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TASMANIA'S EARLY DAYS
EXCURSION .WESTWARD IN 1829.
(By Our Travelling Correspondent.)
From Dr. James Ross's "Hobart Town
Almanack":-"From Burleigh the road
continues gradually to descend through
a country not paiticularly interesting.
The soil is in general composed ot white
sand, mostly overgrown with small trees,
brushwood, and a species o£ long, wiry
grass, unfit for pasture. Some plains of
considerable extent are wholly covered
with this grass. The lofty mountain,
which divides the Surrey from the
Hampshire Hills, called St. Valentine's
Peak, is seen towering up, at the dis-
tance of three or four miles on the left,
to tile height ot 5,000 feet. The country
between this mountain o,nd the road is
Ulled with a forest of stately myrtle
trees, through the northern end of which
the travellers passed for about a mile.
In Mr. Scott's map of Van DIemen's
Land this mountain is called 'the peak
like a volcano,' as it has exactly that
appearance when seen from the deck of
a vessel in Bass Strait, about 20 or 30
miles distant. After emerging from
this forest of myrtle trees the traveller
passes over a flat, open hill, from the
brow of which the beautiful rural scene
of the V.D.L. Company's settlement at
the Hampshire Hills suddenly bursts
upon the view. The River Emu is
seen silently winding Its way through
the middle of a romantic valley, while
smaller streams hero and there add their,
portion to the volume of its waters. The
margins of these last are each clothed
with a verdant belt of flowering and
aromatic shrubs. Clumps of trees are
also elegantly scattered here and there
along the sides of the valley. The
houses and outbuildings of the estab-
lishment, with a handsome bridge over
the Emu, already give it the appear-
ance of a substantial English farm. Up-
wards of 70 acres were fenced with post
and rail round the house, besides gardens
and other small enclosures. Mr. Goldie,
the very able and intelligent agricul-
turist of the company, has done wonders
here, having accomplished the whole of
what was then done In little more than
seven months from the time it was first
settled. He met the party on the edge
of the Surrey Hills, and conducted His
Excellency to the field of his labours,
of which he has just reason to be proud.
Several acres of wheat, barley, and pota-
toes wer_e then in the ground, but, being
the iii st season of breaking up the land,
the crop could hardly be considered a
fair specimen of what the land will pro-
duce. The soil is composed of a rich
brown mould, and must by cultivation
prove highly fertile. These fine plains
extend over a space of 15,000 acres,
from four to flvo miles each -way.
"Near Mr. Goldle's house (a neat, well
finished, substantial cottage) is a re-
markably large tree, of the stringy-bark
species, which has been hollowed out by
successive fires in former ages, when the
grass had been burned by the natives.
In tliis hollow some of the mechanics
of the company had taken up their abode
on their first arrival. By fastening up
pieces of bark, so as to contract the
orifice to the size of a convenient door,
with a porch, and burning a fire in front,
a room both commodious and comfort-
able was formed, sufficient for the par-
lour and bedroom of six or eight men,
who lived in it for some time. I men-
tion this incident in order to show my
friends in England, as well as beyonl
the Tweed and the Liffey, the facilities
we enjoy in this colony of finding shel-
ter and a home in our first attempt at
settling. For my part, I would have
preferred the hollow of this tree as a
domicile to half the houses about St.
Giles's or the purllens of Tothill Fields,
with their vermin and other nauseous
accompaniments. Naturo and the fiery
element have supplied Mr. Goldie, in
like manner, with a very safe and con-
venient fowlhouse, as well as pigeon
house, in two other trees, similarly hol-
lowed out. Tho fronts were neatly and
securely fastened up, and by boring a
tow holes with an auger and thrusting
straight poles from side to side, excel-
lent roosts were made for chanticleer
and his feathered seraglio to repose
upon.
"Hero are already erected a black-
smith's shop, a carpenter's shop, and
other useful buildings. A large barn
was then nearly finished, and every-
thing bore the appearance of colonising
In its liveliest and most Improving garb.
Most of the "mechanics were free men,
who had been brought from England by
tho company, with their families. The
travellers remained here during the
night. The weather was wet, and fre-
quent showers continued to fall until
noon of the following day. A much
greater quantity of rain evidently falls
annually on this side of the island than
towards Hobart Town and the south."
(To be continued.)
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