Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1906-05-25
CHAPTER XII

The southeast coast of Van Diemen's
Land resembles a biscuit at which rats
have been nibbling. Eaten away by the
continual action of the ocean which,
pouring round by east and west, has d.
vided the peninsula from the mainland
of the Australasian continent, the shore
line is broken and ragged. From the
sentinel solitude of the Iron Pot to the
smiling banks of New Norfolk, the river
winds in a succession of reaches, mar
rowing to deep channel cleft between
rugged and towering cliffs.
The climate of Van Diemen's Land is
one of the loveliest in the world. Laun-
cestOn is warm, sheltered and moist; and
Hobart Town, protected by Bruny ISL
and and it's archipelago of D'Encas-
treaux Channel and Storm Bay from the
violence of the southern breakers, pre-
serves the mean temperature of Smyrna;
while the district between these two
towns spreads in succession of beau
tiful valleys, through which glide clear
and sparkling streams. But on the
western coast, from the steeple rocks
of Cape Grim to the scrub encircled
barrenness of Sandy Cape, and the
frOwning entrance to Macquarie Har-
changes. Along that iron bound shore,
all is bleak and cherries. Upon that
dreary beach the rollers of the southern
sea complete their circuit of the globe,
and the storm that has devastated the
cape, and united in its eastern course
with the icy blasts which sweep north
ward from the unknown terrors of the
southern pole, crashes unchecked upon
the .Huon pine forests, and lashes with
rain the grim front Of Mount Direction.
Furious gales and sudden tempests
alright the natives of the coast. Nav
igation is dangerous, and the entrance
to the "Helrs Gates" of Macquarie
HarbOr is only to be attempted in calm
weather
"Helps Gates" formed by a rocky
point, which runs abruptly nOrthward,
almost touches, on it's eastern side, a
projecting arm of land which guards the
entrance to Kings river. In the mid
die of the gates is an island, which,
lying on a sandy bar in the very jaws
of the current, creates a double whirl-
pool, impossible to pass in the toughest
weather. The headquarters of the set
Element were placed on an island not
far from the mouth of this inhOspitable
river called Sarah Island.
Sarah Island is long and low. The
commandments house was built in the
center, having the chaplain's house and
barracks between it and the Jail The
hospital was on the west shore, and in
a line with it lay the two penitentiaries.
Lines of lofty palisades ran round the
settlement, giving it the appearance of
a fortified town. These palisades were
built for the purpose of warding off the
terrific blasts of wind, which, shrieking
through the long and narrow bay as
through the keyhole of door, had in
former times torn off roofs, and lev
eled boat sheds. The little town was
set, as it were, in defiance of nature,
at the very extreme of civilization, and
its inhabitants maintained perpetual
warfare with the winds and waves.
But the Jail of Sarah Island was not
the only prison in this desolate region.
At a little distance from the mainland
is a rock, over the rude side of which
the waves dash in rough weather. On
an evening in December, as the sun was
sinking behind the tree tops on the left
side of the harbor, the figure of a man