ry judiciously changed from Van Diemen's Land to that of
Tasmania, in honor of its first discoverer, Abel Janssen Tasman, the
famous Dutch navigator of the seventeenth century. We should perhaps
qualify the words "first discoverer." Tasman was the first accredited
discoverer, but he was less entitled to impart his name to this
beautiful island than were others. Captain Cook, with characteristic
zeal and sagacity, explored, surveyed, and described it, whereas Tasman
scarcely more than sighted it. However, any name was preferable to that
of Van Diemen's Land, which had become the synonym for a penal station,
and with which is associated the memory of some of the most outrageous
and murderous acts of cruelty for which a civilized government was ever
responsible.

The whole island has now a population of about one hundred and thirty
thousand, and a total area of over twenty-four thousand square miles,
being really as much a part of Australia as Ceylon is of India, and
sustaining the same relative geographical position. As Ceylon is called
the pearl of the continent it so nearly adjoins, so Tasmania may justly
be called the jewel of Australia. The climate is so equable and healthy
that it bears the name among the Australians of the Eden of the
Colonies. Its size is not quite that of Ireland, one hundred and seventy
miles long by a hundred and sixty in width. There are no extremes of
heat and cold, the winter mean being 47 deg. Fahrenheit, and that of summer
65 deg. Lying so much nearer the Antarctic Circle it is of course cooler
than the continent, but the influence of its sea surroundings renders
its climate more equable. For many years it has formed a popular summer
resort for the citizens of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as of other
portions of the mainland. It may be the result of a local prejudice, but
it is universally admitted that its native-born women are remarkable for
personal beauty: we mean those born here of European parents.

The general aspect of the country is that of being occupied by thrifty
farmers of advanced ideas, such as carry on their calling
understandingly, much more like well-populated America than like
Australia. Our native fruits--apples, peaches, pears, and the
like--thrive here in such abundance as to form a prominent item in the
exports, besides promoting a large and profitable industry in the
packing of preserved fruits, which are in universal use in Australia and
New Zealand. These canned