to
some squatters from Tasmania; but to Sir Thomas Mitchell the inhabitants
must ever feel grateful for revealing to the world at large the fertility
of the districts in its neighbourhood. It is not a little singular that
the attempt to form a settlement at this place in 1826 should have
failed. A fort was built and abandoned, and of the party of convicts who
accompanied the expedition, two escaped and joined the natives, by whom
one was murdered, whilst the other, contriving by some means to
ingratiate himself with them, remained in their company until 1835, when
he was discovered by the settlers from Tasmania. During the eleven years
he had passed in the bush, without coming in contact with any other
European, he had entirely forgotten his own language, and had degenerated
into a perfect savage. His intellect, if he ever possessed much, had
almost entirely deserted him; and nothing of any value could be gleaned
from him respecting the history and manners of the tribe with whom he had
so long dwelt. He received his pardon and went to Hobart, but such was
the indolence he had contracted that nothing could be made of him.

The southern shore of Port Phillip is a singular long narrow tongue of
land, running out from the foot of the range of which Arthur's Seat is
the most conspicuous point. I infer from the limestone prevailing in it,
and containing shells of recent species, that it was once much beneath
its present level; in fact, that it stops up what was formerly a broad
mouth of the bay, leaving only the present narrow entrance at the western
extremity. Over its surface are scattered hills from one to two hundred
feet in height, in the valleys between which was found some light sandy
soil supporting at this time rich grass, and at various places a thin
growth of Banksia, Eucalypti, and Casuarina, all stunted and showing
symptoms of having been roughly used by the south wind. Near the spot we
had chosen for the centre of our observations was a well of inferior
water, and we did not find any better in the neighbourhood. The point in
question therefore will never be very eligible as a settlement. The
kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers I have ever
heard of are caught off this point, weighing sometimes as much as thirty
pounds. Our fishing experiments, however, were not very productive, being
principally sharks; thirteen young ones were found in a single female of
this species.

SAIL FOR KING ISLAND