Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-04-19
TASMANIA.
GLrMPsEs OF WILD LIFE IN a
SOUTH SEA PENAL COLONY.
Terrible Adventures OF Fugitive
IS Felons-ChoSed by the Impen-
etrab!e Scrub-Nfelanchoiy
Tales fthc Aborigines.

A New York Time, correspondent
writes an interesting account of Tasma-
MA, an island lying more than two hun
dred and fifty miles from Australia, and
known in the Biographies of thirty
years ago as Van Dieman's Land. Tas.
mania once contained q notorious Eng
nih penal settlement. The writer closes
his letter rs follows:
The chief employment of the convicts
was telling the huge forest trees in which
work many lives were lost. After n
breakfast of flour and water they started
from their prison OH Sarah Island to the
mainland, worked alrday without other
food, returned to their chief meal, aud
went to rest. Those who were separated
from the others for punishment moro
severe were lodged on rock, to which,
(often in chains, they passed, whist deep,
Through the surf and lay down without
bedding or tire in their wet clothes to
catch such sleep as they could. ! ashes
and chains, abuse OF inhuman iailers,
starvation and illness, and abandonment
of hope drove them to the most despcrat
efforts to escape-aud here nature Joined
the cruelty OF man, and caught and ex-
hausted them and choked out their life
IN the horrible ''scrub" which is charac-
teristic of Tasmania. The Government
goologist and statistician, Mr.. Robert NJ.
Johnston, has graphically described the
terrors and difficulties of progress
through the dense forests of the western
part of the island, which arc so thickly
set with luxuriant vegetation that it Is
impossible to pursue course in one di-
roction for any distance without literally.
ak in hand, cutting track wide enough
to squeeze the body through.
The ''hori1ontal" and "baneran
shrubs are the chief terror OF C plorors.
The horizontal is tall shrub, which
sometimes attains length of sixty feet.
Its peculiar habit-to which it owes its
name lis for tho main stem to assume n
hori ontal position after reaching the
height of u few feet, from which ascend
secondary, and from these tertiary.
branches, which assume the same hori-
Zontal direction. All of these intcrlo k
aud form with other shrubs an occa.
slonal Greet gum trco furnishing pillar
to strengthen the whole-an absolutely
impcrviOus barrier. The lower labyrinth
is thickly encascd with moss, dripping
with moisture, concealing deep holes,
Into which when man drops he is lost
entirely to sight and often cannot cxtri-
cate himself without assistance. Many
mi sing mineral prospectors are thought
to have lost their lives in these traps.
The bnncra scrub forms thick and
springy mass of wiry branches, which
are too tough and too much moss. grown
to 'ut, 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 OK
hausting and is made additionally inter.
estng by the usual presence in those To-
calittes of venomous snakes Under
these circumstances 1t is not strange that
hardly convi who attempted to make
his way to the settlement was ever seen
alive again.
The only man who made his way
through the scrub was convict named
Pearcc, who set out with seven com.
panions. 'rhoy endured the most fright.
full suiTerings, lived on berries and roots,
and finally the stronger murdered the
weaker for food, until only Pearcc and II
man named Grcenhiil remained. These
continued on with growing weakness un-
TIL they could so no further. Then they
stopped, and for two days and nights
they watched each other. Grecnhill had
the axe with which tho way Ind been
cut through the b,ush and the Others of
y
hausted nature could endure no more.
and Grecnhill, putting the axe under
his head to guard against surprise. de-
cided the fearful lottery by being tho
first to sleep. When Pearce, two DAYS
later, came out among group of sheep
herdcrs, they fed from him ut sight Of
the horrible provision he carried In his
hnnds. Pearcc was taken and executed.
and his confession, describing that tor
rible experience in the bush, was read
from the scalfold, and forms one of tho
most hideou, rectals to which human
cars ever listened
The stiffness of the laws may be I'M
dcrstood from the statistics of punish
ment that were inflicted upon the notori-
Gus Brady gang of rangers who eacap,
ing from Alncquaric Harbor, drew after
them more than 100 probation and tick Ct
of-lcavc men, pilaged the country, and,
attacking the settlers, treated Tasmania
to something very like combination of
Indian and border warfare. Finally The
whole country was aroused the Gov
crnor placed himself at the head of the
troops and the citizens, and in 1925 and
aid 1925 no less than 1903 desperadocs
were captured and hanged, and bush.
ranging was forever 'played ont" in
Tasmania. Thirty.seven were convicted
Mt single sitting of court; twenty-thrcc
were hanged within fortnight-ninc
together on the same scaffold9-and the
law, whose license OF inhuman brutality
ut Macquario lIarbor had made these
men what they were, vind:cated itself
by destroying The structure OF despera.
tion and hopclcisnoss which it had been
chiefly instrumental i'll building.
Another. matter of interest to the visit
or in Tasmania Is the melancholy history
OF tho native population. When the
country was first settled, in 1902, it is
estimated that there wero some 1000
aborigines in tasmania. They were an
amiable race and treated the settlers
well, and lived with them OF. terms of
fricndliness. The establishment OF the
convict settlements and the appearance
in the colony of dissolutc sailors and
others who followed the course of trade
had bad effect upon the blacks, as upon
the whites. The native women and
children were stolen and carried away
by the sealcrs and bird catchers who in
.Tnctnd fha u: I