on Mr. Bass, the discoverers
of the north-western part of Tasmania. What a thrill of excitement must
have shot through their frames when on rounding Hunter Island, in the
little Norfolk cutter, they first felt the long swell of the ocean and
became convinced of the insular character of Tasmania! This discovery
must have amply repaid them for all their toils and privations. Nothing
indeed is so calculated to fill the heart of the navigator with pride, as
the consciousness that he has widened the sphere of geographical science,
and added new seas and new lands to the known world.

The south end of Hunter Island is about three miles from a point of the
mainland, called Woolnorth; but from the rocks and inlets that encumber
the passage and the rapid rush of the tide it is only navigable for small
vessels with great caution. Point Woolnorth is a rather low sloping point
composed of the same rock as Hunter Island. Ten miles south of it a
raised beach again occurs 100 feet above the level of the sea. Behind
Point Woolnorth the country swells into hills nearly six hundred feet
high. Three miles from its extreme is an out-station of the Van Diemen's
Land Agricultural Company, of which I shall say more anon. Some forty
persons are here located under the care of a German, who amused himself
by making a large collection of insects, which he has since taken to
Germany. The soil on this extremity of Tasmania is most productive; but
much labour is required in clearing for the purposes of cultivation. From
thence to Circular Head, bearing East 1/2 South 26 miles, the shore is
low and sinuous, forming three shallow bights.

WALKER ISLAND.

Walker and Robbins islands, which lie together in the shape of an
equilateral triangle, with sides of nine miles, front the coast about
midway, and leave only a narrow boat-channel between them and the main.

On Walker Island our boats met the wives of some sealers whose husbands
had gone to King Island on a sealing excursion. They were clothed like
those on New Year Island. One was half European and half Tasmanian, and
by no means ill-looking; she spoke very good English and appeared to take
more care of her person than her two companions, who were aborigines of
pure blood. A few wild flowers were tastefully entwined with her hair,
which was dressed with some pretensions to elegance. They had a pack of
dogs along with them, and depended in a great measure for their
maintenance on the Wallaby they