The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1889-03-30

meat that were thrown to them. Es.
capes, under these circumstances, were
naturally rare, yet they occurred occa.
slonally, nevertheless.
The chief employment OF the con-
vlcts was telling the hugs forest trees,
in which work many lives were lost.
After a breakfast of -four and water
they started from their prison on Sarah
Island to the mainland, worked all day
without other food, returned to their
chief meal, and went to rest. Those
who We're separated from the others
for d punishment more severe were
lodged on a rock, to which, often in
chains, they passed, waist deep, through
the surf and lay down without bedding
or fire in their wet clothes to catch
such sleep as they could. LasMes and
chains, abuse of inhuman jailers,
starvation and illness, and abandon
ment OF hope drove them to the most
desperate efforts to escape-and here
nature Joined the cruelty of man,
and caught and exhausted them and
choked out their life in the horrible
"scrub" which is characteristic of Tas-
mania.
4The "horizontal'' and ..banera''
shrubs are the chief terror of explor-
ers. The horizontal is tall shrub,
which sometimes attains length OF
sixty feet. Its peculiar habit-to which
it owes it's name-is for the main stem to
assume a horizontal position after
reaching the height of a few feet, from
which ascend secondary, and from
these tertiary, branches, which as
sumo tho same horizontal direction.
ALI OF these interloch and form with
other shrubs-an occasional erect gum
tree furnishing pillar to strengthen
the whole-an absolutely impervious
barrier. The lower labyrinth is thick
~ lncased with moss. dripping with
moisture, concealing deep holes, into
which VIXEN a man drops he is lost en-
tirely to sight and often can not extri-
cate himself without assistance. Many
missing mineral prospectors are
thought to have lost their lives in
these traps. The banera scrub forms
a thick and springy mass of wiry
branches, which are too tough and too
much moss grown to cut, SO that the
only way to pass them is to throw ones
self upon the soft, branching mass and
roll over upon the other side. Such
progression is exhausting, and is made
additionally interesting by the usual
presence in these localities of venomous
snakes. Under these circumstances
it is not strange that hardly a con-
vict who attempted to mako his way
to the settlement was ever seen alive
again.
The only man who made his way
through the scrub was a convict
named Pearce, who set out with seven
companions. They endured the most
frightful sufferings. lived on berries
and roots. and finally the stronger
murdered the weaker for food, until
only Pearce and man named Green
hill remained. These continued :. on
with growing weakness until they
could go, no further. Then they
stopped, and for two days and nights
they watched each other! Greennill
had the axe with which the way had
been cut through the brush and the
others of the party had been killed.
Finally exhausted nature could endure
no more, and Greenhill, putting the
axe under his head to guard against
surprise, decided the fearful lottery by
being the first to sleep. When Pearce,
two days later, came out among a
group OF sheep herders, they fled from
him at sight of the horrible provision
he carried in his hands. Pearce was
taken out and executed, and his con-
fession. describing that terrible ex-
perience in the bush, was read from
the scaffold, and forms one of the most
hideous recitals to which human ears
ever listened. This episode, as we'll
as others, has been utilized in that
strikingly realistic story of colonial
and convict experience. For the
Term of his Natural Life''-a work
which I have hitherto believed to be
overdrawn, but which seems even mild
in view of the facts that are recorded
in the official records of Hobart.
Another matter of interest to the
visitor in Tasmania is the melancholy
history of the native population. When
the country was first settled, in 1903.
it is estimated that there were some
seven thousand aborigines in Tasmania.
They were an alniable race and treated
the settlers well and lived with them
on terms of friendliness. The estab-
lishment of the convict settlements and
the appearance in the colony of disso-
lutte sailors and others who followed the
course OF trade, had a bad effect upon
the blacks, as upon the whites. The
native women and children were stolen
and carried away by the sealers and
bird catchers VINO infested the southern
coast, while murders of the unoffending
people, of all ages and both sexes, were
common. The blacks naturally retort-
ed in kind, and a. desultory warfare
was carried on to the great detrimept
Of the colony. The Governor. finding
that the blacks did not understand his
proclamations offering them protec-
ton, had recourse to pictorial mani
which were posted in the
woods and fields for the enlightenment
IF the natives.
: One of these / lately saw in the In
Exhibition at Melbourne.
At the top it showed in realistic way
bhe advantages of civilization and
unity llnder The sunnhol Of n hlaalx