler's hut, who said he had seen it asserted in an English newspaper, that transportation was no punishment; but that he felt it to be a very severe one; that the best of his days were wasting, and he doing nothing for himself; that being sent out ​for life, it made him dull to think of liberty, as the time would be long before he could even obtain any such a mitigation of sentence, as in this country is called Indulgence; and that transportation had taught him a lesson, which would make him use his liberty very differently to what he had formerly done, if ever he had it again.—A track over a series of open, forest hills, brought us to Prossers Plains, an extensive grassy opening with a few settlers houses; in one of which, occupied by a person named Richard Crocker, we found a hospitable reception.
10th. We crossed the Thumbs Marsh, a grassy opening under the Three Thumbs Mountain, and met our friend Francis Cotton, who proved a most welcome guide in passing through the rugged, woody, ravine of the Prossers River, which is ironically called Paradise. We forded the River, at a rocky place, and travelled along the side of some very rough, steep hills, called the Devils Royals, to the sandy beach of Prossers Bay, on which there were the skeletons of two whales. On again entering the forest, the path lay by the side of a rushy lagoon, near which was a bushy species of Conospermum, a shrub with narrow, strap-shaped leaves, and small white flowers. This was the only place in which I met with a plant of this genus in V. D. Land. Passing a few grassy hills of open forest, we reached the habitation of Patrick M'Lean, at Spring Bay, by whom we were kindly received, and on whose land we viewed with satisfaction, the agricultural progress of one who had beaten his sword into a ploughshare.
11th. The country which we passed through was a continued series of open forest, abounding with Kangaroo-grass, Anthistiria australis, which affords the best pasturage of any of the native grasses of this island, and is less affected by drought than those from Europe; but as there is a tinge of brown upon it, even while growing, the grass lands of Tasmania do not, at any season of the year, present a lovely green like English pastures and meadows. There are a few settlers on the best pieces of land near Spring Bay, and we were hospitably entertained by one named John Hawkins, in Little Swan Port, who had also been brought up to a military life.
​12th. We visited a few huts on the side of the inlet opening into Oyster Bay, and called The Little Swan Port, which is also the name of the district. Upon this inlet there were more than a dozen Pelicans. We also walked over the cultivated land of J. Hawkins. The ground adapted for cultivation is of limited extent, compared with the estate. This is generally the case throughout the Colony. On the first settlement of this place, the Aborigines killed one of the men near the house. Many other persons lost their lives by them, in the Oyster Bay or Swan Port district.
13th. We visited a free man, living in a miserable hut near the Little Swan Port, who had been notorious for the use of profane language and for cursing his eyes; and he had become nearly blind, but seemed far from having profited by this judgment. We then pursued our way through the forest, and reached Kelvedon, the residence of Francis and Anna Maria Cotton, and their large family, in which George Fordyce Story, M.D., who fills the office of District Surgeon, is an inmate. The road, which is impassable for carriages from Prossers Plains, lies along a soft salt-marsh at the head of the Little Swan Port, and past the habitations of a few distantly scattered settlers, and over the Rocky Hills—a series of basaltic bluffs divided by deep ravines, and separating the districts of Little and Great Swan Port. The forest of this part of the country is distinguishable from that of most others, by the prevalence of The Oyster Bay Pine, Callitris pyramidalis, a cypress-like tree, attaining to seventy feet in height, and affording narrow plank and small timber, which is useful in building, but not easy to work, being liable to splinter: it has an aromatic smell resembling that of the Red Cedar of America. The other trees of these forests, are the Blue, the White, and the Black-butted Gum, the Silver and the Black Wattle, and the She-Oak. The country is favourable for sheep and horned cattle, as well as for agriculture; the proximity of the sea preventing summer frosts; but it often suffers from drought.
Kelvedon
The Residence of Francis Cotton.
​most settlers in this colony. It is fronted by a good garden, separated from a field adjoining the sea bank, by a lagoon. On this bank there are grass, bushes, and small trees. One of the trees, a She-Oak, in a state of decay, is depicted standing by a post and rail fence, such as is common in this country. The woody, basaltic hills in the back ground form a general feature in a Tasmanian landscape. The sandstone of the coal formation occurs here between the hills and the sea.
In a gully among the Rocky Hills behind Kelvedon, Gunnia australis was growing upon a variety of trees and shrubs. This is the most southerly locality in which I have met with an epiphyte of the orchis tribe, growing upon the trunks of trees. Gastrodium sesamoides, supposed to grow from the decaying roots of Stringy-bark trees, is found near Hobart Town.
We remained at Kelvedon till the 26th, having, in the mean time, religious interviews with the family and assigned servants, and with some of the neighbouring settlers, and a meeting at Waterloo Point, a village where there are a jail, military barracks, and a few cottages.
We set out on the 26th, to visit the settlers at the head of Great Swan Port.—In a religious opportunity with the family of one of these, Francis Cotton, who accompanied us, made some observations, under much feeling: this proved the commencement of his ministerial labours, which were very comforting to us, and helpful in promoting the great object for which we left our native land,—that of spreading the knowledge of Christ and of his Gospel.
Several of the estates in this part of the country, contain above an average quantity of good land, nevertheless a settler does not find it easy to obtain much return for his labour in less than four years.—On receding from the sea, the wheat becomes liable to be blighted by summer frost.—Some of the best native pasture will keep more than an average of one sheep to an acre ; but in many parts of the island that is esteemed good land which will maintain one sheep to three acres, throughout the year. This does not, however, arise altogether from defect in the quality of the ​land, but in a considerable measure, from the scarcity of rain on the eastern side of the Colony.
On the banks of the Swan River, the beautiful, blue, shrubby, Veronica formosa, and the gay, pink, Bauera rubiaefolia, were very abundant, along with some species of Pomaderris, Melaleuca, Hakea, Hovea, Westringia, and other interesting shrubs: here is also another species of Callitris, resembling a Red Cedar, and seldom attaining to ten feet in height.—On a branch of an inlet called Moulting Bay, Black Swans were very numerous; I counted nearly eighty, swimming in pairs. The large species of Kangaroo, called the Boomer, which, when it stretches itself upon its hind feet, is almost as tall as a man on horseback, has become scarce, but we saw one in passing through a bush. Though harmless when unmolested, it is said to be formidable when hunted, taking to the water, and endeavouring to drown its antagonists. The stroke of the hind claws, both of this and some other species, is destructive, and not unfrequently fatal to dogs.
On the 30th, we set out early from the house of William Lyne, who, with his sons, guided us through the forest for about ten miles, before the sun rose: his wife loaded us with provisions, lest we should suffer from hunger on the way, with a liberality, such as we often experienced in the Australian Colonies. We came upon the coast at a place to the north of a series of grey, granite hills, where a low species of Xanthorrhoea was plentiful. We then proceeded along the shore for eighteen miles, occasionally crossing points of land. Upon one part of the beach, sandstone and coal were visible; and in several places, we saw the footprints of the Tasmanian Tiger, and the Bush Devil, which had been in search of fish cast up by the sea. The mouths of the rivers were choked with sand, so that they did not impede our progress; sometimes they are dangerous to cross. A line of high, woody hills continued parallel with the shore, at a little distance inland, until it ran out upon the beach, toward the point, called St. Patricks Head. We travelled over these hills for about twelve miles further than this point, to Falmouth, a small settlement where one of our friends, named ​David Stead, was overseer, on an estate belonging to a gentleman in India.
The dwelling occupied by D. Stead was superior to many of those in out-stations, but inferior to the houses of the generality of settlers: it was built of upright split timber, plastered inside, and divided to the height of the walls, into four apartments, a sitting-room, bed-room, kitchen, and store-room. The last only, was secured by a lock. The outer doors had no other fastenings than wooden latches, and the windows were of canvass stretched in frames in square openings. The kitchen was also the sleeping-place of the prisoner-servants. A hammock formed the sleeping accommodation of our friend. A wooden sofa in the parlour served a passing guest; and in case of more travellers having to be accommodated, the hospitality of a neighbour was claimed.
The timber on a piece of low ground here, was remarkably tall and slender. Trees had been felled, 140 feet of which were adapted to being cut into lengths for log-fencing: many of them were 200 feet high, and of very even thickness.—From Whales occasionally cast upon these shores, the settlers supply themselves with oil. This is not unfrequent on other parts of the coast. They are probably fish that escape after being struck by the people from the whaling vessels which are stationed in some of the bays, and which cruise about the Island.
After a meeting here, some of the people noticed, that it was the first time the Gospel had been preached at this place. While "neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase;" it is, nevertheless, an honour to bear his message of mercy through Christ Jesus, though it be but to a few, remotely scattered.
5th mo. 2nd. We crossed a series of lofty hills, to Break-o'-day Plains. The first of these are granite, and the succeeding ones, are argillaceous, and red sandstone. On the granite is a species of Eucalyptus, not frequent in Tasmania, called Iron-bark, which name is given to more than one species of this genus in N. S. Wales, on account of the bark being exceedingly coarse, hard, and iron-like. On the argillaceous hills, the Peppermint-tree attains a considerable ​size: one on the ground was 147 feet long, another, standing was 26½ feet round. Daviesia latifolia, a low shrub with bluish leaves, and axillary spikes of small, handsome, pea-like flowers, of yellow, shaded into orange in the middle, abounds on these hills. This kind of colouring is frequent in the numerous little pea-flowered shrubs that decorate the "scrubs," or bushy places of this land.
Open, grassy lands, watered by rivulets from the mountains, and thinly settled, succeed to these hills, and are bounded on the north, by those of the Ben Lomond range, and on the south, by those called the St. Pauls Tier, on account of the dome-like appearance of one of them, which also bears the name of Tasmans Peak.—At the farm of Michael Bates we were kindly welcomed, and enjoyed a meal of boiled mutton and tea, notwithstanding, in consequence of the distance from a shop, the latter had to be made in a canister, and when the party became enlarged, in the tea-kettle, which very generally supersedes the tea-pot in this country. As tea is cheap, the chest, which often stands under the table, is frequently resorted to in place of a tea-caddy; and the refreshing beverage is sweetened with coarse Mauritian sugar, conveyed from the bag into the kettle with an iron spoon.
3rd. We proceeded down the Break-o'day Plains, and past the township of Fingal, which is marked only by barracks, occupied by five soldiers. We reached the house of a settler, by moonlight, and were glad of a shelter from the frost.
4th. We continued our journey through a pass between the hills, to Avoca, a small settlement at the confluence of the Break-o'day and St. Pauls Rivers with the South Esk. Here we became the guests of Major Grey, a retired military man, who was formerly, for some time, in Western Africa.
In the course of the three following days we visited the settlers on St. Pauls Plains, another series of grassy vales, running to the east.—In one part of this district, where the soil is sandy, Stenanthera pinifolia, a pretty heath-like shrub, is found: it is common in N. S. Wales, but this is the only place in which we saw it in V. D. Land. In another part, ​the soil is strong, and stands in remarkable ridges, called in this country, "Dead-mens-graves." These occur, also, on the Macquarie River and in other places, and are, beyond doubt, of natural origin; nevertheless, the manner in which they have been formed is not easy to determine.
On the 8th, we reached John Batman's, on Buffalo Plains, under Ben Lomond. These plains are so named from horned cattle, imported from India, which obtained the name of Buffaloes in V. D. Land, and were fed here. J. Batman was formerly employed by the Government to take the Aborigines, by capture, if practicable, but by destruction, where they could not be captured! This was at a time when they had killed many white people. Under these instructions, about thirty were destroyed, and eleven captured! Those captured became reconciled, and highly useful in the peaceable arrangements, successfully made of latter time, by George Augustus Robinson and Anthony Cottrell. The last time A. Cottrell passed down the west coast, he had a friendly interview with a tribe, near the Arthur River, that a few months prior, attempted the destruction of G. A. Robinson.
Previously to this, two white men, of A. Cottrell's party, were lost in crossing a river on a raft, before the tide was out. When some of the native women saw them in danger, they swam to the raft, and begged the men to get upon their backs, and they would convey them to the shore; but the poor men refused, being overcome by fear. These kind-hearted women were greatly affected by this accident.
9th. When walking with J. Batman, in his garden, he pointed out the grave of a child of one of the Blacks, that died at his house. When it expired, the mother and other native women made great lamentation, and the morning after it was buried, happening to walk round his garden before sun-rise, he found its mother weeping over its grave: yet it is asserted by some, that these people are without natural affection.
10th. We visited John Glover, a celebrated painter, who came to this country when advanced in life, to depict the novel scenery: his aged wife has been so tried with the convict, female servants, that she has herself undertaken ​the house-work. We generally find that females prefer England to Tasmania, on account of this annoyance.
13th. We reached Launceston, after visiting a few settlers on the Nile, and on the South Esk, into which the former flows.
At Launceston, we found an interesting letter from W. J. Darling, from Flinders Island, dated Establishment for the Aborigines, formerly Pea-Jacket, now Wybalenna, 6th April, 1833. The following are extracts from it:—
"We have been removed since the 1st February, down to this place, which is a paradise compared with the other, and which I have named Wybalenna, or Black Man's Houses, in honest English. We have abundance of water, an excellent garden, and every comfort a rational man can want. If you were gratified with the establishment before, you would be doubly so now, and would find a vast improvement among the people since your last visit: their habitations are in progress, four of them being nearly completed. I think you would approve of them. They consist of low cottages, twenty-eight feet by fourteen, with a double fire-place in the centre, and a partition; each apartment calculated to contain six persons. They are built of wattles, plastered and whitewashed; the wattles and grass for thatching,—of which a great quantity is required for each building,—have been brought in entirely by the natives, and the delight they show in the anticipation of their new houses, is highly gratifying. They are of course to be furnished with bed-places, tables, stools, &c. and each house will have a good-sized garden in front of it. By next spring there will not be a prettier, or more interesting place in the colony of V. D. Land. The women now wash their own clothes and those of their husbands, as well as any white women would do. We are not now half so naked as when you were last here, but have neat and substantial clothing."—In a letter of later date, after the Aborigines had got into their houses, W. J. Darling says, "Their houses are swept out every morning, their things all hung up and in order, and this is without a word being spoken to them. They all know, and make a distinction on the Sunday; the women ​having washed their clothes on the Saturday; this too springs entirely from themselves. The men dress every Sunday morning in clean, duck frocks and trowsers, and every one of them washes himself."
We remained in Launceston a month; in the course of which we held some religious meetings with the inhabitants, and with the prisoners in the Penitentiary, and had also a meeting for the promotion of temperance. We likewise visited the inhabitants of Patersons Plains, an open grassy district, on the North Esk, to the eastward of Launceston.
During this period, the weather was frosty at night, the thermometer frequently falling to 25°. From the adjacent hills, the town, in a morning, often appeared as if it were based on clouds, as the fog, to which it is liable, dispersed. The days were generally clear and warm.
On the 11th of 6th month, we set out on a more extended visit than the former, to the settlers on Norfolk Plains and the Macquarie River, which occupied us till the 1st of 7th month, when we returned again to Launceston.
In the course of this journey, we visited an interesting boarding-school for girls, at Ellenthorpe Hall; and one for boys, on Norfolk Plains; and also inspected one of four Government day-schools, under the care of R. R. Davies, the Episcopal chaplain at Longford.
While in Launceston, we joined several other persons in organizing a Temperance Society, which was attended with good results, notwithstanding, several who originally united in it, relapsed into drinking practices, and one of them fell into the commission of a crime, through the influence of strong drink, for which he forfeited his life.—We also paid some attention to the state of the prisoners in the Penitentiary, and other places where they were under the charge of the Government. On one occasion, I saw fourteen men sent into the Penitentiary, from Nottmans Road Party, to be flogged, for not executing their full quota of work.
We left Launceston again on the 13th of 7th month, and went by Patersons Plains, the Cocked Hat Hill, Perth, the South Esk, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, Jericho, the ​Lovely Banks, Bothwell, Hamilton, the Dee River, and New Norfolk to Hobart Town; where we arrived on the 9th of 8th month; having held religious meetings, and meetings for the promotion of temperance at the several towns; and religious meetings almost every evening, at the houses of the settlers, who kindly allowed us to invite the neighbouring families to their dwellings.
The weather at this period was tolerably mild, and generally remarkably fine for the season; we had seldom to use umbrellas as a defence against rain, and the tracked roads were but little cut up. The tops of the mountains, adjacent to the low country in which we were travelling, were often covered with snow, and there, the weather seemed to be wild and stormy. We felt that we had cause, gratefully to acknowledge the merciful guidance of the good Spirit of our Lord and Master, by which we were led to visit the interior this winter, during which it was pleasant travelling on foot, and to go to places accessible by sea, last winter, when the wet would have rendered travelling in the interior very unpleasant.
We found some families affected with a low fever, which occasionally occurs in this country, but is seldom fatal. The most direful diseases in the Colony, are the result of the free use of intoxicating liquors. Delirium tremens, under its varied forms of horror, is one of these. Apoplexy is also common: an instance of it occurred in one of the prisoners, that came out in the Science, who died lately in a public-house at New Norfolk, in an awfully hopeless state. He fell lifeless from his seat, as he declared, with a horrid imprecation, that he would never forgive the landlady, because she refused to supply him with more rum, when his money was spent.
Ben Lomond, V.D.L.
​the use of strong drink.—The police clerk spoke to us courteously: we were about to invite the people of the neighbourhood to a temperance meeting, and when we returned, he was ill, from the practice of dram drinking: he died in the night, and was a corpse upon the premises at the time the meeting was held!
In the houses of most of the prosperous settlers, from whatever rank they may have risen, piano-fortes are to be seen. Next to drinking and smoking, they seem to be resorted to, to relieve the mind from that sense of vacuity, which ought to lead it to seek to be filled with heavenly good; and thus these instruments of music are made a means of truly injurious dissipation.
Spring commences early in Tasmania, and is marked by the opening of many pretty flowers, and the blossoming of the trees and shrubs; but as the latter are universally evergreens, it is not marked by the change so striking in England, except in gardens, in which the fruit-trees from Europe, rest more regularly than in Great Britain, and do not appear to be disposed to grow till spring is fully set in. The advance of spring was, however, very pleasant on our journey; in which we had now and then, fine and extended views, that were rendered the more interesting by the continuity of the forest, generally limiting observation to a small space. One of the objects occasionally visible, from the South Esk to St. Peters Pass, was Ben Lomond, which presents a remarkably castellated bluff to the south, and is represented in the annexed sketch, taken near the residence of James Crcar, on the South Esk. This mountain is said to be volcanic, and to have a lake, in an extinguished crater, at the top.
Considerable quantities of gum have been exported from V. D. Land. One kind resembling Kino, is the produce of various species of Eucalyptus; the best is from the White Gum, which is probably E. resinifera: it is collected for a shilling a pound in the colony. A species of Acacia, called the Black Wattle, probably Acacia affinis, produces, a gum inferior to Gum Arabic, but which is said to be used in sizing silk goods: it is collected for three-pence a pound. ​Sometimes we found the gum of the Acacia serviceable in allaying hunger.
When at Macquarie Plains, upon the Derwent, we visited a fossil tree, which is imbedded in basalt, in the point of a hill, near a cascade, in a creek that empties itself into the river. The tree is erect, and may possibly prove to be standing where it has grown. About ten feet of its height are laid bare by removing the basalt, which is here porous and cracked. The tree is about ten feet in circumference at the lowest part that is bare. Some of the exterior portion has become like horn-coloured flint: much of the internal part is opaque, white, and fibrous: some portions of it split like laths, others into pieces like matches, and others are reducible to a substance resembling fibrous asbestos. The grain of the wood and of the bark is very distinguishable. Fragments of limbs of the same kind, have been found contiguous to the tree; and pieces of petrified wood of similar appearance are abundantly scattered over the neighbourhood. The structure of this tree is such as is considered to belong to coniferous trees; the only one of which, now found in this Island, of size equal to this petrefaction, is the Huon Pine.
In the neighbourhood of Ross, as well as near Bothwell, there are salt springs; and in some of these places there is fresh water, nearer the surface than the salt. On Salt Pan Plains, there is a small, salt lagoon, that dries up in summer, when the salt is collected, by the shepherds in the vicinity, and sold for about a halfpenny a pound. Several marine plants grow around this lagoon. When visiting it, we saw five Eagles soaring over some flocks of sheep. We also fell in with a young lamb that had had its eyes picked out by a crow. This is a circumstance of common occurrence, and the eagles carry off the lambs that have been killed by this means, as well as living ones. Probably similar circumstances occurring in Palestine, might give rise to the denunciation in the book of Proverbs, "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."
On speaking to one of our acquaintance, from near ​Hamilton, of the ferocity of the Tasmanian eagles, she informed us, that she was once chased by one of these birds for some distance, and obliged to run to her house for shelter. A similar occurrence also happened to a person on Macquarie Plains, and the wife of a settler told us, that she one day observed a horse galloping backward and forward, whilst two eagles were chasing it; one of which was driving it in one direction, and the other in the other. At length the horse fell, and one of them pounced upon its head; she then called some of the men, who immediately drove off the ravenous birds: the poor beast soon regained its feet, and was thus delivered from its destroyers. The horse being in an enclosure, had not the opportunity of escaping.
Many shrubs and plants were in flower on the banks of the Derwent and the adjacent hills. The most striking were Acacia mollis, verticillata and Melanoxylon, Aster dentatas, Banksia australis, Pomaderris elliptica, Goodenia ovata, Indigofera australis, Pimelia incana, Tetratheca glandulosa, Euphrasia speciosa, and Kennedia prostrata.
A single Lemon tree exists in a garden at New Norfolk, and another at O'Briens Bridge, but the climate is not warm enough for them, and they are protected during the winter. Cape Pelargoniums (the Geraniums of English Greenhouses) endure the winter at Hobart Town, but they are killed by frost at New Norfolk, and at other places in the Interior.
During this journey, of two months, our wants were so hospitably supplied by the settlers, that we only spent twenty-five shillings, which were chiefly laid out in washing and postage.